television talk show host; lawyer
Personal Information
Born Starlet Marie Jones, c. 1965; daughter of Shirley (a human services administrator) and James Byard (stepfather; a municipal security chief).
Education: Received degree from American University, c. 1983; University of Houston Law Center, J.D., 1986.
Memberships: Alpha Kappa Alpha; board of directors, National Center for the Prevention of Crime; board of directors, East Harlem School at Exodus House.
Career
While in college served as national vice-president for undergraduate affairs for the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, early 1980s; Kings County (New York) District Attorney's Office, Brooklyn, NY, member of prosecution staff, 1986-91; senior assistant district attorney, 1991-92; Court TV, correspondent, 1991; NBC-TV, New York City, legal correspondent, 1992-93; Jones & Jury (syndicated television program produced by Group W Productions), Los Angeles, CA, host and co-owner, 1994-; senior correspondent and chief analyst, Inside Edition, 1995-; talk show cohost, The View, 1997-; launched line of wigs, "The Star Jones Collection," 1998; author, You Have to Stand for Something, or You'll Fall for Anything, 1998; spokesperson, "Salon Z" of Saks Fifth Avenue, 1999; spokesperson, Alight.com, 2000.
Life's Work
In 1994 former New York City prosecuting attorney Star Jones made the leap from public service to public persona when her syndicated television show, Jones & Jury, began airing on stations across the United States. Prior to this Jones had honed her skills as a legal correspondent for both NBC and Court TV. Before that, the lawyer had spent several years with one of the nation's busiest district attorney's offices. Jones's experience in broadcasting had involved the explanation of complicated courtroom issues during news coverage of high-profile cases, as well as offering her insider opinion. Media analysts often lauded her eloquence before the cameras. But Jones & Jury was only her first step into an ever-widening spotlight. Three years later, Jones landed a spot on the daily talk show that would make her a household name--The View.
Starlet Marie Jones recalls thinking about entering the law profession at an unusually early age. Television clearly impacted the youngster's imagination and helped her see a world beyond her grandmother's house in Badin, North Carolina. As a six-year-old, she would pretend to be orating in front of a judge and jury. She also recalled that her grandmother would watch the soap opera Another World and would comment on the predicaments suffered by one character by saying "That child needs a lawyer."
Sassy Youth
Jones spent the first six years of her life with her grandmother while her mother finished college. In 1969, the school-age Jones joined her mother in a Trenton, New Jersey public housing project. Her mother worked for the city government and sent Jones and her younger sister to parochial schools. Jones recalls being sassy from an early age, which she maintains is a partial reason for her success. "I had a smart mouth and could make cutting remarks," Jones told People magazine. "That's probably why I became a good lawyer."
In 1979 Jones entered American University and shortened her name to its abbreviated form. Her mother had told her that when she was born her eyes were extremely dark and seemed to possess small starlike twinkles, hence the name. In 1992 Jones joked with New York writer Degen Pener about how ill-suited her moniker seems for the serious vocation of law, commenting, "It sounds like a stripper's name." During college she took an active role in student government, eventually rising to high office in her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, as its national vice president of undergraduate affairs. She entered the University of Houston Law Center and earned her law degree in 1986. At graduation time she impressed recruiters from the Kings County District Attorney's office, the prosecuting office in charge of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, and she accepted their job offer.
Jones's decision to become a public prosecutor had been influenced by her parents' choice of careers: her mother is Trenton's human-services director, while her stepfather is head of security for the city. This helped instill in her a desire to serve the public as well.
Took on High-Profile Cases
Jones's tenure with the Kings County D.A.'s office involved her in some of the most difficult and high-profile cases of the era. Brooklyn has its fair share of New York City's--and urban America's--troubles; complicating matters are the intertwined demons of poverty and crime, which sometimes combine with an incendiary third element--racial tension. One of the most serious incidents of Jones's career took place in Brooklyn's Crown Heights enclave: a member of its Hasidic community of orthodox Jews was charged with the motor-vehicle death of an African American child. The incident itself, and the outcome of the trial after the Kings County D.A.'s office rested its case, provoked serious clashes on the streets of Crown Heights.
Jones also became involved in other notorious real-life judicial dramas, including one that landed a 14-year-old defendant a jail term of nine years to life. Jones argued the case against the young man, who had shot another teenager on a playground, and the court's tough sentence provoked some criticism. The defendant's family questioned how Jones could "as a Black woman do this to a Black child?," she recalled in Essence. Yet the former prosecutor remembered that "never once during the entire proceedings did he show an ounce of remorse. I know in my heart I did the right thing, even though it is a case I will never forget."
By 1991 Jones's devotion to her job had earned her a promotion to senior assistant district attorney in Brooklyn. In this post she gained expertise on some of the toughest types of trials in her field--the one-witness crimes that involve little concrete evidence. As prosecuting attorney, Jones convinced several juries of the veracity of the single witness and his or her testimony regarding the violent crime in question. Out of the last 40 homicide cases she prosecuted, only two did not result in convictions. In one of the trials, she secured a 66-year prison sentence for a serial sex offender who had avoided incarceration in four earlier court appearances. Jones enjoyed her sometimes difficult job and admits to becoming personally involved in both the cases and the lives of the youths she encountered. John Riley, a former coworker of hers, told People that Jones "walks into a room and lights it up." Such star power eventually paid off for the prosecuting attorney, albeit in a rather unexpected way.
TV Appearances Led to Own Show
In 1991 a colleague at the Brooklyn D.A.'s office was asked to appear on Court TV. The colleague declined but passed Jones's name along to the cable television station. Her first appearance was in the summer of 1991, and she quickly became a regular face on Court TV, especially during the William Kennedy Smith trial for rape in Palm Beach, Florida. Soon NBC-TV was interested. "I was sitting in my office in Brooklyn trying to convince a teenage witness to testify when the phone rang," Jones told Black Enterprise about the day the network phoned. "I thought it was a prank call and hung up."
This inauspicious start did not hinder Jones on her new course, however, and within a short time she had left the Kings County D.A. office for the plusher carpets of NBC studios in Manhattan. As the network's legal correspondent, Jones became a familiar face to viewers by late 1992 during such highly publicized cases as the rape trial of boxer Mike Tyson and the criminal trial of Los Angeles Police Department officers for the 1991 beating of Rodney King. She began appearing regularly on the network's morning show, Today, as well as on NBC Nightly News.
In part because of increased interest in the American judicial system, Jones's career on television took off quickly. As an attorney, she detects a deeper meaning in the public's fascination with the sensational court cases that have been a staple on Court TV, NBC, and other mainstream news sources since the early 1990s. Jones said in New York: "If those cases get people to talk, that's very positive. I think people are watching trials because they want to know: Is there fairness in our criminal-justice system? Do you have to have money to get off? Is there racial prejudice? Does a woman's word carry as much weight as a man's word?"
Group W Communications, a producer of syndicated television shows, was so impressed by Jones's work on Court TV and NBC that they offered her a show of her own. Group W's offer of partial ownership in the program would give her some measure of artistic control. Jones & Jury debuted in September of 1994 and was lauded for its combination of two ratings-garnering formats--the confessional talk show and the real-life courtroom saga first popularized by such shows as The People's Court.
Drawn from the docket of California's small-claims division, the cases Jones moderated on Jones & Jury sometimes became heated. Primarily involving disputes of $5,000 or less between private parties, the details were presented in the plaintiffs' and defendants'--sometimes relatives of one another--own words in an occasionally acrimonious environment. Jones acted as mediator, calming tempers and explaining issues to both the studio and home audiences. The studio audience--the "jury" of Jones & Jury--; voted their verdict on the case by the end of the show. With their determination, Jones issued the final decision.
Jones was hired as a senior correspondent and chief analyst for the news show Inside Edition in 1995. During the high-profile O.J. Simpson trial, in which Simpson was charged with and acquitted of his ex-wife's murder, Jones was assigned to cover both the criminal and civil trials. Although many reporters attempted to obtain an exclusive with Simpson, Jones was the only news correspondent to interview him.
Joined The View
In 1997, Barbara Walters launched a morning talk show entitled The View. The show, airing on ABC, features five women of varying generations and backgrounds gathered together in a daily gab fest. Jones was among the first group to audition, including Meredith Viera, Joy Bahar, and Debbie Matenopoulis. This first group was eventually selected to join Barbara Walters on the daily talk show, although Matenopoulis was later replaced by Lisa Ling. "Star was chosen because she is smart, outrageous, and unpredictable The View's executive producer, Bill Geddie, said in Ebony. "She radiates confidence." Jones told Ebony about the day she learned she would join the cast: "I was sitting in Beverly Hills at lunch with a friend when my pager went off...It said, 'Call Barbara Walters.' I thought, you have really arrived when you see Barbara Walters' name on your pager."
The View's ratings rose steadily after its debut and critics reveled in the breath of fresh on-air talent that the show's cohosts provided. Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly said that the show was like "a multigenerational pajama party." Jones's candor, wit, and elegant style won over audiences and critics alike. The success of The View has sparked numerous Saturday Night Live sketches. Jones's popularity, especially, has drawn fire from the weekly comedy series. Comedian Tracy Morgan impersonates Jones, working the phrase, "I am a lawyer," into every sentence. Cohost Joy Bahar commented on Jones's popularity in Good Housekeeping, "Star is on every cover of every magazine. She gets more publicity than Donald Trump."
Jones sees The View as an opportunity to share her agenda with the public. "I want to convince this country that beautiful women come in all sizes and colors," Jones told Essence. "I want little Black girls out there to say 'I'm jammin,' instead of buying into the negative images: 'You're too loud. You're too dark. You're too fat.'" She admits to acting the diva, but, as she told Essence, "it's not about Star being grand. It's about Star telling you, it's okay to be grand." Jones recognizes that she is a role model for young African American girls and feels that her message to them is an important one. Cohost Barbara Walters agrees. "She loves the good life--limousines, traveling, designer clothes," Walters commented in Essence. "Frankly, I think more women should be like this. Many men are, so why not?"
You Have to Stand for Something
With the 1998 release of You Have to Stand for Something, or You'll Fall for Anything Jones became an author. The book, composed of autobiographical essays, climbed to the top of the best-seller list. In the book, Jones shares her opinions on a wide range of subjects, including television, family and friends, God, politics, and racism. "You have to stand for something," Jones wrote. "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...So that's become my credo. Stand for something. And do you know what? I don't fall for much." Amazon.com reviewer Erica Jorgensen said, "Unlike many autobiographical books these days, Jones's is truly absorbing.
While Jones's outspoken candor has furthered her career in television and aided her in the writing of her first book, her sense of style has established her in the fashion world. In 1998, Jones launched "The Star Jones Collection," her own line of wigs. A year later, she became the spokesperson for "Salon Z" of Saks Fifth Avenue. Next, Jones considered starting her own line of clothing for plus-sized women.
Perhaps as a first step toward that goal, in 2000 Jones signed on as spokesperson and partner for Alight.com, an Internet shopping site featuring full-figured fashions exclusively. Jones told PR Newswire that the web site "is the perfect solution for women like me who love to shop but are frequently disappointed with the plus-size selections." Not only is Jones the spokesperson for Alight.com, but she also has her own web page on the site, for which she writes a monthly column in addition to offering fashion advice.
When Ladies Home Journal writer Jim Jerome asked Jones what she would do if she woke up one morning and found that she was no longer on a television show, she replied, "Plan B is called a law degree. I don't define success as sitting next to Barbara Walters and wearing designer evening gowns. Success for me was passing the bar on the first shot. I have the life of a celebrity, but the heart of a trial lawyer." Jones considers herself fortunate to be part of a close-knit family and credits them with both instilling in her a drive to succeed and keeping her feet on the ground. She told Ebony, "I come from people who believe that family is first and foremost and that God has to play a part in your life, or your life means nothing." Jones credits her mother with instilling her with the confidence to face any situation. "I'm vested with the notion that the world is mine," Jones told Essence. "Nothing can change that."
Further Reading
Periodicals
- Black Enterprise, December 1994, p. 54.
- Ebony, December 1998, p. 52.
- Entertainment Weekly, February 6, 1998, p. 44.
- Essence, January 1995, p. 42; October 1999, p. 84.
- Good Housekeeping, November 1999, p. 118.
- Ladies Home Journal, April 2000, p. 88.
- New York, March 9, 1992, p. 22.
- PR Newswire, September 9, 2000.
- People, April 13, 1992; p. 91; January 16, 1995, p. 98.
Other- Additional information was obtained on-line at http:\\www.amazon.com and http:\\www.abc.com.
— Carol Brennan and Jennifer M. York
