Kathie Lee On 'The Insider'
Kathie Lee Gifford is back on television Monday night, as a special correspondent for the season premier of the entertainment show, "The Insider."
"They sort of ambushed me," she tells The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm. "They say, 'We want you to come work for us.' I went, 'Why? Doing what? You guys already have it covered.' They asked me, 'What would you be interested in doing?' I said my passion really has been theater."
Gifford, who has been involved in writing and producing for musical theater, says it is important to pay attention to the live arts.
"There has never been a national spotlight, really, on Broadway," she says. "It's always been a big New York story. But I think it deserves to be a big national story."
Gifford's first assignment was an interview with Cybill Shepherd, who is starring in the CBS movie "Martha Behind Bars." The movie is the second unauthorized drama about Stewart. Shepherd, who also played the lifestyle celebrity in the first movie, portrays Stewart from the day her company went public in October 1999 to her release from prison in March.
Gifford says that viewers will see Stewart portrayed more as a human being rather than the female head of an empire.
During the interview, Shepherd's eyes fill with tears as she tells Gifford a person can't really prepare for time in prison.
"I just remember that disturbing feeling of walking into that prison, the complete loss of privacy, the complete loss of stimulation, dignity," Shepherd says.
Interviews such as this will be Gifford's hallmark rather than sordid celebrity news. She even has a stipulation with "The Insider" that says she won't participate in gossip.
"I don't like gossip. I know the pain of gossip," Gifford says. "I certainly don't like to be the focus of it. Every time I see something horrible written about another person, I get no pleasure from that. Even if it's true, I get less pleasure because what's wrong with us if we enjoy somebody else's pain? It's just wrong. They're not real gossipy, anyway, at that show. I wouldn't have wanted to be a part of it.
"I'm just getting a chance now to do interviews with people in a way that I never did before when I was sitting with Regis, whom I adore by the way. ... We used to do six-minute interviews at the most. I sat with Sybil for over an hour. She cried about Elvis. She cried about her own children, and a health scare."
Gifford sat atop the morning talk show arena as co-host of the highly rated, "LIVE with Regis and Kathie Lee" for 15 years before she decided to leave.
"I'm really glad I left when I left," she says. "I've had five years of really exciting, creative challenges. And five years with my family, that you're never sorry (for). Nobody ever on their dead bed says: 'Gee, I wish I'd spent less time with my children,' or 'Wish I spent more time in the office,' or 'I wish I bought one more thing.' We never say that. We say, 'You know what? I should have paid attention to what's really important.' "
Gifford says she is planning to work for "The Insider" only a couple days a week.
"With all the other theater-type involvement I have, I wasn't looking for a full-time job," she says. "I have a full-time job."
"The Insider" and CBSNews.com are both units of Viacom.