Today marked the debut of Rosie O’Donnell’s new talk show, The Rosie Show, on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
Rosie’s first guest—aside from fellow lesbian Suze Orman, who popped up in the audience—was British gadabout Russell Brand, her professed crush.
Ugh, Rosie we didn’t buy this “crush” crap when it was Tom Cruise and we’re not buying it now. And at least Cruise was the most famous movie star in America at the time—and you were in the closet. God forbid you invite your real crush, The Good Wife‘s Lisa Edelstein. Don’t deny it, she makes us moist.
The new show seems to include elements of her original daytime series, The Rosie O’Donnell Show—fun games, audience questions, live singing and musical accompaniment—and not much of the combatant topical debates that marked her time on The View.
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O’Donnell says she won’t censor her life but that LGBT issues won’t be front and center on The Rosie Show, either. “It’s really inspiring to me… to see like Neil Patrick Harris win the Emmy Award and host the Oscars and the Tonys, and be so brilliant, and have a husband and a baby, and it’s not a big deal in a way that I could not have imagined when I began my career,” she says. “So will we have gay people on? Yes. Will we talk about things that include LGBT issues? Yes. Is it going to be a primary focus? No. It’s going to be just one part of who I am, and one part of the show.” It’ll certainly be part of her guest roster, which already includes Wanda Sykes and Priscilla Queen of the Desert.
We’re withholding judgment on The Rosie Show until the show’s found its groove a bit more. We want to see more of sloppy, funny, Broadway-lovin Ro and not too much of an Oprah Winfrey disciple holding hands and crying with audience members. Let’s hope the fact that she’s taping in Oprah’s old Harpo Studios set is just a coincidence.
Little Kiwi
uh…..dude…i’m the gayest thing alive and i still have a crush on Phoebe Cates AND Angela Bassett.
seriously. you can have a crush on someone of the opposite sex and still be The Full ‘Mo.
c’mon, let’s lighten up a wee bit. i’m excited to see more Rosie on TV. i fucking love her.
EdWoody
Getting on Rosie’s case for having a crush on a male is a bit rich when you say in the very next sentence that you have a crush on a female.
jeff4justice
@EdWoody: Well said.
stoopid louie
This woman is a fucking monster, as is evidenced in her claim to still have male crushes, her insistance that 9/11 was an inside job perpetrated by Americans, and her all-around disgusting appearance and personality.
You belong on Wall Street with all of your loser friends, Rosie.
mike128
I love Rosie. Think she’s a great talk show host and that she often speaks the truth when others in the media are too afraid to do so.
peter
Either you love Rosie, or you hate her, as evidenced by comments posted thus far. The View, 9/11, and references to Tom C aside, if last night’s opening salvo was the best that OWN could muster, Rosie and crew have an uphill battle ahead. The flow was choppy- perhaps because it was live? Changing formats within days of a launch was either brilliant or desperate- and having Suze and the big O appear, along with the horribly song and dance number certainly did not help. Ugh.
Franco
I love Rosie and wish people would be more kind to her, including the author of this piece. I think as soon as anyone has an opinion, they’re immediately attacked, and Rosie is proof of that. I believe she is honest and authentic, unlike a lot of people on television. If we could be less callous to one another and more open-minded about people whom we don’t even know (ie: celebrities) I think that would be refreshing. I’m in Argentina so I couldn’t watch the first episode but hope to catch it online somewhere. Go Rosie.
xander
I hope Rosie makes it a go…she’s a smart and funny personl, no doubt. W hen she ‘s on top of her game she’s a fierce interviewer and conversationalist.
Her lack of ‘anger management’ skills has tripped her up in the past, but she’s seeming more grounded these days. (I think, yo)
p.s. I share the crush on Lisa Edelstein. No use even trying to explain THAT!