Making her return to live TV on Monday with the debut of her own show on Court TV, Star Jones Reynolds intends to keep it up close and personal.
"I've known controversy," the former View co-host, 44, told PEOPLE on Saturday at the Mercedes-Benz Polo Challenge in New York's Bridgehampton. "I believe very strongly that my show gives people the opportunity to tell their story. Obviously, I'll ask the tough questions, the questions that you want to know at home. But it is a safe environment for you to tell your story. It is not the time to humiliate or embarrass or attack. And I don't think television has to do that."
Her first guest on The Star Jones Show was fired Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington. On her show, Reynolds referred to Washington as "the whipping boy for bad behavior."
Speaking for himself, Washington, who lost his job on the hit ABC series for using a gay slur to describe a costar, said, "I hope everything I've gone through in the last eight months has not been in vain [and] these words disappear from the vernacular."
"I didn't sense bitterness [from Isaiah]," Reynolds told Ryan Seacrest on his KIIS-FM radio show Monday. "If anything, it was great disappointment, and I understand that. But the only thing that moves you forward, in my opinion, is to not look at who did you wrong but to look at what you may have done wrong so you can be correctly given an opportunity the next time."
Reynolds also used her new platform to explore the media obsession with celebrities. Topping the list: Britney Spears – whom Reynolds along with guest Geraldo Rivera and two others discussed during a Hot Topics-like segment called "The Wrap Sheet."
"Next to how did I get my behind shrunken, that is the No. 1 question people ask me," says Jones, who had gastric bypass surgery. "I am obsessed with pop culture and the entertainment industry but for the life of me I cannot understand why we are so obsessed with this young girl and her man, her children and her divorce. We are sitting here tripping out because a 26-year-old is making mistakes – well, wonder of wonders!"
• Reporting by JEFFREY SLONIM
