Rosie O'Donnell: November 2008 Archives

Rosie O'Donnell had a busy time on her Rosie.com blog responding to questions about her NBC variety show which drew low ratings Wednesday and many critical pans.

Rosie answered the most pressing question: will there be more of the "Rosie Live!" hours as had been planned: "there will b no more. no ratings. bad reviews. yet still - a thrill 4 me," she wrote.

Other exchanges from her blog:

HQP Writes: So sorry Ro about no more shows - I love you to pieces, but it was too much Ed Sulivan and not enough Carol Burnett - seemed a little over produced - Hugs and yellow kisses
Rosie: we were going for ed sullivan and theres only one carol b and hey i gave it my best shot

Gloria Writes::rosie, i love you but did you have any idea, after you were done taping, just what a dud the show was?
Rosie: not til i got home and read the blog; if the bloggers didnt like it, i knew it didnt work

Christopher Writes: They're too quick to cancel shows. Glad we got to see one anyway. Why do you think it didn't work? Was it too ambitious?
Rosie: not enough rehearsal; the live part wasnt a plus; the in theater experience didnt transfer to tv; it was a pilot, meaning u try it see if it works then if they pick it up u fix it

Linda LaFrance Writes: RO I'm bummed about *Rosie Live* so 5 or 6 million peeps aren't enough 4 another shot? Loved it! What new show doesn't need tweaking???
Rosie: many people r gonna try a variety show, one will work. ellen tonight, the osbornes have one, john mayer. check them out

Mike Writes: there will b no more? u r giving up that easily? it might not have been a home run right out of the gate, but c'mon. i'm sure bloggers are giving advice on improvement. take the advice and do another!
Rosie: its up to nbc. but bad ratings and reviews usually mean no more.

Brendan Writes: i'm sorry
Rosie: it's ok

You expect a variety hour to be hit and miss. But "Rosie Live!" was such a disappointment. It started off so-so with Rosie's little monologue which just wasn't funny enough then things hit their peak when she and Liza Minnelli did a fun duet of "City Lights." From there on, the only bright spots were a too-short visit from Harry Connick Jr. (why not let him sing and ENTIRE song?) and the end with Gloria Estefan. Also nice was a performance by Alannis Morrisette.

Otherwise it was odd and mostly unfunny cameos from the likes of Alec Baldwin (talking into Rosie's cleavage), Conan O'Brien, Rachael Ray and Clay Aiken. Kathy Griffin played Nancy Grace in a skit and would have been far funnier as Kathy Griffin. Then there was the talented Jane Krakowski doing a nice number except that it was built around the products audience members would be getting. Tacky.

Here is a sample:

The reviews have not been kind: The New York Times described it as "hokey comedy with an enemies list." TV Guide called it a "ghastly ego trip." And the LA Times asked, "Rosie, what on earth were you thinking?"

We know Rosie has all kinds of charm and hunor when she wants to and we saw that side of her in this show. But it just seemed like chaos going on around her most of the time. I doubt there will be another variety hour for her but if there is, why make it live? Just put together a good show - taped as live - and let us watch it.

Rosie's show drew around 5 million viewers while her former boss on "The View," Barbara Walters had news special (an interview with Barack and Michelle Obama) airing two hours later that drew more than twice that with 11 million viewers, according to preliminary viewers released Thursday.

I swear I am not on NBC's payroll! I'm just really excited about Rosie O'Donnell's variety special, "Rosie Live!" airing tonight. It feels like, from the promos at least, a throwback to her old talk show which had all these great guests who would chat and sing etc. It reminded me of coming home from school and watching "The Mike Douglas Show" or "Dinah!" (for those of you too young to remember, check Wikipedia!)

This special is being touted as being more in the tradition of the prime-time variety shows of the 60s and 70s like Ed Sullivan and "Rowan & Martin's Laugh In" and, of course, "The Carol Burnett Show."

"I'm excited," Rosie tells ET about her new show. "I've been rehearsing for about three weeks. Today we did a whole rehearsal with Liza Minnelli for the opening number, which was beyond words."

Here's the most complete guest list to date: Alec Baldwin, Alanis Morrissette, Jane Krakowski, Ne-Yo, Liza Minnelli, Rachael Ray, Harry Connick Jr., Clay Aiken, Gloria Estefan, and Kathy Griffin.

Rosie's pal Clay expressed his support for Rosie's show.

"I think that really we're in a place in our country now where people need some excitement and some family fun and something to watch together to cheer them up," Clay tells ET.. "And I think there's no better person to do that than Rosie."

Rosie will kick off the hour sounding off about current events, pop culture and whatever is on her mind but told Meredith Viera on "The Today Show" Monday morning that she doesn't plan to be controversial.

I enjoyed this promo below:

I cannot believe "The Today Show" split-screened Rosie O'Donnell! Rosie famously quit "The View" three weeks early last year after producers went to a split screen during a ferocious verbal battle between Rosie and Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Now, Rosie is involved in another squirmish - this time with Barbara Walters - who took to the airwaves last week to tell Rosie to "get on with your life" after Rosie said in an interview that the ladies on "The View" are not the best of friends off-screen.

So Meredith Viera (herself a "View" alum) asks Rosie about it and forces her to sit through a replay of Barbara's split-screen and the show runs a split-screen as Rosie watches! So uncool.

Rosie, whose "Rosie Live!" variety hour airs Wednesday night, went on to say to Viera of Walters: "The fact that I hurt her hurts me because you know I was 14 years old and watched the first woman to ever moderate a presidential debate - she was the moderator between Carter and Ford. I remember it vividly. I was 15 when she talked to Sadat and Begin. She is one of the women who paved the way for every other woman in broadcasting and I love her regardless of the fact that to her I'm the rowdy teenaged daughter she can't control."

"I think there comes a time when she's just had enough and I'm hard to take for some people," Rosie added. "I do love her and that's the bottom line. Love is complicated."

Rosie O'Donnell's variety special - airing Wednesday night on NBC - just became must-see TV for me: Harry Connick Jr. - the real sexiest man alive - is now one of her guests. Clay Aiken has also been added. I like him more now that he's come out I reckon.

The special will broadcast live from New York's Little Shubert Theatre and Connick and Aiken join previously announced guest stars including legendary performer Liza Minnelli, recording artist's Ne-Yo and Alanis Morissette, actress and comedienne Kathy Griffin and "30 Rock" stars Jane Krakowski and Alec Baldwin.

I've decided that Barbara Walters completely overreacted to some of Rosie O'Donnell's remarks in an interview this week. I think the truth might've gotten under her skin a bit quite frankly.
Anyway, I posted Rosie's hilarious Vblog reply. She talked about it more in-depth on Conan O'Brien's show the other night when she stopped by to promote her NBC variety special which airs on Wednesday.

"It's a little emotional, I have a little Post Traumatic Stress Disorder when I watch it," Rosie said of her year on "The View." "I get a little bit of flashbacks, like Vietnam vets. But it was a good experience, it wasn't something I regret doing by any stretch of the imagination. But it didn't end well, and people seem to remember that part."

Walters was irked when Rosie said claims that the co-hosts of "The View" are friends off camera are untrue, and responded on the program Thursday telling Rosie to move on with her life.

"Everyone's real good friends," a defiant Rosie said to Conan. "And they hang out together pretty much every day after the show. Barbara, Joy, Elisabeth, they all go to Friday's and have potato skins. They throw back a few beers on a Saturday, you know how it is. They're very chummy."

"She's a little angry," Rosie added. "In spite of the fact that she now loathes me, I still do enjoy her. I'm not sure I'm going to be a guest on that show again. But I tried my best... I told them when they hired me that I had never worked on a show before where I wasn't the boss, and that there was a chance that might cause some problems...[but] I don't wanna dump on the show in order to benefit my own career, to use it for publicity, because I didn't have a career before that show so I'm very thankful to 'The View' for the help that it's given me in my life."

Rosie said of Walters: "I never meant to hurt a journalist of her stature, in all honesty."

anyway, here is a clip of Rosie's appearance on Conan:

Good one Rosie!

During a conference call to promote her upcoming NBC variety special, Rosie O'Donnell addressed the criticism that she had been surprisingly mum on Prop. 8 before the election: Not only is the the former talk show host not planning to speak out on politics on her show, she says people have been surprised she hasn't more loudly condemned Proposition 8, She said her February 2004 marriage to Kelli Carpenter in San Francisco speaks for itself: "I realized when Kelly and I were married it was in some ways an act of civil disobediance as much as it was a love story," she said. "I kind of found it surprising that people say you're not vocal enough. I'm not vocal enough? ... I've lived my opposition to Proposition 8 and have for... years."

Well, we still needed ya Rosie.

I'm missing Rosie O'Donnell the gay activist right now. She waged a brave battle against the ban on gay adoption in Florida, started the gay family cruises, dramatically traveled across the country to get married in San Francisco in 2004, and during her year as co-host of "The View," she talked about partner Kelli and their four children on the show all the time and I think opened some people's minds.

But as people are marching for equal rights in dozens of states this weekend, Rosie has come off as indifferent. At Friday night's Broadway opening of "Billy Elliot," Rosie spoke to "Extra" and was asked to react to the passing of Proposition 8: "I was married four years and I was annulled three years ago, so for me this fight is not new. Prop 8 is nothing new for me. This has been a long journey...and eventually the world will catch up."

Been there, done that I guess.

She's glad Sarah Palin was not elected veep but said: "I'd like to have a beer with her. I'd like to meet her kids. She seems like a pretty nice woman. Although I have to say, I am thrilled her party did not win. [But] you got to give it to her for spunk."

What has happened to our Rosie?

Yeah, I took Rosie O'Donnell to task in recent weeks for not speaking out more against Prop. 8. But ya know, even in my funk today over the passage of this anti-gay marriage measure by California voters, I still love Rosie.
On her Rosie.com blog today, she wrote of spending election day on the movie set with her co-star Ruby Dee, a remarkable woman who I am so glad was still alive to see Barack Obama elected president of the United States. Ruby Dee and her late husband Ossie Davis were active in the civil rights movement and personal friends of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.

Here is what Rosie wrote:

ruby dee
civil right activist - leader inspiration
what a privilege to spend this election day
in her presence

we spoke of martin and malcolm
their words and spirits felt this november day
as the nation once again rides together toward the truth
amen amen

she walked onto the set
opened her heart
like watching picasso paint
baryshnikov fly

the crew applauded after each take
amazed - captivated
as she wiped the tears
from her ethereal brown face

such grace
such beauty
such a gift
for us all

peace be with u