Barbara Walters' big tell-all interview with Oprah aired yesterday, and in addition to the already-talked-about affair with Sen. Edward Brooke, Walters spoke about the problems she had with the now-booted View hosts Rosie O'Donnell and Star Jones. Here's some of what she said about Star:

"She decided to have a gastric bypass operation, but then she decided not to tell anybody," Walters said on Tuesday's "Oprah." "Then we had to lie on the set every day because she said it was portion control and Pilates. Well, we knew it wasn't portion control and Pilates."

"Oh, hell no!" said Star said to herself when she saw the show (as I imagine it). She then pushed her toy poodle off her lap and ordered her publicist to prepare a statement. Here it is:

"It is a sad day when an icon like Barbara Walters in the sunset of her life is reduced to publicly branding herself as an adulterer, humiliating an innocent family with accounts of her illicit affair and speaking negatively against me all for the sake of selling a book. It speaks to her true character."

It's also a sad day when I agree with Star Jones.

Now that Star's had her say on the matter, there's nothing left to do, really, but find comfort in the arms of Dwyane Wade.

Barbara Walters openly discussed her affair with married senator, Edward Brooke, in the 1970s, but there's been no word on whether or not the now-88-year-old man knew that she was planning to out them. Based on the following quote, maybe not:

"I have had a lifetime policy and practice of not discussing my personal and private life, or the personal and private lives of others, with the notable exception of what I wrote in my recently published autobiography, `Bridging the Divide: My Life,'" he told The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post has the book, in which Walters wrote that Brooke often told her that she was the oldest woman he had ever been attracted to. She wrote that she always wanted to say, "Oh yeah? Well, you are the blackest man I have ever been with," in response. Thank god for internal censors.

Barbara Walters' admitted to Oprah in a show taped yesterday (and airing Tuesday) that she had a torrid love affair with Sen. Edward Brooke, who was the third black senator ever, in the 1970s. Although there have only been five in history (for shame America, for shame), I thought I would show them a little love below. And I've got to tell you, if there was one historical senator I would be inspired to pull a Barbara Walters on, it would have been Hiram Rhodes Revels. I like his beard. You guys thought I was going to say Barack Obama, didn't you?

Oprah Winfrey always gets the goods. On a show that will air Tuesday, Barbara Walters cops to a years-long affair she had in the 1970s with the married Massachussetts senator Edward Brooke, who was the first African American senator elected by popular vote. Walters said she eventually broke it off because it would have ruined both of their careers.

When Oprah asked her if she was in love with Brooke, she said she was "infatuated… He was exciting. He was brilliant. It was exciting times in Washington." Translation — the sex was amazing. Brooke, who is 88, lives in Miami with his second wife. [BH]