Entertainment

WATCH: Babs’ revenge

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GRUDGE: Barbara Walters did not answer George Zimmerman’s call to “The View” yesterday after she flew down to see him earlier. (
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A frosty Barbara Walters refused to take a call on the air from George Zimmerman, the accused killer of Trayvon Martin, yesterday on the “The View.”

With Zimmerman hanging on the line, ready to give Walters a interview, the queen of TV news refused to put him on the air — a stunning put-down to perhaps the most sought-after news figure in the country.

The drama was played out over the entire hour of “The View,” which opened yesterday with Walters telling viewers that she had been, in essence, stood up by Zimmerman in Florida the day before.

The 28-year-old community patrol volunteer shot and killed an unarmed black teen, Martin, last February in a racially charged incident that has divided the nation.

On Tuesday, Walters and a camera crew went to Zimmerman’s hiding place with the promise of an interview, she told viewers.

But when, according to Page Six, he demanded that ABC pay for him and his family to stay in a hotel for a month, Walters refused and left.

On “The View” yesterday, Walters refused to say what Zimmerman had demanded but described it as “a condition that, being a member of ABC News, I was unable to grant,” she says.

She went on to describe Zimmerman as “polite, soft-spoken, stubborn,” but that he was “desperate for money.”

Halfway through “The View” yesterday, Zimmerman’s lawyer called the show offering to put him on the phone with Walters on the air immediately, a surprised Walters told viewers.

“Forgive us,” she told the audience, “we’re going to go to a commercial . . . We will be back and who knows what we’re going to get.”

But after the show returned from a break, Walters told the audience that — even though Zimmerman had phoned — she was not going to accept his call or put him on the air.

“Mr. Zimmerman,” she said, looking into the TV camera, “if you could not do the interview yesterday, I don’t think we should do a quick one today.

“In the future, if you feel differently, we will consider it,” Walters said.