Rosie O'Donnell Says Fired From "The View", Hosts Are Coached Through Earpieces

Rosie O'Donnell: Barbara Walters fired me from 'The View'

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/r_...fired_me_.html

Friday, October 5th 2007, 12:07 PM

Barbara Walters' ears must have been burning Wednesday night.

That's when Rosie O'Donnell mounted the stage at Roseanne Barr's invitation during her late-night set at Comix on W. 14th.

Rosie started off by saying, "When I was fired by Barbara Walters" - the first time she didn't stick to "The View's" spin that her departure from the show was by mutual agreement.

Rosie claimed onstage that Walters and other "View" couchmates wear earpieces through which producers tell them what to say, which she refused to do.

Rosie also confided that she and the veteran newswoman were actually so close early on in her tenure as moderator that Walters recommended Rosie use Astroglide, which, she added, took her by surprise.

"But she paved the way for women," Rosie allowed. "She interviewed Presidents ... "

"Like Abraham Lincoln," snapped Barr.

Rita Cosby was in the audience laughing, despite being served with a subpoena earlier at her own party at Pacha for her book "Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith's Death," which has hit the best-seller list. Howard K. Stern, Smith's former partner, has filed suit against Cosby in federal court.

Also at the party: Dominick Dunne, Robin Byrd and Anna Nicole's unpopular mother, Virgie Arthur. Arthur's lawyer John O'Quinn said Arthur was preparing to sue for custody of Dannielynn, Smith's baby by Larry Birkhead, who has custody. Arthur cried as she embraced Beth Twitty, the mother of high-school senior Natalee Holloway, who disappeared in Aruba in 2005.

Surveillance
It's nice to be Sarah Jessica Parker. When the "Sex and the City" star was filming outside the Riccardo Maggiore salon on E. 57th, Maggiore ran out with gift certificates for "any services" she and her co-stars want.

Miami's Atrium boutique closed its doors to allow Randy Jackson some peace as "American Idol" hopefuls waited outside for the beefy judge. Upon his exit, the wanna-bes sang their hearts out.

Angelina Jolie turned out for a Tribeca Grand screening that Scott Z. Burns hosted the other night for his directing debut, "PU-239." Based on a short story by Ken Kalfus, the HBO film stars Oscar Isaac as a Russian nuclear worker who tries to sell some plutonium in a desperate bid to help his family.

Terrence Howard may have to wait to break his vow of celibacy. Spywitnesses at Spotlight Live in Times Square Tuesday say the actor tried to turn up the heat with Gabrielle Union, but she wouldn't simmer. Maybe that's because she's already with the Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade, not to mention past liaisons with Derek Jeter and Howard's "Crash" co-star Ludacris. She rocked as Diddy took the stage at the industry's weekly karaoke confab in the high-tech club.

CBS eminences Mike Wallace, Walter Cronkite and Andy Rooney huddled at Park Avenue Autumn. Wonder if Dan Rather 's name came up.

Side Dish
Reports have been circulating over the last two days of Jessica Simpson drinking and dashing on her tab at The Box, but an insider close to the songstress told us, "She didn't skip out on the bill. Her pal signed the tab [for one bottle of Grey Goose] but mistakenly took the slip with the signature. We called the club and fixed everything." Simpson took some snaps of the simulated silhouette sex show that occurred onstage behind a scrim, while newly single Lance Armstrong kept his eyes on Jess.

"Saturday Night Live" head writer and anchor Seth Meyers must have needed a break from a late-night writing session with "Superbad" star Seth Rogen, this week's host. Meyers turned up at the Lucid Absinthe launch at the Back Room Wednesday and exclaimed, "I can't wait to crack open a bottle! It's been really stressful for two days!" Meyers and a pal drank the elixir (the first absinthe allowed in the U.S. since an early ban for causing hallucinations) right out of the fountain. Meyers did seem happy to see the topless green-painted fairies meandering about. Don't worry, others saw them, too.

The working girls at Nevada's Moonlite Bunny Ranch brothel are coming to the defense of Danny Bonaduce. You heard that police are questioning the former "Partridge Family" star after he sent "Survivor" loser Jonny Fairplay to the hospital at Tuesday's Fox Reality Awards in L.A. Sexy Brooke Taylor tells us it's no wonder that Fairplay, who started "monkey-humping" Bonaduce," landed on his face when Danny tossed him. "Jonny was drinking heavily backstage," says Taylor, who came to the awards with her HBO "Cathouse" boss, Dennis Hof. "He was trying to make out with me and [fellow Ranch-hand] Bunny Love. He tried to put his hand up my dress. He even tried to lick my toe. All the while, he was talking to me about his pregnant girlfriend. Classy."

Tyra Banks doesn't push her celebrity weight around. When a cashier at the Chelsea barbecue joint Hill Country offered to cut her to the front of the line, the super-nice supermodel politely refused and waited her turn.

Dan Rather was warmly received at Deborah Norville's book party at Michael's Tuesday night to launch her book "Thank You Power." Norville told the crowd, which included Mayor Bloomberg, Nicole Miller, John Roberts and Jay McInerney, that Rather was "incredibly kind" to her when CBS News hired her after her fall from grace at "Today" in 1991.

Cate Blanchett is no spoiler. During the Cinema Society and W mag screening of "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" at the Tribeca Grand, when a traitor fired a bullet at QE1, the screen went black. While moviegoers like Salman Rushdie, Michael Imperioli and Anna Wintour waited for the glitch to be fixed, someone shouted out, "Cate, what happens!?" The "queen" kept mum and the flick resumed.

You gotta have Faith... and David Letterman sure did Wednesday when Ms. Hill made a stop on his late-night chat show.

Mariah Carey was asked the tough questions in the new Glamour - like how many bathrooms are in her Tribeca penthouse. "I don't know!" she tells the mag, on stands Wednesday. "Do you want me to really try and think about it?" Fortunately, she did manage to stumble upon one powder room that's filled to the tippy-top tiles with her collection of pink Hello Kitty gewgaws, all sent by fans.

What's the buzz? Just ask a close-cropped Mena Suvari, who joined "Hills" hottie Brody Jenner at the Back Room's Lucid Absinthe launch party here in NYC.

Say cheese! Kanye West played paparazzo with fiancée Alexis Pfeiffer, Courtney Love and Mario Testino at the Givenchy fashion show in Paris.

Fashion plate Sienna Miller donned an Alexander McQueen dress and a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes at Wednesday's U.K. premiere of her new flick, "Stardust."

PLS SEE: http://www.rosie.com/blog/sections/ask-ro/

San writes:
`So, are the gossips lying or what? Fired?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
i asked for 10 million
they said no

it was a joke in a comedy club taken out of context
i was soing an impression of a woman at the mall
watching me yell at blake
saying “oh she is mean …i see y barbara fired her…”

creative editing people
the reason for no press interviews
context seems irrelevant
2 many

I hope she goes into detail more about this about what exactly she means.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/bu...hp&oref=slogin

November 5, 2007
Rosie O’Donnell in Talks to Join MSNBC

By JACQUES STEINBERG and BILL CARTER
Rosie O’Donnell, who abruptly left “The View” on ABC last spring after drawing attention and ratings for her opinions on everything from the Iraq war to her co-hosts, is in serious discussions to return to television atop a new soapbox: a prime-time show on the cable news channel MSNBC, according to executives on both sides of the negotiations who have been briefed directly.

Under one scenario, Ms. O’Donnell would be given the 9 p.m. slot each weeknight on MSNBC, where she would go head-to-head with two heavyweights of cable talk: “Larry King Live” on CNN and “Hannity & Colmes” on Fox News. Her show would replace “Live with Dan Abrams,” a relatively low-rated program that only recently replaced “Scarborough Country,” which was also little-watched.

But NBC executives, speaking on condition of anonymity because the conversations are continuing, cautioned that there were many elements of a potential deal yet to be resolved. These include when such a show would appear, what Ms. O’Donnell would be paid, and whether she would also be seen on the NBC broadcast network.

Ms. O’Donnell alluded somewhat cryptically to a possible new job in a speech she gave at a book-signing on Sunday night in Miami, according to a report that appeared on a website, lyingonthebeach.com. A podcast on that site described Ms. O’Donnell as saying that she would soon begin competing against “the guy with the suspenders and the long, long face,” an obvious reference to Mr. King.

NBC has been courting Ms. O’Donnell in recent months for any number of jobs, including host of a possible new game show.

About time MSNBC starts filling up there night time slot instead of showing prison documentaries and To Catch a Predator.

I'd watch that show.

Bout time you learned to spell predator... LOL ;)

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs...sense-on-msnbc

Nov 6 2007 11:59AM EST
Will Rosie Peddle 9/11 Nonsense on MSNBC?


http://www.portfolio.com/images/feed...nell-large.jpg

How desperate is MSNBC for another Keith Olbermann-sized hit? Desperate enough, apparently, to give over a big chunk of primetime to someone who honestly thinks the U.S. government was behind the 9/11 attacks. That would be Rosie O'Donnell.

I'm all for representing a diversity of views on TV, but there's opinionated and then there's ignorant. Like Creationists and Holocaust deniers, "Truthers," as 9/11 conspiracy types prefer to be known, are by definition people who can't be persuaded by evidence, such as Popular Mechanics's definitive guide to the physics of the Towers' collapse. And what's the point of holding a public debate if one party can't be persuaded?

I know one person who probably agrees with me on this: MSNBC's Joe Scarborough. Back in March, when O'Donnell first started regurgitating her Loose Change-derived nonsense on the air, Scarborough chided Barbara Walters for giving her a platform:

I am very discouraged that ABC and Barbara Walters would continue to allow Rosie O'Donnell to use their air time to continue spewing this type of hatred..... [T]he real tragedy here is that Barbara Walters, a woman who's been a real pioneer in journalism, the reason why so many people decided to become journalists is sitting there allowing this to happen on her show for ratings. It's, it is a sad, sad demise for a once great journalistic figure.

Ironically, the talks between O'Donnell and MSNBC now center on her taking over the 9 p.m. hour -- Scarborough's old slot. I've left him a few messages to see how he feels about that; no word back yet.

Will MSNBC allow O'Donnell to use her show as a venue for baseless, inflammatory and noxious theories that don't stand up to logic, much less evidence? Or will it try to muzzle her? And will other hosts on the network be allowed to critique the famously thin-skinned comedian on their own programs?

If this deal happens, I predict O'Donnell's tenure on MSNBC will be even shorter than her stint on The View.

I'd watch that.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21653199/

Rosie says she won’t host show on MSNBC

O'Donnell reports on blog would-be late-evening show at an end
MSNBC News Services
updated 9:37 p.m. ET, Wed., Nov. 7, 2007

NEW YORK - Rosie O’Donnell won't be coming to MSNBC after all, according to a post on her blog.

The acid-tongued talk-show host whose dispute with Elisabeth Hasselbeck hastened her departure from “The View” was reportedly in negotiations to host a prime-time talk show on MSNBC five days a week. However, she wrote on her blog Wednesday that “my career as a pundit is over b4 it began.”

“We were close to a deal,” O'Donnell said. “Almost done ... i let it slip in miami causing panic on the studio end.”

The cable news channel owned by NBC Universal would not officially comment on the report but a source close to MSNBC TV confirmed O'Donnell's report.

The reports that O'Donnell would return to TV, which first surfaced in The New York Times, suggested she would take over the 9 p.m. slot currently occupied by “Live with Dan Abrams.” That would put her show in competition with CNN’s “Larry King Live” and Fox News Channel’s “Hannity & Colmes.”

Fox News dominates prime-time ratings for cable news channels, averaging 1.5 million viewers this year, according to Nielsen data. MSNBC is third with 505,000, behind CNN’s 755,000.

O’Donnell hosted her own daytime talk show from 1996 to 2002. She also produced a Broadway musical and founded a short-lived namesake magazine before her tempestuous run on “The View.” Although she was there for less than a year before leaving in May, her boisterous, opinionated style was credited with boosting the show’s ratings.

Shortly before joining the multi-host show created by Barbara Walters, O’Donnell had blogged that “it will be hard 4 me 2 not b the boss.” Now she’s set to reclaim center stage as her own.