Rosie O’Donnell‘s friends aren’t content watching the View co-host chew out Elisabeth Hasselbeck on camera. They’re taking the increasingly furious – and childish – fight back stage. Page Six reports:
Yesterday, Rosie’s chief writer, Janette Barber, was allegedly escorted from the building after she was caught drawing moustaches on photographs of Hasselbeck that hang in the “View” studios.
The Post’s Adam Buckman reports ABC confirmed in a statement only that “photographs at ‘The View’s’ offices were defaced.
C’mon, girls! That’s silly. Just because O’Donnell has a moustache, doesn’t mean everyone has to have one.
Meanwhile, the Post’s gossip column also reports that Rosie may not be returning to The View to complete her contract:
When one fan wrote [to Rosie], “Work isn’t worth that battle,” Rosie replied, “Agreed.” Another wrote, “Please walk away. It’s not worth it.” Rosie replied, “Well, you know when it’s time to go.”
To a fan who asked when she would return, O’Donnell answered, “No idea.”
O’Donnell’s contract officially ends on June 20th. That is, of course, if she doesn’t bring the entire set down around her.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Billy
Okay you guys are being really stupid with this Rosie stuff. Number 1 she is a gay person that is fighting for the rights of gays and americans that are being lied to by George Bush and others!
All gays should be supporting Rosie – if our right to live was up to EH she would have us all hanging in our local downtown bars!
Daniel
Totally agree Billy. Our community has so few figures that are willing to speak up against the infringements on our civil rights. Rosie has done just that and so much more since coming out. Not everyone may agree with her politics, or her delivery, but at least she is brave enough to put it out there!
cjc
Rosie’s words and rhetoric are like a Molotov cocktail in the war of ideas. She in your face. She’s incendiary. And that’s why though she gets a little shrill sometimes, I respect her.
dan
thats funny… thats pretty much the same thing the far right says about bush…unquestioning support is always a big fat stupid idea…think for yourselves…sometimes she’s right, sometimes she’s wrong, supporting her when she’s wrong is pretty lame when you think about it
Dawster
I’m so tired of this subject…. but here we go:
I completely disagree with Billy and Daniel (and i can disagree with you without attacking you, if you will allow me). You do not win arguments by being a bully, or else the Christian Right would have won the argument against homosexuality years ago.
Rosie’s fault is that she presents her opinions as facts, and then jumps to the conclusion that anyone who thinks differently is a not worth anything in life, and that’s just not true. If you agree with Rosie, she’s a saint. But to win the argument (any argument), you have to talk to people who DON’T agree with you…
There is also something to be said about presentation. It is uncivilized and disrespectful to constantly be attacking Elizabeth H, making her the lightening rod for all displaced anger toward republicans and George Bush. That is wrong… morally speaking, that is WRONG, it lacks decorum, and Rosie has been doing that every chace she gets which is just desrespectful. her JOB is to discuss different views… not pummel people into submission or use them as a scapegoat for all things evil. I can’t stand to listen to Elizabeth… I think she’s usually wrong, but she DOES represent a lot of people out there, and her opinion should be listen to, and respected (however stupid it may be).
Rosie should have done the sane (and respectful) thing and came out with a simple statement of “some my words were twisted and misconstrued, I hate it when that happens, it was completely taken to a level I was not intending and I wanted to say the record straight by saying ‘shame on you, if you took my words and twisted it.’ And I apologize for not being explicitly clear about how much I support the troops.â€
Then she needed to shut up.
But she didn’t… she started attacking Elizabeth for being part of the “groupâ€, and then for not answering fast enough… a pregnant girl who has to digest what Rosie is going off about, then has to understand Rosie’s absurd question, and then come up with an answer that can be understood in front of the camera TOOK A BRIEF SECOND… and Rosie jumps all over her calling her a coward.
I’m sorry guys, but that was not cool. Rosie not only looked like a psychotic mousetrap, she was disrespectful to her fellow hosts and to the studio audience. She is not the voice of me, I will never support bullying, and I found her an embarrassment to the LGBT community.
BUT THAT IS MY OPINION… (thanks for letting me get that out – i’ll shut up now!)
Robert
I like when you guys dump on other people but the Roise bashing is too easy and I like her, I really really like her.
Gregoire
She’s a bull in a china shop. Her brash, obnoxious style is not the way you change minds or conduct yourself professionally. She is an outright loon.
jeanmarie
I support gay rights and adoption and all that , but i don’t support rosie’s rants.
She just isn’t educated on all the aspects of this war situation or the ways of the middle east. The things she says aren’t supporting the troops, they are hurtful.
She is a bull, and I think she needs to find a new therapist to learn to not try to deflect attention from her own verbal errors by attacking someone else.
I think the gay community deserves better.
jeanmarie
I meant bully, obviously.
john
Rosie for President! Lay off her, she’s the ONLY person on TV telling it like it really is.
tim
Dated: 2007-05-23
Did Rosie Call Our Troops Terrorists?
The is directly from the transcripts of The View for May 17th:
O’DONNELL: …… I just want to say something. 655,000 Iraqi civilians are dead. Who are the terrorists?
HASSELBECK: Who are the terrorists?
O’DONNELL: 655,000 Iraqis — I’m saying you have to look, we invaded –
HASSELBECK: Wait, who are you calling terrorists now? Americans?
O’DONNELL: I’m saying if you were in Iraq, and the other country, the United States, the richest in the world, invaded your country and killed 655,000 of your citizens, what would you call us?
HASSELBECK: Are we killing their citizens or are their people also killing their citizens?
O’DONNELL: We’re invading a sovereign nation, occupying a country against the U.N.
I just watched Chris Matthews and his panel of journalists including Howard Feinman, Jill Zuckman, and Jonathan Capehart. Matthews asked the panel after replaying that segment of the show if she in fact said that our troops were the terrorists. They unanimously agreed with Matthews that she did call our troops terrorists. That conforms with the majority of journalists who have reported on this comment.
Rosie does not mention the troops at all in that segment of the show. She poses a rhetorical question. “Who are the terrorists?†“I’m saying if you were in Iraq, and the other country, the United States, the richest in the world, invaded your country and killed 655,000 of your citizens, what would you call us?â€In both of her rhetorical questions she refers to the “United States†and “us.†The policy of the United States or “our†policy in Iraq is not the responsibility of the soldiers who are ordered to execute the policy. It is obvious that state supported terrorism can only be implemented by those who have the responsibility of doing the fighting and dying. But, it is not the soldiers who are the terrorists in that hypothetical. And she was not calling the soldiers terrorists.
It is absolutely absurd that these journalists agreed with the interpretation that Matthews and the majority of the MSM had concluded.These journalists who are supposed to be experts on language and communication certainly know that she meant that the U.S. policy was the villain here and not the soldiers. Yet they persist in accusing the accusers who do not fit into their elite club. People like Rosie and others who have been branded as eccentric and outside the main stream are always fair game. They do it with many others who speak truth to power by carefully portraying sound bites out of context. They have done that to Noam Chomsky and Gore Vidal for years.
The truth is that it was the elite reporters like the Hardball panel aforementioned who aided and abetted the rush to war in Iraq and fostered the terrorist policy that has resulted in this catastrophe. So it is not Rosie who is the villain. It is journalists like these who have to rationalize their lack of courage and appropriate skepticism of a “policy†that has resulted in the deaths of thousands of our soldiers and hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis.
Ken
Interesting Freudian slip, jeanmarie.
I agree that Rosie is a hot-head, but she’s also right more often than not. I think Hasselbeck is the one who’s uneducated on the war(s) in the middle east, and America’s responsibility for world events. I direct her (and you) to Chalmers Johnsons’s prescient BLOWBACK for some interesting information on the subject.
dave
I like Rosie. I think she is a passionate person who uses her visibility on TV to get her views across. That being said, I feel she should really watch what she says. I do not mean that she needs to censor herself. But she knows that the “Red Staters” will pounce on any opportunity to use what she says to make her look unpatriotic or to look like a fool. I feel that she sometimes lets her passion for the causes she cares about get the best of her.
I feel Roise is VERY patriotic. Inciting debate amongst people is what our country was built upon. But as we saw the other day, it can also backfire against you. I wholeheartedly agreed with Rosie when she said that it is easy for people to take her loud, (sometimes) brash comments and cherry-pick her quotes and use them against her. She is no saint, and neither are any of us. She says what she believes, and I admire her for that. I also admire Elizabeth for being passionate in her beliefs. I find it amazing that these four women on “The View” are able to ignite the response they have generated.
Both Rosie and Elizabeth are entitled to their personal beliefs. It is clearly obvious that they both feel they are correct. Roise should not bow out before the end of her contract, she should continue doing what she has been: speaking her mind and sharing her beliefs with others. She makes people question their own thoughts. Even if you do not agree with what she is saying, she makes people evaluate their beliefs. There are too many talking-heads and pundits out there who merely pour the Kool-Aid for their followers to drink without question. I am a proud liberal, and there are times where my views differ from Rosies. There are times when my views differ from Elizabeth’s. But at least I am able to listen to what they are saying and compare their thoughts to my own thinking process.
At the end of the day, I think many people (and especially the network brass at ABC) are going to miss Rosie when she leaves. But people (including me, and I think I can safely assume Roise) are too quick to judge people whose opinions stray from their own. We see these people as threats to us, or we feel that it is obsurd that someone does not share our own views. America is a great country, we are entitled to our own thoughts and beliefs even if they are not widely popular or discussed.
BillysView
Whoever wrote this piece must not ever watch the view. It’s easy to see that Rosie was trying to keep it cool when Elisabitch starting acting up. I wish people would really listen to what Rosie says instead of going by heresay. If you did you’d notice that she’s just speaks the truth, or at least her view of the truth.
That bringing down the set with her comment was cute, but too flip for my queer ass. We should support our girl Rosie!
Ben
People sure have a lot to say about one Rosie O’Donnell.
dan
from the awesomeness that is what would tyler durden do:
Moments ago, ABC announced that Rosie O’Donnell will not return to “The View” despite the fact that she is under contract until June 20. ABC issued the following statement:
“We had hoped that Rosie would be with us until the end of her contract three weeks from now, but Rosie has informed us that she would like an early leave. Therefore, we part ways, thank her for her tremendous contribution to ‘The View’ and wish her well.”
Barbara Walters said:
“I brought Rosie to the show. Rosie contributed to one of our most exciting and successful years at “The View.” I am most appreciative. Our close and affectionate relationship will not change.”
Rosie said:
“I think the chicken nuggets from Wendy’s are the best. Those nooks and crannies really hold the butter.”
Lani
I respect the hell out of Rosie and I wish her well; she fights like the warrior that I want on MY side when the chips are down. Elizabeth is pathetic, imo, and she’s got the ENERGY to propagate her death-dealing ideas. Rosie will prevail and I will watch her in whatever venue she chooses. Love you Rosie!!!!