The New Season: All Star

Star Jones arrived in the ballroom Sunday morning without her husband’s last name and without answers to The Most Pressing Question of the day, that being: Star, where is the rest of you?

Jones was promoting her new Court TV (which will become TruTV in January) talk show, which begins airing daily at 3 p.m. on Aug. 20. She looked fit and happy, her hair in a bob and her new petite bod in a fitted gray dress.  The “Reynolds” she now saves for home when she is cooking dinner for her husband, she said. On TV, she is Star Jones.

The one-hour live show will highlight the hot news, political and entertainment topics of the day and how they intersect. She will conduct a “conversation” with one guest, sitting in chairs next to each other, the way that talk shows do. She will conduct a “discussion” with someone else, across the table from each other, the way that journalists do. Then she will put someone in the witness box and “interrogate” them, the way prosecutors do.

None of this seemed to interest the TV press. They wanted to know about her physical transformation, but Jones said she didn’t think being interrogated by a room full of journalists was the proper forum to make her personal revelations.

“I know that people are curious," she said. "I changed completely from the way I looked when I started on TV. I think it does a service to my viewers to explain. In the coming months, I guarantee you, no one will ever have to ask those questions again.”

Several questions followed asking Jones how the public would learn about her transformation. Was she talking to Barbara Walters? Was she doing an interview on CNN? She said no and added that it would not be fair to the person whom she had obviously worked out a deal with.  Oprah, anyone?

She then explained that she spent the year since she was fired from “The View” examining what was wrong with her that caused her to be fired and trying to correct that. She then repeated:  “Before the show goes on air, I will address [my transformation] in a more appropriate forum.”

Instead, she said, she was here to give her thoughts on the hot topics of today, so reporters asked her what she thought about Rosie O’Donnell, Paris Hilton and Scooter Libby. Then the weight loss/plastic surgery came up again. But this question was more about whether she realized the “PR damage” she was causing to her show by refusing to talk about what people are most interested in.

“In last four years, you all have watched me change so much," Jones said. "You watched me gain a whole person and lose a whole person. That’s a whole lot for a human being to handle, not just physically but emotionally. It’s taken me a long time to talk about it honestly and openly. I’ve taken people on my journey for so many years and I really want the opportunity in a way that’s open, fair and honest.  I’m asking that you trust that you’ll have all your answers. 'Coy' is not the right word.”

OK, then, can you tell us where we will learn about all of this? Finally, just as the panel session was ending, Jones revealed that she had written a column that will appear in “Glamour” before the show premieres.

Geez, Jones, was that so hard?

Then someone asked the best question of all: How will you handle it when a guest on your show refuses to answer a question the way you have?

“I hope to handle it with the same sort of gentleness that you’ve handled me,” she said.

-- Maria Elena Fernandez

(Photo: AP)