Chatting up Sherri Shepherd...

Sherri Shepherd is just loving the unexpected perks of being one of the co-hosts of "The View."

When we spoke a few days ago, she was still on cloud nine over Janet Jackson showing up at the ABC studios in New York where the show is taped and personally presenting Sherri with a pair of tickets to one of her concerts.

"She walked out and it was like the angels started singing," she said of the moment.

Janet had heard Sherri's on-air story about how when she was working as a legal secretary in her pre-fame days, she had slept outside all night in line to get tickets to the singer's concert during her tour for the "Control" album.

She didn't get tickets - that time.
"Someone made some phone calls and had her sitting downstairs," she said. "What law firm would do that? I remember being a legal secretary and the orders were, 'Go file that document! Get me coffee!' I'd watch soaps and daydream about having a talk show and going to the awards. To actually be living this dream, I keep thinking someone is gonna say it's all just my imagination."

It's been several years since Sherri, 41, has worked at a law firm. She became a successful stand-up comedienne and scored regular or recurring roles in the sitcoms "Less Than Perfect," "Suddenly Susan," "The Jamie Foxx Show," and "Everybody Loves Raymond."

But "The View" has made her a household name and a gig she earned after numerous stints as a guest host. She joined the show last fall along with Whoopi Goldberg.

"She thinks I'm joking when I say it, but it's a dream come true that I'm sitting next to Whoopi," she said. "It's every female comic's dream to have the same path that Whoopi has walked."

They joined longtime panelists Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Barbara Walters, the show's creator and a producer.

"It is truly a blessing to work with a woman who has opened so many doors," she said of Walters who memoir "Audition" recently topped the best seller lists. "I love Barbara's book. It's 700 pages of things I didn't know about Barbara."

The co-hosts on "the View" have changed over the years with Meredith Vieira, Rosie O'Donnell and Star Jones, among the show's famous alumni. But two things have remained constant: they get nominated for best talk show host at the Daytime Emmys every year and every year, they lose.

But Sherri, who is co-hosting the June 20 awards show with "All My Children" hunk Cameron Mathison (pictured, right), badly wants some Emmy gold.

"I want to win so badly," she admitted. "Every day I've been lighting candles, I've been fasting."

Famous for her various hairstyles on "The View," I wondered what Sherri picked out first for her hosting duties: the dress or the wig.

"The wigs!" she said. "I have three dress changes and I have three wig changes and some extra wigs just in case someone needs some."

She plans to go for laughs on the show and even being a little naughty.

"I'm planning on grabbing Cameron's butt," she said. "He's still got a lot of that 'Dancing With the Stars' booty. I am so looking forwards to seeing all these hunky men from the soaps. I've seen them in bed with everyone already."