Star Jones

Starlet Marie Jones was born on March 24, 1962 in Badin, North Carolina. She lived there with her grandparents while her mom and dad finished college. Then at the age of six, Jones and her sister moved to Trenton, New Jersey, to live with their mom. After moving to New Jersey, Star started to shine in school. She always held the top grades throughout school and after graduating from a parochial school she enrolled in the American University in Washington, DC.

While at American, Star sang in the gospel choir and joined Alpha Kappa Alpha, a very prestigious African-American sorority. She was a popular student on campus and was given the nickname of "Star." It was at American that Jones was diagnosed with inoperable tumor and given nine months to live. She didn't want to believe the news so she went and had a second opinion. It was discovered that the tumor was indeed removable and it was removed.

She went on to graduate from the University of Houston's law school and then passed the New York State bar exam the first time around. She then got a job at district attorney's office in Brooklyn. After three years with the district attorney, she started handling violent crime cases, gaining quite a reputation for nabbing stiff sentences for offenders. While working with violent crimes she was promoted to Senior Assistant District Attorney. She's most remembered as her work on the "Bicycle Rapist" case in which she won a 66-year prison term for the offender.

In 1991, she landed a job as a part-time legal commentator for Court TV. In 1992, she had a contract with the Today Show as their legal correspondent. She managed to land "hard-to-get" interviews with some of the most famous people in the world including Mike Tyson. Those interviews are what led to her getting national fame. She also gained respect for her reporting on such trials as O.J. Simpson and Lorena Bobbit.

Star Jones was soon given her own television courtroom show called Jones & Jury where she played host/judge and the audience played the jury. Her biggest break came in 1997 when she became one of the hosts on ABC's The View. Her stint on the view has given her the opportunity to expand her views and comments on various ranges of topics.

Not only is Star a famous talk show host, but she's a best selling author as well as an actress. In 1998 she published her first book "You Have to Stand for Something, or You'll Fall for Anything" which received widespread critical acclaim. In her book, she writes. "If you don't know what your position is, if you don't know where you draw the line between right and wrong, you'll never see yourself as you truly are. You'll never see the world as it truly is. You'll never have the confidence or the drive to do what you have to do to make a difference. You'll never feel good about yourself and your place in the world. So that's become my credo. Stand for something. And do you know what? I don't fall for much." She has appeared in numerous movies and television