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Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Ring Around the (Departing) Rosie
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rosie, we hardly knew ye.
Uh, right! What DIDN’T we know and learn about Rosie O’Donnell in the eight months (good grief, has it really only been that long?) since she took over (literally, some say) as co-host of “The View”:
She doesn’t like Donald Trump. She likes to do arts and crafts. She has verrrrry strong feelings about the President of the United States and the Iraq War. And she loves not backing down from a fight.
Or does she? Now here’s something else we just learned: She’s quitting.
O’Donnell will leave “The View” at the end of her contract, sometime in mid-June, ABCNEWS.com just confirmed. They oughta know. “The View” airs on ABC stations and the show was invented by ABC News legend Barbara Walters, long the best known member of the chattering team around the table most mornings.
In fact, though, O’Donnell’s outsized personality and statements had overshadowed Walters almost from the moment the onetime standup comedienne took over for Meredith Vieira last September. Only a few months after an unflattering dustup involving Walters’ role in the leavetaking of Star Jones Reynolds, Walters found herself back in a harsh spotlight as she tried to referee the war of words between O’Donnell and Trump.
But Walters says the parting is completely amicable. In a statement just released Walters said “The View” couldn’t come to terms with O’Donnell on extending her contract, adding, “I induced Rosie to come back to television on ‘The View’ even for just one years. She has given the program new vigor, new excitement and wonderful hours of television. I can only be grateful to her for this year. I am very sad that ABC Daytime could not recach an agreement with her for a second year.”
Said O’Donnell, who saw “The View’s” ratings skyrocket since she joined the table: “This has been an amazing experience, and one I wouldn’t have traded for the world. Working with Barbara, Joy and Elizabeth has been one of the highlights of my career, but my needs for the future just didn’t dovetail with what ABC was able to offer me.”
O’Donnell didn’t say what she’ll do next, but rumors have circulated about everything from her headlining another daytime talk show to replacing Bob Barker on “The Price Is Right.” Meanwhile, with “The View” still looking for someone to replace Reynolds, there was no word on who’ll take O’Donnell’s place at the table. Hmm, what about Trump? Nope, he’s the wrong gender. And compared to Rosie, he’s too shy.
Did Heather Get Yoko-ed?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Somewhere, Paul McCartney is smiling.
His soon-to-be ex missus, Heather Mills, got bounced from “Dancing with the Stars” Tuesday night — but not before she pulled a pre-written farewell speech from out of her cleavage and, among other things, suggested viewers give up eating meat on Mondays.
John Ratzenberger probably deserved to get the boot before her, but Mills didn’t seem all that upset. Let’s just say she seemed ready to go — her facial expression when one of the judges said something critical about her dancing Monday night didn’t suggest unhappiness so much as an “I’m kinda over this”-ness. Maybe viewers picked up on that and decided not to vote for the plucky woman with the prosthetic leg anymore.
Or could it be something else? Before the competition started, this blog was full of comments from impassioned Beatles fans/McCartney defenders, who seemed offended that Mills was a “Dancing” contestant. More than one invoked the name “Yoko” in suggesting they’d never vote for her. Maybe they finally made good on that threat this week, but I have to say, my opinion of Mills went way up after witnessing her seemingly genuine good humor week after week. So while we won’t have “Strawberry Fields Forever” with her, at least we’ll always have the memory of her doing a back walkover in the middle of a dance routine.
