'The Open Mouth': Joy Behar Crudely Jokes Late 'View' Co-host Barbara Walters' Smile Was From Her Adult Film Days

Joy Behar shocked The View audience and co-hosts when she cracked a distasteful joke at the expense of her late colleague, Barbara Walters, RadarOnline.com has learned.

While discussing the legendary journalist's signature open smile, Behar joked that Walters picked up the look from "her porn days."

The studio audience and viewers at home were left speechless after the awkward exchange on Tuesday's episode of the talk show. It all started when their guest former Spice Girls member Geri Halliwell shared a heartwarming anecdote about Walters.

"Barbara, she's an amazing lady. She taught me one thing, she said [she] had a camera smile that she uses, and I always still use this piece of advice," Halliwell told the roundtable. "She said when you're in front of a camera, you notice how you feel a bit stiff, and she always goes, 'Ahh.' You look into the camera and go, 'Ahh.' You get the right kind of smile. That's the Barbara smile."

Halliwell added the late journalist's advice always "stayed with me."

As Halliwell stressed that the "Barbara smile" was a slightly opened mouth, Behar chimed in.

"She did it every time she took a photograph. It has to have the mouth open," Behar joked with co-hosts. "Well, those are from her porn days."

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Behar's crude comment made the audience gasp while co-host Alyssa Farrah Griffith immediately reacted, "Oh my God."

"They know it's a joke," Behar fired back at Griffith as she threw her hands in the air, getting a laugh from the audience in the process.

While Behar reassured the round table and viewers that she was only kidding about Walter's "porn days," co-host Sara Haines suggested they all "move on" to the next topic.

Behar's working relationship with Walters, who launched the daytime talk show in 1997 with producer Bill Geddie, dates back to the show's inception.

Behar was one of the original panelists on The View, which also included Walters, Meredith Vieira, Star Jones, and Debbie Matenopoulos.

The fiery redhead remained a fixture on the show until March 2013, when she announced she was leaving at the end of Season 16.