Whoopi and Joy Pound Elisabeth, Table On ‘The View’

The inter-host squabbling has become so heated on The View that there’s little a celebrity guest can do to keep up (short of revealing dramatic, semi-incestuous childhood memories), so it’s no surprise that producers have been scheduling more and more all-”Hot Topic” editions, as they did this morning. Also no surprise? Things got absolutely bananas today, as Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar reached heretofore-unglimpsed levels of annoyance with Elisabeth Hasselbeck while arguing about a weekend full of juicy political news.

After relatively mild journeys through Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama and the SNL skit featuring Sarah Palin, the volume went up as the View crew discussed Palin’s avoidance of their show (and Meet the Press) as well as her comments about certain parts of the country being more pro-America than others. On the former topic, Behar got so fed-up with a constantly blabbering Hasselbeck that she got up and mimed pulling a Rosie O’Donnell, while on the latter, Goldberg had to visibly restrain herself from jamming her pointed finger into Hasselbeck’s bugged-out eyes. Eventually, Barbara Walters stepped in to say, “The type of anger that this is erupting, whether it’s the five of us or this country, I think is deplorable. I cannot wait for this to be over!” Speak for yourself, Babs: we’d rather watch this than a softball interview with Jessica Alba any day. No hug for you!

• The View [ABC]