backing out

Rosie O’Donnell Bailed on The Dinah’s Lesbians. Will She Ever Be Forgiven?

It’d be a farce to say Rosie O’Donnell has ever turned her back on the gay community. Girl has done so much, from showing how gay families are just like Us to challenging Elisabeth Hasselback’s ignorance on The View! But then she up and canceled on the lesbians gathering at this weekend’s biggest girl party The Dinah in Palm Springs. Rut-roh.

Rule No. 1 of lesbian celebrities: Do not piss off your lesbian fan base. While gay dudes are willing to forgive celeb missteps (see: Madonna‘s American Life), the ladies hold grudges! So Rosie might have some amends to make after backing out on what was supposed to be her grand return to stand-up tomorrow night.

Mary Buckheit (aka the adorable Mary Bside) reports:

Back in January, stand-up comedian & celesbian personality, Rosie O’Donnell announced that she would make her anticipated return to stand-up comedy on Friday, April 2, at the Palm Springs Convention Center as a part of The Dinah (Club Skirts presentation of Dinah Shore weekend 2010).

A few weeks later, O’Donnell canceled her appearance. According to the official press release from the Club Skirts promotions team, the show was canceled because of O’Donnell’s desire to “remain in Miami with her children over Spring break.”

Curious about how such a big commitment could fall through, I asked Mariah Hanson, producer of The Dinah, to explain. Hanson said in a phone interview, “I have never had a headliner do this to me before. I couldn’t believe it. I was in a state of shock. She really disappointed a lot of people. She just changed her mind on us.”

Rosie skipping The Dinah? This is the equivalent of Sarah McLachlan skipping Lilith Fair. But Rosie’s official excuse is that she wanted to spend time with her kids rather than a sea of dykes, which either represents how committed she is to her family, or her willingness to find any excuse to get out of her commitments.

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