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"The Booing Is F***ing Us Up": 'The View' Melts Down Over Donald Trump Jr. Visit

Lou Rocco/ABC
Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle appear on 'The View' on Nov. 7

Guests clashed with hosts and hosts clashed with audience members at the ABC show on Thursday.

"The booing is fucking us up," The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg told the morning show's audience during a commercial break on Thursday. "It's messing with everyone's mic. You can grimace and all that. All we hear is booing."

Goldberg was trying to restore a sense of calm and civility after a rancorous first interview segment with Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend, former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle. (The Hollywood Reporter attended the show as a member of the audience and took notes.)

Booing is a no-no for members of the show's audience, but the crowd on Thursday alternatively booed and cheered as Trump and Guilfoyle clashed with members of the show's cast, including Joy Behar, Abby Huntsman, Sunny Hostin and Meghan McCain.

The front rows were stocked with audience members who seemed to be mostly supportive of the First Son, including a man wearing a Trump hat who asked, "Who killed Epstein?," during a commercial break at the end of the show.

During another commercial break, one woman in the audience tried taking Goldberg to task for a comment she made more than 10 years ago about Roman Polanski, which Don Jr. tried to repurpose as an attack on Goldberg.

"I don't know what you're talking about," the woman said to Goldberg. "Then be quiet and listen to me," the co-host responded. (The woman was also asked by a member of the show's staff to stop using her cellphone, another no-no for The View audience members.)

Later, as the woman left the studio with a fellow audience member, she said of Goldberg: "I definitely riled her up. She was so upset."

McCain seemed particularly uncomfortable with the presence of Trump and Guilfoyle, and did not make eye contact with either one when they first took the stage.

She later thanked her fellow co-hosts for the way they handled the appearance, which was timed to coincide with the release of Trump's book, Triggered.

At one point in the show, McCain turned to the man in the audience wearing the Trump hat and said, "If you can let me speak, I would appreciate it."

The interview started off combatively, with Huntsman taking Trump to task for re-tweeting an article exposing the name of the Ukraine whistleblower.

When Trump responded that he was speaking as a "private citizen," a woman in the audience responded, "You're not a private citizen!"

Trump tried attacking ABC for the network's handling of a 2015 interview with Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who has accused the late Jeffrey Epstein of sexual misconduct. "ABC right now is chasing down a whistleblower about all the Epstein stuff," he said, referring to a network investigation to determine who leaked an internal recording of ABC News anchor Amy Robach. He also accused Behar of "wearing blackface."

Both Goldberg and Behar encouraged Trump to lower his voice. "Stop yelling!" Goldberg said. "You didn't have to yell that," Behar said. "I can hear you." ("I'm new here," Trump responded. "Sorry.")

After Goldberg's no-booing warning went unheeded, a warm-up comedian tried again during a later commercial break. "No booing, no yelling out," she said. "No booing, everybody."

When Goldberg told the audience that the Trump/Guilfoyle segment was ending, a man in the audience yelled: "Praise the lord!"

A woman in the audience who described herself as a "non-Trump" person told THR that she was happy the show invited his son on. "I think it's good," she said. "Let him be uncomfortable."

Thursday's show, which was The View's 5,000th episode, began on a much lighter note, with a cake tribute and congratulatory videos from Oprah Winfrey and Taylor Swift. Things went downhill from there.



Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren Act Out Trump's Ukraine Phone Call

Scott Kowalchyk/CBS

'Late Show' host Stephen Colbert explained to his guests that the president wants people to read the transcript out loud in the hopes that "it will suddenly seem so innocent that you won't want him removed from office."

Stephen Colbert tasked Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren with reading lines from Donald Trump's phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky during Wednesday's episode of The Late Show.

The conversation, in which Trump urged Zelensky to investigate former vice president, and leading 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden has sparked an impeachment inquiry against the president.

Colbert explained to his guests that Trump wants people to read the transcript out loud in the hopes that "it will suddenly seem so innocent that you won't want him removed from office."

In order to test Trump's theory, he recruited acclaimed actors McKellen and Mirren to read the transcript. "The scene is you're on the phone with the Ukrainian president. His country's been invaded by the Russians. You've got the military aid he needs, but you're not going to give it to him unless you get the pro quo back. This is what you say after he says, 'I would like the javelin missiles,'" said Colbert before he asked Mirren to read the line "casually."

Mirren leaned toward Colbert and said in a quiet tone, "Zelensky, I'd like you to do us a favor, though." Colbert slammed his gavel on the desk and declared that Trump was guilty.

McKellen read the same line, though made a gun with his hand as he addressed Zelensky.

Colbert next asked Mirren to state the sentence again, though with a happy tone. The actress followed his instructions and recited the line with a casual laugh.

McKellen next tried to appear innocent as he said, "Well, I would like you to do us a favor."

While the host said that Trump was guilty following the different readings of Trump's request for a favor, Mirren agreed with the host's verdict. "There's no way of saying that any other way except for guiltily," she said. "It's a guilty phrase." 

Earlier in the interview, McKellen spoke about his upcoming role in Cats. The actor stars in the film as Gus the Theatre Cat.

While many members of the star-studded cast went to "cat school" to learn how to move and act like their feline characters, McKellen revealed that he didn't participate in the training.  "I didn't bother going to school," he said. "I just found my inner pussy."

"The point is these are actors who are playing cats. They are not cats," he explained of why he chose not to attend the classes. "We walk on two legs rather than four, for example. And I promise you, Judi Dench does not have a tail. Nor do I."