i am taking off august
in blog-ville
2 c if i can
rosie unplugged
happy summer peeps
peace in
peace out
That's Rosie O'Donnell's (temporary?) farewell to blogging, which has just exhausted the mother of four. "It's too much," says the former and maybe-future television star. Also: She was tired of all your bitching. CONTINUED »
Rosie O'Donnell could be heading back to television. Or Broadway. Or both! This is so confusing!
Straight off Michael Ausiello's scoop in Entertainment Weekly that Rosie and NBC are talking about her returning to TV comes Roger Friedman's exclusive details that the scenario might involve Rosie hosting a Sunday night variety show from a Broadway theatre — an idea she's been throwing around since '02.
And though Rosie has definitely proven herself to be ratings magic (see: The View), keep in mind NBC might be viewing her deal as a Plan B if they can't sign Jay Leno, who's leaving the Tonight Show next year, to a similar variety show deal to keep him at the network. CONTINUED »
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.
Editorial Director
