Elisabeth Hasselbeck

This former shoe designer entered the entertainment biz through the reality backdoor — she was America's sweetheart when she competed on the second season of Survivor — and while she wasn'...
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BirthDate
BirthPlace
05/27/1977
Cranston, RI
Summary
This former shoe designer entered the entertainment biz through the reality backdoor — she was America's sweetheart when she competed on the second season of Survivor — and while she wasn't savvy enough to win, Hasselbeck did parlay what could have been 15 minutes of fame into a career. Because of her background in the fashion industry, she was a natural to host the Style Network series The Look for Less. In 2003 she got her big break when she guest-hosted The View and soon she became a full-fledged member of the all-female morning chatfest. Now married to her college sweetheart, NFL quarterback Tim Hasselbeck, the formerly bubbly blonde became much blunter. An outspoken, pro-Bush, pro-life and pro-war conservative who spoke at the 2004 Republican National Convention, Hasselbeck was a polarizing personality. And when über-liberal Rosie O'Donnell joined the series for a season, the two engaged in wildly heated political and social debates that often found their way onto YouTube. Initially, they claimed to be good friends off-camera but — after a particularly heated May 2007 spat that resulted in O'Donnell's premature departure from the show — the comedian claimed they weren't speaking. But no matter how outnumbered or outmatcthed Hasselbeck was, she always stood her ground.