This chapter of Barbara Walters' new memoir, as reported in the New York Daily News, might be called "Peopwl wuh vewy vewy mean to Baba Wawa":
Back in 1976, Walters, too, jumped from the "Today" show to anchoring the evening news. Walters was teamed on ABC with the venerable Harry Reasoner.IT WAH VEWY, VEWY BAD faw Hawwy Weasonuh to be mean to Baba Wawa. Likewiwse, it wah vewy, vewwy bad faw Baba Wawa to skwew awownd wift Sen. Edwawd Bwooke, who wah mawwied to somwowne ewlse at thw timw.
"The blood was so bad between us that Harry's cronies on the crew took to using a stopwatch to note my airtime" so that Reasoner got his share, Walters writes in her new memoir, "Audition." "Harry's hostility soon began to show on the air. I remember reaching toward him at the end of one broadcast, in a friendly manner, just to touch him on the arm. He recoiled, physically recoiled, in front of millions of people. The media picked up on the bad chemistry."
(snip)
On top of all that, Gilda Radner, of "Saturday Night Live," started impersonating her.
"Audiences found her mimicry of my pronunciation of l and r as w hysterically funny. I found it extremely upsetting. ... People started calling me Baba Wawa behind my back, and even to my face."
Nevertheless, Walters was gracious when she met Radner.
"'I guess you know who I am,' I said to her, pronouncing my words very carefully and leaving out any r's. She nodded. ... 'Well, do me a favor,' I said. 'Do me. Please go ahead and do me.'
"We went into a corner, and she sat down and became Barbara Walters. ... She was brilliant, and I told her so. ... We parted friends." When Radner died at age 42 of ovarian cancer, Walters wrote her husband, Gene Wilder: "She made me laugh. I will miss her. Baba Wawa."
That iwiz cawwd aduhtoowy.
I'wul bet thawt Mwisus Bwooke wah cawwing Barbara Walters muwuch wuhse things than Baba Wawa.
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