Joy Behar turns 84 as The View marks her birthday during shoulder injury absence
Behar's co-hosts wished her well on air after a dislocated shoulder kept the View fixture out of her usual seat on her 84th birthday.
Why Joy Behar is trending
People are searching her name because The View spent part of Wednesday's show marking Joy Behar's 84th birthday while she was not even in the building. Behar is out recovering from a dislocated shoulder, an injury that was first reported on October 1 when she turned up missing from the live panel with no warning.
Here is what is actually known. Behar hurt her shoulder, the injury surfaced publicly on October 1, and she has been away from her regular seat on the panel since. What is not known, at least from what has been reported, is how the injury happened or exactly when she is set to return. Nothing in the reporting answers either of those, so we are not guessing.
The shoulder injury and who is filling in
When Behar's absence first showed up on October 1, Whoopi Goldberg was also away from the desk, off in New York filming a Netflix movie. That left Sara Haines, Ana Navarro, Sunny Hostin and Alyssa Farah Griffin stepping into moderator duty in the meantime.
Goldberg brought up the arrangement herself on air, noting she had just sat in for Behar as moderator during a live Behind the Table podcast taping in New York City. The two normally cover for each other this way, with Behar typically running the show when Goldberg is out and vice versa.
How the panel marked the birthday
Goldberg opened Wednesday's show by leading the panel in wishing Behar a happy birthday, then passed along a message Behar had sent in herself. Behar's line poked fun at sharing a birthday with Vladimir Putin, joking that she does not have the Russian plague.
Goldberg followed up by saying Behar is still healing from the dislocated shoulder and that the whole panel wants her back in her seat as soon as she is able. Navarro chimed in that she is still stuck on the Putin birthday coincidence herself, and Griffin pointed out she shares her own birthday with Xi Jinping, turning it into a running joke about dictators and View hosts sharing calendar dates.
What happens next
There is no return date on record for Behar. For now, the rotating group of Goldberg, Haines, Navarro, Hostin and Griffin keeps handling moderator duties in her absence, and the panel has made clear on air that they are waiting for her to come back once her shoulder heals up.
Facts per Yahoo. Opinion is the taproom's.