Star Jones

I think it totally sucks how bad of a reputation Star Jones has today. People hear her name and they think about her battle with weight (and subsequently lying about gastric bypass surgery), her weird marriage and divorce to an obviously gay man, Al Reynolds, and her departure from The View. Star is basically tabloid and E! News fodder right now and it’s terrible because she really had a promising career. A career path I might want to emulate, without all of the TMZ-ready drama, of course.

Star Jones came from No Where, NC, moved to Jersey, got her BA from American University, and graduated from the Univ of Houston school of law. She passed one of the hardest Bar exams in the country, New York State, and went to work for the Brooklyn district attorney’s office in NYC. Soon, she was promoted to Senior Assistant DA because she commanded the courtroom, amassing 31 out of 33 convictions. That’s amazing. However, Star wasn’t content with just being a powerhouse prosecutor. She had aspirations to live up to her name so she headed over to CourtTV’s NY studios and basically strong armed her way into a show. Just like she moved up the ranks at the DA’s office, she moved up on CourtTV. After getting her feet wet as a commentator, she relocated to LA and got her own show called Jones and Jury, kind of similar to the Judge Judy and Judge Joe Brown shows you see everyday. Although the show only lasted one season, her work there caught the eye of NBC who tapped her as a legal correspondent for the Today Show and eventually as the senior correspondent and chief legal analyst for NBC Nightly News. Her biggest break on television came when she was the only person granted an exclusive interview with OJ Simpson during his infamous trial. After that, she caught the eye of Barbara Walters and was asked to be on The View. Everyone pretty much knows the story after that.

I think it’s sad how Star’s accomplishments before The View have been eclipsed by all of the tomfoolery that followed. Of course Star has to take on a lot of the blame for choices that she made. I’m going to be through with law school soon (praise baby jeebus) and while I want to put my legal skills to work, I would love to take a similar route as a legal correspondent or even have my own show. Trust, I’d be perfect. I don’t think I’d follow a Star-like path exactly because every woman must set out on her own, ya know?

I wonder if Star will ever go back to being Star The Lawyer. I’m sure it’d be odd for her to show up in court one day, now that she has such a big profile. But I think she could do some consulting or maybe go back to doing legal television shows. I blame her mom a little bit though. You kind of set the bar super high for your kid when you name them Starlet.