Flash! As much as I dislike disagreeing with the excellent reporters at the National Enquirer (they are so often right), I do dispute their story this week that Barbara Walters is "quitting TV." I had an in-depth interview with Barbara only two weeks ago for the April issue of Avenue magazine. In that talk, she told me in no uncertain terms how much she loves her show "The View" and that going to work there with the women she has chosen is like "going on vacation for me." She expressed her love for each of them. Barbara is very proud of the success and importance of "The View," which she created herself with her partner, producer Bill Geddie.

And I don’t see Barbara giving up her successful Sirius radio talk show which she does, again, with producer Geddie.

So, even if Barbara cuts down her contractual obligations to ABC News when her contract ends this summer, we’ll still have her on "The View." When we talked in her Fifth Avenue apartment recently, Barbara was indeed mulling over just how much she wants to undertake in the future. She doesn’t want to work as long or as hard as she has over the glorious years of the most astonishing female success in television. I, for one, hope she will go on doing her famous "specials" — the Oscar special and the Most Famous People special. These are both media hits.

I was particularly amused by the Enquirer’s certainty that Barbara "wants to spend more time with her boyfriend, Dr.Robert Butler." The doctor is a good friend and a distinguished authority on geriatric problems. But there hasn’t been any romance between these two for well over a year.