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Sept. 1, 2005 • Volume 14 Number 1

Elisabeth Filarski Hasselbeck '99, co-host of ABC-TV's "The View," visited last month with Sarah Lucie (left) and Sarah Mezey, who now occupy the Duchesne Hall room where she lived 10 years ago as a freshman.

A Room with 'The View'

ABC-TV personality Hasselbeck gussies up her old BC dorm room for incoming students

By Sean Smith
Chronicle Editor

Sarah Mezey thought it must be some kind of joke.

Here was some guy from Boston College, calling her up in the middle of summer to tell her that the room in Duchesne Hall where she would be living for freshman year at BC was going to receive an extensive "make-over."

And that the result was going to be shown on the popular ABC-TV show "The View," which airs locally weekdays on WCVB at 11 a.m.

And that "The View" wanted to have Mezey and her roommate-to-be Sarah Lucie fly out to campus so they could see the room and be interviewed by one of its former occupants: the show's co-host, Elisabeth Filarski Hasselbeck '99.

"It was just so out of the blue," said Mezey, a native of Birmingham, Mich. "I didn't know what to think."

But it was no joke. Last month, Mezey and Lucie got an early start on their college orientation when they arrived at BC to get acquainted, be filmed with Hasselbeck and - as the piece-de-resistance - take a look at their new digs. The fixings included new bedding, window treatments, wall covering and art - including a photo of Hasselbeck as a freshman and another of her with her "View" co-hosts - a plasma screen TV, new phones, iPods, a bamboo floor, a new rug, a refrigerator, microwave, vacuum cleaner and iron.

The segment was broadcast on Labor Day, after Mezey and Lucie moved into Duchesne for the start of the academic year.

"Elisabeth is great," said Mezey, interviewed last week. "She was like a friendly upperclassman giving advice. When I mentioned that we had wanted to live on Upper Campus, she told us about the good things she experienced being on Newton, and made us feel like it'll be a good place to be."

Lucie, who is from Encino, Calif., said, "Elisabeth mentioned that she was an orientation leader when she was at BC, and it's easy to see why. She's very helpful, and it's obvious she absolutely loves BC."

There's no argument from Hasselbeck on that last point. The Providence native, who earned her degree in fine arts, says she savors every opportunity to visit her alma mater. On a bright, 90-degrees-plus August day, while the "View" production crew prepared for filming at Duchesne, Hasselbeck reflected fondly on her time at BC, which began 10 years ago this fall.

"I first came to visit during the BC-Notre Dame game, and it was just an unbelievable weekend," she said. "I wanted to go to a place with a great art program and athletics, and a well-rounded Jesuit educational philosophy, all of which BC has. The people seemed fun and down-to-earth, so it all clicked."

Mezey and Lucie's room received an "extreme make-over" for an episode of "The View."

Fortunately, says Hasselbeck, she found support and comfort from her friends at BC, not all of them students. While waiting for the Newton Campus shuttle bus in a snowstorm, she recalls, a man pulled up in a car and asked if she wanted a lift. "I could hear my mom's voice saying 'Never get in a car with someone you don't know,' but something really felt all right about this," recalled Hasselbeck.

Her impromptu chauffeur then introduced himself: Rev. William Neenan, SJ, vice president and special assistant to the president - and thereafter a dear friend of Hasselbeck.

Hasselbeck hopes Mezey and Lucie enjoy similar success and satisfaction at BC. For their part, the two freshmen already have a good feeling about their time at the Heights.

"It was almost overwhelming when we first saw the room," said Lucie. "There was a lot to take in. But I know we're going to enjoy it."

The roommates don't think their swank furnishings will change their lifestyles that much. They certainly won't refrain from having company in their room - although, they quip, they'll probably ask friends to wipe their feet before entering.

"They did give us a vacuum cleaner, so I guess we have to use it," said Lucie.

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