In between plugging Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors” tour, which hits Radio City on Tuesday night, with special opener Rosie O’Donnell, Roger Friedman sneaks in this bash of the New York Post, continuing an on-going feud: “Somehow, though, both Rosie and Cyndi were left off of the New York Post’s extremely odd ‘50 Most Powerful Women in NYC’ List on Sunday. The list is so wacky — who is Tinsley Mortimer? Powerful? I doubt it.” [Fox 411]
Telepictures Productions, the folks behind Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show, weren’t about to let Rachael Ray cannibalize their girl’s ratings by using Telepictures’ own footage.
With Ray planning a Rosie O’Donnell tribute show, her producers planned to use clips from The Rosie O’Donnell Show — a show Telepictures owns. They do not, however, back Ray’s show, which means they didn’t want her stealing ratings points from Ellen in markets they go head-to-head.
So yesterday – as in the day before today, when the show Rosie episode aired – Telepictures rang The Rachael Ray Show and demanded they not use footage from Rosie’s old show, hoping the time constraint would force them to pull the taped show.
But Ray’s camp refused, and the program aired as intended today. Which means if Telepictures doesn’t file some sort of copyright infringement legal action, the only remaining part of this story is how O’Donnell will turn this into a Rosie.com haiku.
Rosie O’Donnell: “Leave Miley Cyrus alone,” O’Donnell says in a video posted Monday night. “Disney [is] making her apologize. Ay yi yi. […] Listen, Annie Leibovitz – I had two photo shoots with her. You kind of do what she says. It’s intimidating. I also didn’t think it was a pornographic photo in any capacity. I thought it was sort of a beautiful portrait. […] “I like the one of her and her dad, too. I don’t know. It’s Annie Leibovitz, people.”
Bonnie Fuller: “Does anyone else find it ironic that men in a polygamy cult in Texas are being locked up for sexually exploiting teenage girls while here in medialand, a half-nude photo of 15-year-old Miley Cyrus in Vanity Fair is being touted as art?”
Our daily attempt to help you seem smart, even if you’re not.
nebula \NEB-yuh-luh\ noun 1 : any of numerous clouds of gas or dust in interstellar space; 2 : galaxy; especially : a galaxy other than the Milky Way
Rose O’Donnell, forever operating in her own nebula, announced on her blog in stanza form that she was giving up drinking to lose weight.
[Photos]
ROSIE’S REAL THEATRICS First Will Ferrell, now Rosie O’Donnell. The ex-View chair already kicked off rehearsals for a show based on her own life. [Cindy]
Despite MSNBC’s impressive/aggressive recruitment efforts to land Rosie O’Donnell, the highly anticipated (but as-yet nonexistent) deal with outspoken liberal comedienne has reportedly fallen through.
Naturally we wanted answers, and we quickly found several—all of which are contradictory.
One “NBC executive” claims Rosie’s fear of commitment was to blame, citing her unwillingness to sign a multi-year contract. (Not so! says “a person familiar with the discussions,” who insists “the main sticking point” was compensation, specifically, Rosie’s not getting enough of it).
More confusing still, however, is O’Donnell’s own version of what transpired, which is both intentionally vague and told through the ancient – and unnecessarily annoying – art of the long and drawn-out haiku.
As we told you earlier, MSNBC’s been hard at work courting currently unemployed talk show host (and loudmouthed lefty) Rosie O’Donnell in an effort to knock Bill O’Reilly off his uncontested reign as cable news king and build up the star wattage of its predominantly liberal lineup.
Their plan? To have the opinionated O’Donnell step in and take over the time slot currently occupied by the network’s GM-turned-on-air persona Dan Abrams, (who recently waived his managerial responsibilities to become Joe Scarborough’s full-time replacement as host of Live With Dan Abrams).
Which would explain why Abrams reportedly flipped out upon hearing that MSNBC’s been aggressively vying for Rosie O’Donnell to inherit his timeslot.
Is MSNBC grooming Rosie O’Donnell to be the next Keith Olbermann?
Word has it the cable news network is interested in the former View cohost for her abrasive personality and left-leaning political views. Because, as Jacques Steinberg theorizes, “the cable channel believes there is ratings gold in shows that criticize the [Bush] administration with the same vigor with which Fox News’s hosts often champion it.”
The only problem? Hiring another polemic pundit means you’re only catering to a small, albeit fanatically devoted, subsection of the general population. Kind of like what the majority of successful Republican candidates tend to do right around election time.
That’s just part of the video Bill O’Reilly aired last night after he sent producer Jesse Waters to ambush Rosie O’Donnell at a book signing for Celebrity Detox, where Fox News’ cameras were tolerated long enough for questions like “Why didn’t you go on Oprah?” to be fired off. Also asked: “Why won’t you go on O’Reilly?”
Um … because of stunts like this?
Months after stepping down as the bombastic moderator of The View, Rosie O’Donnell finally admits her real reason for her abrupt exit: Barbara Walters had her canned. The ugly truth came out during Roseanne Barr’s late night set at Comix (where, incidentally, the laughter was also canned) where O’Donnell also shared a few of Barbara’s more intimate nighttime rituals.
Rosie started off by saying, “When I was fired by Barbara Walters” - the first time she didn’t stick to “The View’s” spin that her departure from the show was by mutual agreement.
Rosie claimed onstage that Walters and other “View” couchmates wear earpieces through which producers tell them what to say, which she refused to do.
Rosie also confided that she and the veteran newswoman were actually so close early on in her tenure as moderator that Walters recommended Rosie use Astroglide, which, she added, took her by surprise.
And while we’re not particularly shocked by O’Donnell’s admission that Walters showed her the door, we are slightly traumatized by the fact that we’re now privy to Barb’s preferred brand of lubrication. In fact, it’s pretty much the second grossest View related news we’ve heard all week, right behind the revelation that Whoopi Goldberg’s always fantasized about a Nancy (and Paul) Pelosi “sandwich.”
The most famous pundit in America is Roger Ebert. At least that’s what Forbes’s new list says.
We thought pundit referred to a political commentator, but we checked Merriam-Webster, and the official definition is a person who gives opinions in an authoritative manner usually through the mass media.
Roger Ebert is a pundit, in the same way that Rosie O’Donnell (6), Leonard Maltin (7) and Bill Walton (10) are.
With apologies to our favorite movie “pundit” A.O. Scott, but Roger Ebert really is the best known film critic in the world. Even his trademarked thumbs make news. Since Ebert was diagnosed with jaw cancer, the only topic Romenesko posts more about is job cuts.
Still, what kind of list is this? Rosie O’Donnell isn’t even an authority on her own book.
Rosie O’Donnell is reportedly refusing to do publicity for that upcoming book which she previously described as being “more trouble than it was worth.”
And despite her client’s erratic behavior and last-minute cancellation on Diane Sawyer, uber-publicist Cindi Berger has already tried to put the news in a positive spin. “[Rosie] feels people should read the book and take away from it what they will,” Berger explains.
Which is sort of like publicist speak for “Not even Rosie can plug her crap memoirs while keeping a straight face.”
Remember last week when we told you about Rosie O’Donnell’s less-than-gripping book of memoirs? Well the book doesn’t come out for another month or so, but already the reviews are in, and so far they’re looking grim.
Says one dissatisfied reader: “This is the work of a deeply disturbed woman, page after page of insane ramblings. Ultimately, it’s sad and pathetic.”
Which is to say it’s exactly like her blog, only with sporadic punctuation.
Note to publisher: You know you’re probably in big trouble when even Rosie O’Donnell has publicly gone on record saying that her upcoming book of memoirs is basically a giant crock of shit. [MSNBC]
And speaking of “heavy,” here’s everyone’s favorite former View cohost setting sail with her daughter, Chelsea.
Looks as though those two are in for a boat-load of fun! Assuming, of course, they don’t get harpooned marooned.
Last week, we watched, transfixed, as Paula Abdul burst into tears after getting fired from a D-list movie production,* (presumably, for being a mentally unstable has-been) and then screamed “You guys, please! I’m trying to tell a GODDAMNED STORY!” during an otherwise boring episode of her reality television show, Hey Paula. At the time, a misty-eyed Paula wanted to know if God was even listening—you know, cause everything in her life was kind of going down the crapper?
Anyways, just when you thought Paula had hit rock bottom (seriously, with this one, how do you really know for sure?) comes a crazy full-frontal haiku assault instigated by none other than Rosie O’Donnell—the ex-View co-host and professional celebrity feuder—who attacks Paula the only way she knows how: through pseudo-intellectual free verse.
Elisabeth Hasselbeck (a.k.a. the dumb, weepy Republican one on The View) weighs in on Rosie’s unofficial replacement, Whoopi Goldberg.
“I loved working with Whoopi Goldberg,” the pregnant Hasselbeck told PEOPLE at Super Saturday in Watermill, N.Y., during a fundraiser for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund over the weekend.
“She is soulful, has a world of experience to bring to the table, and I don’t sense any sort of political agenda,” she added. “She is so funny, but at the same time, she is one of the most thoughtful people that I’ve met.”
Translation: She’s not Rosie O’Donnell.
Congratulations, Whoopi. We think you and Elisabeth will get along just fine.
When choosing Bob Barker’s successor on The Price Is Right, CBS producers had the choice of sitcom star/overweight improv comic Drew Carey, loudmouthed lesbian Rosie O’Donnell (endorsed by none other than Barker himself) and washed-up Beverly Hills 90210 star, Ian Ziering.
After Rosie took herself out of the race, producers inexplicably passed over Ziering and went with the more successful, more widely recognizable and generally more impressive Carey.
“I guess I was a little disappointed,” Ziering, 43, told PEOPLE at Tuesday’s The Simpsons Movie premiere in Westwood, Calif. “I was really kind of hoping that would happen…For the last month, I’ve been so titillated, my family has been excited at the mere notion of me hosting The Price is Right.”
When asked to explain their decision, producers admitted they “never really liked” Steve Sanders, citing his “doofy hair” and “annoying self-righteous attitude” as undeniable character flaws. Meanwhile, they acknowledged that Drew Carey was only “sort of funny,” but pointed out that Whose Line Is It Anyway? reruns are a huge hit amongst the “unfunny, middle-aged white person demographic.”
• Unemployed actress Sally Kirkland dons blackface and a Lionel Richie “fro” and poses beside Nicole Richie—presumably because (a) they’re all crazy, and (b) Angelina Jolie was unavailable.
• Meanwhile, the next time Paris Hilton screams, “Why won’t those awful paparazzi just leave me alone?” simply shake your head and remember that she’s a crazy, lying mess.
• Lauren Conrad accidentally-on-purpose broke Brody Jenner’s finger during a heated game of touch football. Natch, Jenner didn’t let it ruin his beer buzz and had resumed his normal activities (read: binge-drinking and spending his father’s money) within hours.
• JLo and her skeletal hubby Marc Anthony claim they couldn’t be more “normal.” Assuming “normal” is slang for “stuck-up rich people, one of whom has a disproportionately large ass.”
Yesterday, we told you Ben Silverman’s hatching a plan to court famous people (and, um, the cast of The Office) for an extra special ratings stunt all-celebrity edition of The Apprentice. And now, we hear Trump’s cordially invited his arch-nemesis, Rosie O’Donnell to participate, with disingenuous promises that she won’t be unfairly targeted and/or fired in the meanest, most dehumanizing way possible.
“If Rosie would like to do it, she would be treated very fairly,” Trump tells PEOPLE. “Don’t forget her show got the highest ratings in December and January when she and I went at it. So I think it would be very good for Rosie. And she would be treated very fairly.”
Persuasive words! But will Rosie take the bait?
Editorial Director
