Rosie O'Donnell

Roseanne Teresa O'Donnell (born March 21, 1962) is an American comedian, actress, and talk show host.

She was born in Commack, New York (Long Island). Her brother, Daniel O'Donnell, is a member of the New York legislature.

Contents

1 Biography 2 TV Work 3 Filmography 4 Bibliography 5 External links

Biography

O'Donnell began her acting career doing stand-up comedy around the East Coast, and was soon cast as Maggie O'Brien on the sitcom Gimme a Break. Her heavy-set appearance and tomboyish, husky New York accent stood her apart from other actresses and comediennes. She hosted the VH1 stand-up comedy series Stand-Up Spotlight in the late 1980s, and eventually was cast as the lead in her own sitcom in 1992, called Stand by Your Man. It was quickly cancelled from lack of viewers.

In the early 1990s O'Donnell starred in a string of comedy films including A League of Their Own, Another Stakeout and Sleepless in Seattle. She was highly acclaimed for her performances, but quickly lost that popularity by appearing in a string of flops in the mid 1990s such as Car 54, Where Are You? and Exit to Eden.

Her popularity then rose again as she took roles in less commercially successful but highly acclaimed films like Now and Then, Beautiful Girls and the family movie Harriet the Spy. In 1996 she was given her own daytime talk show, called, appropriately enough, The Rosie O'Donnell Show. The show proved extremely successful as O'Donnell was dubbed "The Queen of Nice." Having all manner of entertainment performers on her show, she also brought on various charitable projects, earning millions of dollars for various charities.

Children's charities were a clear favorite of O'Donnell, and she began to adopt children to raise, eventually adopting four. During the late 1990s she limited her movie appearances to cameos, although she appeared in several gay-themed films. This led to tabloid speculation that O'Donnell was actually a lesbian.

In the year 2000 O'Donnell partnered with the publishers of McCall's to revamp the magazine as Rosie's McCall's (or, more commonly, Rosie). Rather than cover the magazine with thin models and fill it with stories about how to be more beautiful, she opted for stories about depression, breast cancer and foster care. In this, she continued her tradition of standing up for what she believed in.

In 2002 O'Donnell decided to stop working on her talk show, favoring a return to stand-up comedy. Her show, which was to still be called The Rosie O'Donnell Show, was to be hosted by comedienne Caroline Rhea (It only lasted a few more episodes). Just before quitting, O'Donnell proved rumors to be true when she came out of the closet as a lesbian (In fact, within the gay community this was common knowledge and the tabloids had been hinting at it). She had various reasons for doing so, including the need to put a familiar and beloved face with homosexuality, but her primary reason was more important. As a lesbian adoptive mother (with a long-time lover) she was infuriated that adoption agencies, particularly in Florida, were refusing adoptive rights to able and loving gay parents. She hoped to educate viewers around the world on this subject.

After leaving her show and coming out, O'Donnell underwent an image change. She returned to stand-up comedy, and within her first few shows made fun of various celebrities (among them Michael Jackson, Liza Minnelli, Diana Ross, Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, Winona Ryder, and Joan Rivers). She also received what was considered by many to be an unflattering, somewhat masculine haircut (remniscent of Cyndi Lauper's hair in the 1980s.) The tabloid press again picked up on her life, claming that she had abandoned the "queen of nice" image. O'Donnell pointed out that her stand-up routine had always been very political and abrasive, and that her haircut was a personal choice. She eventually claimed that she had cut her hair in imitation of Boy George, in hopes that he would allow her to produce his stage show Taboo in the United States. If that was the true motive, it successful (though the show did not, with a failed run on Broadway.)

In 2002 O'Donnell also published a novel entitled Find Me. The book was partially autobiographical but mostly centered around O'Donnell's relationship with a schizophrenic woman who posed as a teen who had become pregnant through rape. The book was uniformly praised by critics but did not achieve high sales.

In late 2003 O'Donnell entered into a massive legal battle with the publishers of Rosie magazine. They claim that the fall of the magazine (and its eventual shutdown) was due to O'Donnell's uncooperative (and allegedly rude and violent) behavior at the magazine's offices. They claim that by removing herself from the magazine's publication she was in breach of contract. O'Donnell claims that there was no way she could conscionably continue to be a part of the magazine because they were steering away from her vision and demanding that content be printed that she did not agree with.

The trial received massive press coverage. O'Donnell would often give brief press interviews outside of the courtroom responding to various allegations. Of note was a former magazine colleague who testified that O'Donnell said to her on the phone that "people who lie die of cancer."

On February 26, 2004, O'Donnell married her partner Kelli Carpenter in San Francisco, some two weeks after that city began granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Her decision to marry Carpenter came after O'Donnell blasted President Bush over his support for the Federal Marriage Amendment.

In 2005, while promoting her TV movie Riding the Bus with My Sister, O'Donnell claimed that Kirstie Alley was much heavier than her "210 lbs." (95 kg) and that she "wasn't being honest about her weight".

She and her partner Kelli are currently operating R. Family Vacations, a travel company focused toward gay and lesbian families. They have already launched a cruise ship that took homosexual families from New York to the Bahamas.

O'Donnell continues to entertain and remains a popular pop culture icon, and an important celebrity representative of the gay and lesbian community.

Since December, 2004 O'Donnell has maintained a weblog at onceadored.blogspot.com with the title "formerlyrosie".

TV Work

• Gimme a Break! (cast member from 1986-1987)
• Stand-Up Spotlight (1988-1991)
• Stand by Your Man (1992) (canceled after 2 months)
• The Rosie O'Donnell Show (1996-2002) (also producer and executive producer)
• The Twilight of the Golds (1997)
• Jackie's Back! (1999) (Cameo)
• Riding the Bus with My Sister (2005) (also executive producer)

Filmography

• A League of Their Own (1992)
• Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
• Another Stakeout (1993)
• Fatal Instinct (1993)
• Car 54, Where Are You? (1994)
• I'll Do Anything (1994)
• The Flintstones (1994)
• Exit to Eden (1994)
• Now and Then (1995)
• Beautiful Girls (1995)
• Harriet the Spy (1996)
• A Very Brady Sequel (1996) (Cameo)
• Wide Awake (1998)
• Get Bruce (1999) (documentary)
• Tarzan (1999) (voice)
• The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000) (voice only)
• Artists and Orphans: A True Drama (2001) (short subject) (narrator)
• Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) (Cameo)
• Last Party 2000 (2001) (documentary)
• Show Business (2005) (documentary)
• Untitled Rosie O'Donnell Documentary (2005) (documentary) (also executive producer) (currently filming)

Bibliography

• Find Me (2002)

External links

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• Article on O'Donnell's marriage in San Francisco (http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/02/26/SAMESEX27.TMP)
• Jump The Shark com - The Rosie O'Donnell Show  (http://www.jumptheshark.com/r/rosie.htm)
• Her blog (http://onceadored.blogspot.com/)