Rosie O’Donnell opened The View this morning by airing a clip of the hand-over-mouth incident and claiming Ripa’s retort of not knowing where his hand had been was wildly out of bounds.
“To me, that was a homophobic remark,” Rosie said. “If that was a straight man, if that was a cute man, if that was a guy that she didn’t question his sexuality, she would have said a different thing. I guarantee if that was Mario Lopez, she would not have said the same thing.” (Clay, of course, has never acknowledged that he’s gay.)
As for Kelly Ripa, she wasn’t too thrilled to be labeled a homophobe on national television and made sure to phone into The View to defend herself.
“I am the only talk-show host, I believe, who’s ever interviewed him who didn’t question his sexuality,” she said. “To imply anything homophobic was outrageous, Rosie, and you know better. You should be more responsible. “You’re implying that action and what I said was homophobic and that’s outrageous.”
Kelly went on to explain that her comment was in reference not to any alleged sexual proclivities, but due to the fact that it was “cold and flu season” and that Aiken had shaken the hands of the studio audience
As for why Clay Aiken might have muzzled her, Kelly theorized that he probably thought, ” ’I’m going to use this opportunity to steamroll over you, because I’ve been bullied so much that I’m going to bully you.’”I was not combative or attacking him in any way, I was very warm,” Kelly continued. “I treat everyone with equal dignity and respect, a dignity and respect that was not shown to me.”
Click on the video to hear Kelly talking about Clay Aiken on Monday’s show….
