The interview in Ladies Home Journal's October issue, which will be out on September 8, gives a little more insight into the hosts' relationships behind the scenes, but the tone is similar to when they come back from commercial after a huge fight and maddeningly insist that they all love each other. In fact, Elisabeth Hasselbeck says of their bickering:

It's like when I have a more edgy conversation with my mother — I know she'll love me anyway. And that's what happens at our table: We know what triggers the other person, but we also believe what we believe. It's all up for discussion, and we know we're all coming back tomorrow. So we love each other even though we don't always agree.

At first, when asked what their friendships are like back stage Whoopi Goldberg jokes, "We all hate each other," (or she just wants us to think she's joking.) But, she says it isn't her fault that people think they're feuding:

That idea was put into people's minds before I arrived — that was played up with Rosie, and it stuck. I think for a while things got more personal than they should have and people glommed on to that. I think people want there to be feuds. But I am too lazy to fight — it takes too much energy to keep it going.

Well, we can believe that Whoopi can't even be bothered to keep up a grudge. Barbara Walters credits the current [Rosie O'Donnell-free] lineup with making the show more relevant and popular than ever as it enters its 13th season:

The chemistry is the most important thing. We have been imitated again and again- by men, by other programs — and the thought is there should be one older person, one comedian, one black person, and one younger person, and that will make it work. And it doesn't.

Barbara says that after all the contentious interviews they've had in the past year guests no longer expect the co-hosts to go easy on them because it's just a women's show. In fact, Barbara claims a large number of their viewers are men. Elisabeth agrees, and explains:

Men watch The View to figure women out. My husband, Tim [Hasselbeck, former NFL quarterback], has played for two or three teams since I've been on the show, and every team he's been on, they all watch the show while they're icing their legs. They sit and watch and try to get what women are about.

So just keep in mind next time you're watching the show that men think it reflects what womenfolk are really like. Dudes must particularly enjoy when the co-hosts sexually molest their male guests. Sherri Shepherd says:

I love the gorgeous men who come through and that I get to put my hand on their thighs. The guys love it. Robert Downey Jr. put his head on my lap. And they kiss you. What kind of job do I have? Every man I love turns around and gives me a kiss? When Obama showed up, I was like, this is it, I am done. And Jonathan Rhys Meyers? I am like predator cougar on that boy. I will hurt you.

Where could Sherri have gotten the idea that that's the appropriate way to treat a guest? Well, she does say:

Sherri: Barbara gives the best single-woman advice.
LHJ: Like what?
Sherri: Oh my God, she gives me advice about raising my son and relationships. She also gives good advice about sex.
Barbara: Yeah, because I know so much about sex. I think I learned it all on the show.

But sometimes Barbara still has to be strict with Sherri, like after she infamously said the world is flat on her third day on the show. Sherri says:

I was so nervous and after the segment it was either Whoopi or Barbara who said, "Dear, you do know the world is round." And I was like, "I know that."

As always, the ladies smoothed things over after the incident, telling Sherri that they'd be "there for her," during her time of public humiliation. And it seems these past few seasons have been good for Sherri. Barbara commends her co-host for reading the newspaper every day now and being "more up to date on things than I am sometimes."

The rest of the interview is available here, and in the new issue of Ladies' Home Journal.

A View From The Top [Ladies' Home Journal]

According to The New York Times, Sims was born in 1948 in Oxford, Mississippi. She was the third of three daughters, and her parents divorced shortly after she was born. All she knew of her father, she told Ladies' Home Journal, was "that my mother told me he was an absolute bum." Her family moved to Pittsburgh, but when her mother became sick, Sims was placed in foster care. In 1966, she came to New York with a scholarship to attend the Fashion Institute of Technology. Since she "towered" over her classmates, some encouraged her to try modeling — but, writes Eric Wilson, "every agency she approached turned her down, some telling her that her skin was too dark."

Sims decided to go directly to photographers instead, and landed the cover of the 1967 Fashions of The Times supplement. From there, her career took off, with the LHJ cover, the cover of a 1969 issue of Life and ad campaigns. The country was going through a "Black Is Beautiful" movement, and, according to former fashion model and model agency owner Bethann Hardison, who spoke with WWD: "She was that elegant, beautiful, classic, dark-skinned beauty that we really needed at that time. She came off of the civil rights movement and the theme of ‘Black is beautiful.' She really was the epitome of that and made it so true."

In the mid-1970s, Sims slowed down on modeling and started her own business. She developed wigs, fragrances and cosmetics targeted at African-American women. She wrote several books about modeling, health and beauty. But Naomi Sims will be remembered as a gorgeous and stylish woman who made a big difference in the world of modeling. As we search for diversity on today's magazine covers, we have to remember those who had the courage and persistence to be pioneers. As designer Halston told The New York Times in 1974:

"Naomi was the first… She was the great ambassador for all black people. She broke down all the social barriers."

Naomi Sims, 61, Pioneering Cover Girl, Is Dead [NY Times]
Naomi Sims, Model, Dies [WWD]

Oh, Dolly, we'd expect to be having this conversation with Carrie Underwood, but not you babe! Don't you become the Amy Winehouse of 2008! Drink some milk and put some meat on the bones.

Dolly Postpones Tour, Blames Breasts [MSNBC]

According to Campos, "We blame individuals too much for circumstances that are not entirely within their control. We know people living in unsafe neighborhoods are much less likely to exercise. And fast food is cheap compared to fresh fruit and vegetables. To tell a poor person that they made a bad choice because they couldn't afford the salad fixings raises some ethical concerns."

The researchers also found that the ads in Ebony, Jet, and Essence were "primarily for foods high in calories but low in nutritional value." The study's authors put an emphasis on communities creating recreational opportunities and making farmers market goods available to those living in poorer neighborhoods. "The study clearly points to a need for public-health advocates and advocates of the African-American community to push their media to increase coverage of overweight and obesity health issues," according to Campos. Considering three quarters of African American women are considered overweight or obese, is it the job of the government, the community, or the magazine industry to help fix the problem?

Study: Weight-loss Tips Differ In African-American, Mainstream Magazines [University of Iowa]

How many of us are killing ourselves every day? Who here has high blood pressure and is still eating salt and french fries? Who has been told that her liver is enlarged and unless she stops drinking she's gonna end up with liver disease and/or need a liver transplant and/or die? We create senseless acts of violence against ourselves daily. And we live in this amnesia that we're not. If I was a doctor sitting with a woman who says, 'Oh yes, I smoke.' You do? Really? Then I don't want you as a patient..

You know..if you want to avoid your 14-year-old child drinking, make sure you don't drink in front of your 14-year-old child. If your children see that you can celebrate something without alcohol, they will not know that the first thing you do when something good happens to you is pop a bottle of Champagne... We're sedentary, we eat salt all day long. We go to the doctor, we get a blood test. We get a heart test. We get diagnostic tools that medicine has now to tell us how we are, and what do we do? We don't do anything. Or we take a drug. And that's not what I'm talking about. Take a drug so you don't have to change. No! I'm saying change. Change it right now!

Earlier: Jamie Lee Curtis: 'Mom, It's Not Right' [Huffington Post]

Women's service magazines aren't just about underweight and underfed models. Glamour Magazine has been ranked towards the top of a list of magazines with sound nutritional information by the American Council on Science and Health, according to MediaPost. Even Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, Shape, and Self got relatively good scores in the AMSC's "Nutrition Accuracy in Popular Magazines" survey.

Unfortunately, Cosmo didn't fare so well: The how-to-please-your-man bible earned "a mediocre 'fair' ranking", says MediaPost. Surprising? Not really. Eating has never been part of Cosmo-founder Helen Gurley Brown's strategy on how to keep a man. Could be one of those "Harmless Habits That Turns Men Off To You".

Bon Appetit: LHJ, Consumer Reports Score In Nutritional Survey [MediaPost]

I'd always pictured Ladies Home Journal as a nice friendly perky happy little number, but June's issue is actually quite an enthralling read. Gambling addiction, death, seizures, evil nursing homes, gay parents and how all sorts of things like driving, headaches and your own eyes can kill you.

And, as a bonus, you get a toe-curlingly fawning interview with Nicole Kidman, which sets the tone from the intro:

"The way she storms into the room, alone and eager and completely relaxed, it's easy to feel as though she's your sister, or cousin or any old friend who knows your secrets. Then, of course, you snap out of it. Because you realize - wait a second - you don't actually have a human being in your life who is this exceedingly gorgeous."

Or this exceedingly botoxed. Worth a look for the accompanying pics of Nicole stretched so tightly her pubes nestle just below her boobs.