How 'The View' Co-host Sherri Shepherd Created Her Upbeat Empire -- New York Magazine

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Another View

The association didn’t end with the show. In a bizarre coincidence that would fit nicely into a 30 Rock episode, Shepherd and Morgan ended up living in the same Upper West Side building. “I haven’t seen him since he moved out after his apartment burned up. The light from his piranha tank fell and started a fire. Who owns a piranha tank nowadays?” Shepherd asks with a laugh. “Water started streaming into my apartment, so I grabbed Jeffrey and some of my wigs and we got out of there. Tracy still owes me dinner for the time I was displaced.”

At a recent taping of The View, Shepherd, wearing her signature tight, short skirt and high, high heels, teeters out into the crowd to give hugs during a break. A woman sitting behind me whispers to her friend, “Oh, girl, Sherri is looking good!” (Shepherd recently lost a lot of weight, which naturally became part of The View.) In the next segment, she’s supportive of Kirk Cameron putting out a pro-creationism ad, and is forgiving of Chynna Phillips for capitalizing on her sister Mackenzie’s shocking announcement about their father. “Oh, Sherri, you’re so sweet and naïve,” says Walters. A throwaway remark that gets to the heart of Shepherd’s appeal. “On my profile for Twitter, I say, ‘I’m Jeffrey’s mother, I’m a co-host of The View, I’m a Jesus groupie, I’m a karaoke lover, and I’m an all-around sweet person,’ ” Shepherd tells me after the show. “I own sweetness, and I like it.” Then it’s time for another hug.