Recently in Rosie O'Donnell Category

How cool is this?

Rosie O'Donnell is returning to television with "Rosie's Variety Show," an hour-long special that will air LIVE on NBC the night before Thanksgiving. The special will feature celebrity guests, musical acts, comedy skits and a prize give-away for the show's in-studio and home audiences.

If the ratings are strong, it could lead to a series, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"There's very few performers willing to put th"This is a genre that everybody is anticipating is going to come back," said David Friedman, who will executive produce the show along with O'Donnell. "Rosie sort of invented the daytime variety show. Without question, Rosie is the right person to bring this back."

Rosie can certainly draw viewers. Her "Rosie O'Donnell Show" was a daytime syndicated hit for five years until it left the air in 2001 and ratings surged when she co-hosted the 10th season of ABC's "The View."

Since leaving "The View" last year, Rosie used her blog to express the opinions she used to share during the show's "Hot Topics" segment. This week, she had some thoughts on Sara Palin:

the woman who would lead us ...
like a kid who crammed for an oral exam
robotic replies
"my understanding is..."

sick - the whole thing is sick

I still want Rosie to do a multi-disc set of her talk show's six seasons like Oprah did a few years back of her show. But until then, there's this 90-minute DVD that looks back at the highlights of the first season of "The Rosie O'Donnell Show."

Rosie will be appearing on the Home Shopping Network at 12PM, 6PM and 11PM to promote the newly released DVD set.

I loved that show because Rosie had on all the people who I loved and asked them the questions I wanted to have answered. This was not "The View" and there was none of that Elisabeth Hasselbeck spewing her nonsense. This was pure entertainment.

Rosie's Premiere on HSN

I haven't been checking in on Rosie O'Donnell's blog for awhile because she had announced she was gonna take some time away from it. Well, her hiatus ended and as I was reading a lengthy post from a few days ago, I noticed a dig at her former "View" co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck who appeared at the the Republican National Convention and thinks Sarah Palin can walk on water.

Here's what Rosie wrote in her semi-poetic way:

so thrilled the conventions r done
more addicting than survivor
almost real reality

enough

sarah p - elisabeth h
identical cousins
women who hunt in high heels
gives one pause

The top video is a Broadway tribute to Rosie as part of her final episode of "The Rosie O'Donnell Show." Below is a video montage of her guests through the years... I really wish Rosie would put together a DVD boxed set of the show's great moments. Oprah Winfrey did it, Merv Griffin did it, Johnny Carson made an industry out of it. C'mon Rosie!

Bonus: Rosie and Bette Midler on the show...

Even while on vacation - like this week - I still wanna blog a little bit.

Not so for Rosie O'Donnell, whose Rosie.com has become a must-read. Rosie told readers this week that she is taking a blogging break. Here is what she wrote:

i am taking off august
in blog-ville
2 c if i can
rosie unplugged

happy summer peeps

peace in
peace out

This would be so absolutely cool: EW.com is reporting exclusively that Rosie O'Donnell is in talks with NBC to return to television with her own weekly primetime variety show.

Let's hope these talks don't blow up the way Rosie's talks with MSNBC did last year when she was oh-so-close to signing a deal for a nightly show. This sounds like a better fit anyway for Rosie.

NBC, which seems really bone-headed for pushing Jay Leno out of the nightly 11:35 p.m. slot next year, is said to be courting Leno for a similar gig but there is a strong possiblity that Jay will defect to ABC.

EW adds that CBS is also interested in Rosie. However this shakes out, it would be great to have Rosie back on TV without having to share a screen with the insufferable, untalented and not-very-interesting Elisabeth Hasslebeck with whom she so memorably clashed on "The View.:

Are gay people the best Password players? It would seem so after Neil Patrick Harris' stellar performance last weekend was followed tonight byRosie O'Donnell. She sure can play! On the second episode of "Million Dollar Password," Rosie was so focused and just awesome at giving clues and guessing words. She told host Regis Philbin that she had been a huge fan of the original show hosted by Allen Ludden, Me too! Tood bad Rosie and I didn't live near each other as kids. We coulda watched so much TV together and never fought about changing the channel.

"I'm trying not to think of the money, just the words!" she said at one point and at another, she went around the stage and kissed all the men including Reege and fellow celeb Tony Hawk. She also plugged her family crafting book.

"Don't you know how crafty I am Regis?" Rosie said. "Give me a crayon and a wire and I'm like MacGyver,"

I most enjoyed Rosie's chemistry with Dante Bergadante, a limo driver from Yonkers who also does a terrific Elvis impersonation. He and Rosie were a formidable team and typically got all their words successfully with plenty of time left on the clock.

"You guys are really in sync here," Regis said once they won $50,000. Then Dante shocked me by declining to play for $100,000 (If he had lost that round, his winnings would have been reduced to $25,000. He shoulda gone for the bigger bucks! Rosie wouida come through for ya Dante.

It was a really big deal when Rosie O'Donnell married Kelli Carpenterin San Francisco's four years ago when the hottie mayor Mayor Gavin Newsom gave the green-light to all the same-sex couples who wanted to get hitched. Rosie told Howard Stern this week that her decision was spurred on by President Bush's comments against same-sex marriage at a time when she felt there were far more pressing issues for him to be spouting off about.

Anyway, don't expect Rosie and Kelli to make another cross-country flight on the evening of June 16 (when you can start getting married in SF. Here's what the multi-Emmy winning personality told AP Radio this week abour it: We are "going to wait until it's legal everywhere, because otherwise, I said to Kelli, we'll be going around touring the country on the marriage tour every state by state....Once it gets to be at the federal level, once every state recognizes the marriages of every other state, I think that'll be the time we would do it,"

And she believes that will eventually happen: "The same way it was illegal for black and white people to marry at one point and people couldn't conceive of that ever being different, I do think that two consenting, law-abiding adults who want to share their life together should be allowed to do that."

Love ya Rosie...

Listening to Rosie O'Donnell's interview with Howard Stern made me really miss Howard and Robin Quivers who I used to listen to quite frequently before he went to Sirius Radio. Howard is so blunt and inquisitive and fun. They talk about Madonna, Rosie's sex life, Joy Behar, Tom Cruise ("I think he's definitely in a place that he never thougnt he'd be in."), Jane Fonda ("She's so unbelievably present and non-judgmental") Rosie being sexual abused as a child, Howard and Rosie's past misconceptions about each other, Barbara Walters ("We still talk to each other"), Rosie's wife Kelli and kids, Whoopi Goldberg ("Whoopi will not take any crap"), Elisabeth Hasselbeck (They have not spoken since she left the show but they have emailed each other), Paris Hilton ("It's a tragic story") George Bush ("The guy's so pathetically transparent"), Rosie's controversial thoughts on 9/11, Cyndi Lauper and the "True Colors" tour...

On her blog, Rosie wrote of the experience: this morning with howard, enjoyable,
never say never people things change...

Part Two:

Parts 3-5 after the jump...ENJOY!!!

That Rosie O'Donnell. She can make you laugh, she can make you mad and she can make you cry.

I got choked up reading this recap of the kick-off concert of Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Tour in Boston on AfterElton.com which included this section on Rosie's appearance: The majority of her act was dedicated to the memory of her mother and how being a mom herself has shown her the similarities between all human beings. She left the stage with a heartfelt and teary goodbye, telling the audience to be on the lookout for the spirit of her mother in the crowd as she's always believed that her mom was sitting in the audience of each and every performance of her life. It was a touching moment from someone the media often portrays very differently and the crowd really seemed to embrace her emotional openness.

Sunday night is the premiere of "Million Dollar Password" to be hosted by Regis. I'm pretty pleased with the celebrity line-up of Neil Patrick Harris, Rosie O'Doinnell and Betty White. Betty was married to original Password host Allen Ludden and frequently guested. I was a Password freak as a kid, used to dream about being on the show and remember being over the moon when my parents gave me the board game for Christmas one year.

Rosie O'Donnell dropped this bombshell on her blog the other day:

i am 46
last night i saw a friend my age
on television
with a brand new face

i am never sure how to react
i email others asking
did u see her - she's different
right ?

Anyone have any guesses? An actress in her mid-40s who's friends with Rosie, is on TV, and whose face looks new. I'd guess Mary Tyler Moore but she's 70-plus. That sure was a new face she had on Oprah though.

I have not been able to put Barbara Walters' book, "Audition," down all weekend. It is an awesome read so far. To go along with Barbara during the 60s and 70s when she was breaking down barriers and traveling the globe snagging exclusive interviews left and right, you realize what an epic life she has had - really historic. People who mainly just know her from "The View" and "20-20" and the celebrity specials are in for some really fascinating stuff.

But even I gotta admit that after picking up the book at The Grove on Saturday, I sat at the Barnes & Noble and first looked at all the pictures then went straight to the chapter in the book on "The View" before even leaving the store! What was Star Jones pitching a fit over? Barbara is very fair to her in this book. Star has problems. It is Rosie O'Donnell who is written about extensively in the chapter and not always in a flattering light. Here are some excerpts:

Rosie's moods: "In the early weeks of the program, we were all rather anxious about what kind of mood Rosie would be in when she entered the dressing room. One day she would be upbeat and smiling , the next day dark and subdued. Gradually, we learned to go with the flow..."

Teamwork: "Rosie had originally said she wanted to ride the bus, not drive it. But this backseat role simply was not her nature. Rosie is a big talent, funny, smart, opinionated, passionate - and controlling. ... The premise of 'The View' is that of a team working together, but for Rosie it was more like Diana Ross and the Supremes, as little by little she took over. Still, she was such a talent that we lived with it."

On Rosie's book 'Celebrity Detox' in which she slammed Barbara: "...Harsh and insulting accusations, some logical, some off the wall, filled page after page. Miszed up in the criticisms were protestations of love...I am not a Pollyanna, but I truly believe that Rosie did not intend to hurt me. She herself must have come to regret what she'd written, because she canceled most of her television interviews promoting the book. She also sent me a series of long, tender e-mails. I was touched by them and finally did respond. I can't be mad at Rosie for long."

Rosie O'Donnell has returned to Broadway for a run in "No No Nanette" and her reviews have been terrific - better than those for the overall show,

New York Times: Ms. O'Donnell, of whom you may have heard, scores a personal triumph as the Smiths' grumpy, bossy maid. With only minimal changes in vocal and facial expressions, she projects more comic authority than anyone around her (and more, I might add, than she ever has before in her various outings on Broadway).

Newsday:: ...Most fun involves Rosie O'Donnell, as the second-banana wisecracking maid, doing a few minutes of sweetly capable tap at the end,

TheaterMania.com: Then there's O'Donnell, who has the script's drollest lines and knows precisely how to land them. For much of the time she's pushing a recalcitrant Hoover around, and it becomes a metaphor for her ability to hoover up the yuks. Plus, she taps like a demon. (Eat your heart, Barbara Walters!)

Washington Post: And then there is Rosie O'Donnell as a wisecracking maid. O'Donnell may not be much of a singer, but she's a game tapper and wins most of her laughs playing off a recalcitrant vacuum cleaner, not the easiest of tasks.

Variety: And while she could stand to loosen up a little more, Rosie O'Donnell deadpans enjoyably as the Smiths' put-upon maid Pauline, even muscling in on the dance action with a brief but capable tap solo.

Rosie O'Donnell doesn't seem to miss being on "The View" but that doesn't stop her from talking about the show that she left nearly a year ago.

"Passion on that show was not number one," Rosie said on the Today show Monday. "Some people confuse passion for rage. I have a lot of passion about things I believe in."

Rosie said she never set out to cause controversy but "when somebody would say something that I found insane, I would say, 'That's insane.'"

She and Barbara Walters are still friends, attending plays together and exchanging emails. She also touches base occasionally with Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

She wants to make clear that neither Hasselbeck or anyone else on the panel were the reason she left nearly a month before her one-year contract was up: "It was not the people on the stage. It was the director and the executive producer. You have a choice, do you want to choose to fight for a living...they made it into Hardball."

Here is a clip from Rosie's appearance:

I hadn't watched Rosie O'Donnell's video blog in quite awhile and finally just caught up on it. Rosie is going to be appearing in "No, No Nanette" which I did not know about. She was a smash on Broadway back in the mid-90s as Rizzo in a hugely successful revival of "Grease."

"I'm doing a musical which I love a lot," Rosie said.

She also defended 15-year-old Miley Cyrus who has been at the center of a mega-controversy because of some provocative photos of her shot by Annie Leibowitz for "Vanity Fair."

"Annie Liebowitz; I had two photo shoots with her. You kind of do what she says. It's intimidating, Annie Liebowitz. I also didn't think it was a pornographic photo in any capacity. I thought it was sort of a beautiful portrait, you know. I like the one of her and her dad, too, I don't know. It's Annie Liebowitz, people, you know. Leave Miley Cyrus alone. Disney, making her apologize: Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay."

Here is a link to her vlog:
http://rosie.com/blog/2008/04/28/mon-nite-talky/

I came across an interview Helen Reddy gave to USA Today while I was vacationing so I've found myself humming "Angie Baby" at unexpected times since. In the late 70s, the first concert I ever went to was Helen Reddy at the Anaheim Convention Center. I was with one of my brothers and some cousins. I don't remember much about that concert but back in 1997 while I was vacationing in London, I caught her performance in "Blood Brothers" on the West End. It was a matinee and we got second row seats. Magical. It was during a record heat wave and the audience was given free ice cream before the show (or maybe during intermission) because it was so warm inside the theater.

I met Miss Reddy a few years ago at a book signing in Santa Monica for her memoir "The Woman I Am" and she told me how much she enjoyed that run of "Blood Brothers." I asked her why so many people still remember her songs all these years later. She kind of disappointed me with her answer which hinted there was something strange about it. Kind of like "People need to get a life."

Oh well, I didn't really like ther book that much. I wanted more showbiz dish and less reincarnation stuff. Anyway, this clip from 1997 is Miss Reddy on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" and it's tons of fun watching them team up for the classic anthem "I Am Woman" which Reddy co-wrote. Rosie really oughta do a DVD collection from her show don't ya think?

I just love these two! Sam Harris, who announced yesterday that he and his partner Danny have adopted a baby boy, taped a video blog segment with pal Rosie O'Donnell who reacts to the joyous news.

I love that these two immensely talented gay people are so open and directly in touch with their fans through the Internet because I watch these videos and it's not like I'd ever see anything this wonderful on Entertainment Tonight or TMZ.

Singer-actor Sam Harris and Rosie O'Donnell have much in common: both got their first big breaks on the 1980s talent show series "Star Search," both are in longtime happy relationships with same-sex partners, both have adopted at least one child and both are very busy in the video blogging world. Sam recently had Rosie on for his weekly "Friend Friday" chat and I have posted all three parts. We know that Rosie is smart and opinionated and this shows us that Sam is too! Another thing they have in common! It really is like eavesdropping on two old friends and these two are clearly very close...

Part A: Sam welcomes Rosie, who he met in 1984. "We were children," Sam says. We find out they appeared on Broadway together in "Grease" in the mid-90s. Also in the cast was Megan Mullally. This one's full of showbiz stories...love it!

Part B: It's mostly about Sam's great friend Bridget Moynahan who, it turns out, is Rosie's third cousin. "You guys have a lot in common,' Sam says. "You're both bull-headed." Says Rosie: "My way or the highway!"

Part C: It's all politics...Hillary, Barack and McCain and more...

I love when Rosie O'Donnell has something to promote because it's always fun and interesting to have her on television where she belongs! Love the video blog but Rosie should have her own show - one that does not include the misguided Elisabeth Hasselbeck. That being said, Whoopi Goldberg does a far better job as handling Hasselbeck than Rosie could which is the mark of a good moderator.

So, Rosie paid a visit to "Good Morning America" where she did things like do crafts with Diane Sawyer (her new book is about crafting - a longtime hobby of Rosie's) and got Robin Roberts, who lost her hair during chemotherapy for breast cancer, to take her wig off on live TV. Rosie is never boring! Here are some excerpts from her interview with the blonde goddess of network news, Diane Sawyer:

On leaving "The View" last year amid a blaze of fireworks: "It was a little bit of [a] trial period. I almost made it to the end. I'm the same person I always was. On my show there was no one with a conflicting point view and I was the boss, which works well with me."

On Hasselbeck, from who she still receives an occasional email: "She's very young. Your life is a little bit more black and white [when you are younger.]"

Clinton or Obama?: "I've been saying both from the beginning. I think the only way they are going to be able to serve the nation is to put down their own egos and combine forces. We need both of them is what I believe."

To read more and to see clips from Rosie's appearance, go to ABCNews.com.

Rosie O'Donnell appeared on Martha Stewart's daytime show Tuesday (she's got a new crafts book coming out) and the subject of Rosie's departure from "The View" and Elisabeth Hasselbeck was touched on:."I tried my best but it's hard for me when I'm not the boss. There was people there telling me what to do. There was a little Republican who scared me."

During O'Donnell's final weeks on the show, the Republican Hasselbeck, now 30, and the liberal O'Donnell famously sparred in May 2007 over the Iraq war. Here is a clip of that famous knock-down, drag-out fight from nearly a year ago that resulted in Rosie leaving the show three weeks earler than planned. She never returned to the show after this showdown: