DeVito 'drunk as a skunk' on US chat show

The ladies of morning TV talk show "The View" are laughing off Danny DeVito's loopy behavior during his appearance on the daytime talk show.

"Danny DeVito is not an alcoholic," Rosie O'Donnell, one of the four women co-hosts, said.

"He's just a guy who had too many with his friend."

On Wednesday's show, the 62-year-old actor admitted he'd had a late night out with George Clooney and said, "I knew it was the last seven limoncellos that was going to get me."

When asked if he had been to sleep, DeVito replied, "I don't know."

DeVito, who was promoting his new Christmas comedy, "Deck the Halls," slurred his speech slightly and told a long-winded story about spending an amorous night in the White House's Lincoln bedroom - circa the Clinton era - with his wife, the actress Rhea Perlman.

"We went in and made it our business to really wreck the joint," he said.

His words were bleeped out after he apparently used some bad language when joking about President George W. Bush, whom he had imitated as a monkey and one of the Three Stooges.

The New York Post reported that he called Mr Bush "numb nuts."

He later sat on O'Donnell's lap, and she kissed him on the cheek.

Co-host Joy Behar said Thursday on the show that DeVito was "drunk as a skunk."

"But he was a fun drunk," chimed in co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

Barbara Walters noted that she had gotten a message later to call him. It wasn't clear whether they connected or he had apologized.

DeVito's spokesman, Stan Rosenfield, said DeVito would personally be in touch with Walters.

"He wishes to keep this conversation with her private," Rosenfield said in a statement.