Even though nine months have passed since Bill Maher made a joking -- albeit ill-received -- jab at The View cohost Elisabeth Hasselbeck on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, Hasselbeck still isn't ready to forgive and forget. Maher, 55, went on The View Tuesday to promote his new book, The New New Rules, and -- as usual -- to humorously comment on the nation's current affairs. Instead, he ended up in a tense faceoff with the show's 34-year-old cohost, Hasselbeck. Watch their View showdown below!
The fiasco all started last February, when Maher poked fun at Hasslebeck while he was discussing the sexual assault of CBS correspondent Lara Logan.
"New rule: now that Hosni Mubarak has released Lara Logan, he must put her intrepid hotness on a plane immediately. In exchange, we will send Elisabeth Hasselbeck," Maher joked at the time.
Unsurprisingly, Hasselbeck wasn't a big fan of Maher's comments. "I try to only debate real men over the airways but will depart to address Billy Maher," she said on The View back in February.
Fast-forward to their terse exchange on the morning talk show nine months later. Hasselbeck broached the subject of Maher's jab at her by saying that she wanted to talk about "a time that bothered me, not for my personal reasons but for women."
"Forgive this idiotic Republican for bringing this to your brilliant mind, but in February of last year, Lara Logan was in Egypt and she was brutally attacked there," she said, before going on to repeat Maher's joke about her. "You can't sit here right now and tell me I'm wrong for saying, 'That wasn't that funny.'"
Maher defended his actions. "We do a comedy show for an audience that's perhaps different than your audience," he replied, matter-of-factly. "You are a public figure. It was not aimed at you personally, but when you are a public figure, you are out there and you're fodder for comedians to make comments on."
When Hasselbeck asked Maher where he draws the line, he replied: "I do draw the line, but I also live on the line."
Hasselbeck's own cohost Joy Behar, who also happens to be a comedian, went so far as to side with Maher. "We walk the ledge," she said, referring to comics. "It's not easy. It's like you make a joke, sometimes people's feelings get hurt. Then they attack us back, and we have to take it."
"Somebody has to be out on the edge to know where the edge is," Maher explained.
Hasselback snapped back, "Thanks for being the hero." She then asked, "Would you say that again?"
"If I had a crystal ball and knew I was coming here and had to spend my whole segment talking about it, no I wouldn't," Maher jokingly replied. "It wouldn't really be worth it."
Maher might be playing up the feud a bit for TV, though. During a visit to Late Show with David Letterman later that day, Maher admitted that he actually likes Hasselbeck.
"We have this relationship on TV where we play like we hate each other," he said. Hopefully she got the memo, too!
