Santaniello to talk 'The Talk'

WCCO-TV anchor Amelia Santaniello is headed to a chair on "The Talk" for a little substitution action in Los Angeles.

"The Talk" -- CBS's version of ABC's "The View" -- is hosted by Julie Chen, also host of "Big Brother" and wife of CBS prez Les Moonves. Chen is going on vacation later this month and while she's away one of "The Talk's" co-host Sharon Osbourne will fill in for Julie; Amelia makes her guest appearance from Sharon's chair on Wednesday July 27.

"I'm very excited," Santaniello told me Friday. "It's a great opportunity. They are a fun group of women."

The other "Talk" co-hosts are Aisha Tyler, Sheryl Underwood and Sara Gilbert.

"I love Sharon Osbourne and the rest of them because they keep it real," said Santaniello. " They are all great. Minnesota likes them. The Minnesota ratings for 'The Talk' are some of the highest in the country."

Santaniello said her husband and co-anchor Frank Vascellaro told her to be herself on the national talk show.

That couldn't have been anything he was genuinely worried about, not from the wife and colleague who told me this: "I'll be able to talk about him without him being there to defend himself."

Santaniello has been asked to bringing several clothing options to LA., where there will be a topics meeting and apparently a professional makeup job. Most local stations don't employ professional makeup artists anymore.

"So a couple of times I have been asking Frank, 'What do you think of this? What do you think of that?'" she said. "He says, Yeah, that's color is great. Then I stopped myself. 'Why am I asking YOU?' This is the man who could care less about clothing. One summer his uniform was a Harley Davidson shirt with checkered pants."

Santaniello also told me that on June 29 former KARE11 anchor Paul Magers, who now works for the CBS station in Los Angeles, will also pull a substitute hosting chair up at "The Talk."