I’ve never not liked Rosie O’Donnell, though I will confess there were times my relationship with her was more positive than others. When I first saw her bray her way through several wins on the OG STAR SEARCH I found her Long Island-tinged shtick relatable and pointed. I enjoyed her as comedic relief amidst more attractive and yes, feminine co-stars in 90s films ranging from the memorable A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN to the frustratingly misfired EXIT TO EDEN, where she set back the world of dominatrix outfits by a decade or two.
And I especially appreciated how she rescued a TV talk show world mired in a morass of increasingly confrontational and angry personalities that thanks to the pivoting of FOX, UPN and WB affiliates in more adult directions had multiplied the number of darker yet ratings successful shows exponentially with a refreshingly light and positive alternative that bounced onto stations three decades ago and was one of those rare launches that made immediate ratings gains and quickly labeled her as “The Qneen Of Nice”. Finally, a legitimate companion rather than competitor to Oprah that audiences actually liked.
We actually crossed paths at premiere parties for NIP/TUCK when she was guest cast by fanboi showrunner Ryan Murphy to allow FX to attempt to tap into an incremental audience sector the balance of the network otherwise would never have reached. She was surprisingly approachable and once I mentioned I enjoyed her game show appearances she confessed to being as huge of a fan of PYRAMID as I was. When she was one of the go-to castings during the first seasons of Michael Strahan reboot I worked on I championed her presence as both a name and a damn good game player that both casual fans and genre geeks adored. Her episodes regularly emerged as worthy of kicking off new seasons and jump-starting ratings.
But I’ll qualify that I’m far less a fan of the version that emerged as a perpetually incendeiary voice on THE VIEW and I’m grown exhausted at the degree of hatred she has unashamedly thrown back in the face of her nemesis in the White House. Mind you, I find his insults and his own obsession with her to be both childish and boorish and obvs wholly undeserved. Being so vocal about her decision to relocate to Ireland in the wake of his renaissance is to me just as petty and opportunisitc. G-d bless her if she thinks it’s a better environment to raise her younger and special needs child in but honestly, we don’t need a firehose of justification about it.
All that aside, I was quite happy to see her return to our shores last night for the first of four guest host outings on JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!, a gig that Kimmel tautingly tossed out when he rattled off his summer fill-ins when he began his usual summer vacation in June. The usual suspects like Anthony Anderson and Tiffany Haddish came and went with tepid results and predictable humor, and even those weeks were rerun. In fact,, late night has been even more of a desert this month than ever, as DEADLINE’s Peter White observed yesterday:
Jimmy Fallon has spent most of the summer as the sole torchbearer for late-night on broadcast television…He has, essentially, held down the fort of late-night all by himself…Kimmel has been on his annual summer holiday and Seth Meyers has been largely off since the middle of June and will return at the end of September. Stephen Colbert, of course, is off writing a Lord of the Rings movie after being unceremoniously axed by CBS…Late-night hosts taking time off during the doldrums of summer is not a concern, in itself, but this year’s broadcast line-up feels like a harbinger. Many believe that the storied Tonight Show will be the last late-night franchise on air – Fallon is currently signed up to host through 2028, much like Meyers – but the cancelation of The Late Show, CBS deciding to move away from late-night altogether and the likelihood of Kimmel leaving sooner rather than later makes it feel like a sign of things to come.
For an insominiac like myself who is also a fan of topical humor, it’s been an especially large void. I’ve spent more time rewatching Sportscenter and seeking out newly dropped streaming content than usual, which I guess has been good for these musings but not for my sleep cycle. I tend to awaken from what amount to extended prime time naps around 11:30 or so and depending upon how my migraines are acting up and my resulting energy that usually determines if these musings hit your inboxes before or after East Coast sunrise. You’ll note this one is coming in at the cock crows, and you can thank Rosie for that.
O’Donnell couldn’t help but take a poke or two at Fat Orange Jesus, but relative to the expectations and, frankly, the choices that an awful lot of media outlets have made by focusing on her trolling and political stands I for one was much more engaged with the stories she told about her new life in Ireland and the friendliness the natives have shown to her and her son Clay. Her stories about Angela the crossing guard and Joan the pharmacist (sadly for Rosie, happily married and decidedly straight) told with an on-point brogue were reminiscent of the monologues she used to grace her audiences with. And as HELLO’s Faye James observed this morning, she is anything but the “fat pig” she has been:
O’Donnell looked radiant as she returned to the late-night circuit this week, showing off the results of her recent health transformation and facelift. The 64-year-old comedian… look(ed) glamorous in a pale pink tailored suit decorated with colorful floral embroidery. Wearing a coordinating blush pink shirt underneath, Rosie styled her silver hair in soft, face-framing waves and opted for glowing makeup, defined eyes and a soft pink lip…The TV appearance comes at a transformative time for Rosie, who recently spoke candidly about losing around 60 lbs after being prescribed Mounjaro following her type 2 diabetes diagnosis three years ago.
And I was quite intrigued to learn via VARIETY’s Marlow Stern yesterday that in spite of their current solidarity O’Donnell and Kimmel weren’t always buds:
O’Donnell tells Variety that the offer “came out of the blue,” since not only have they never spoken in person, but they had what she describes as an “adversarial relationship.” “We’ve never spoken on the phone; we’ve texted a few times. Howard Stern tried to make amends with us, so we’ve been at the same parties a few times and I would talk to his wife. But Jimmy was never a fan of mine, and it was kind of an adversarial relationship — not that I was fighting back, but I was like, ‘OK, one of the bro guys…,'” O’Donnell recalls.
But that all changed when O’Donnell reached out to Kimmel following the death of his beloved Uncle Frank Potenza, a former NYPD officer who’d made a number of memorable comedy-sketch appearances on his nephew’s late-night show. “When everything happened with his uncle dying, I wrote him and he wrote back. So, when my publicist called and said, ‘Do you want to guest-host ‘Kimmel’ for a week?’ I said, ‘I haven’t ever even been a guest!’ And then I said, ‘If you’re positive that that’s an actual offer and he wants me to do it, then I most certainly will,'” says O’Donnell, adding, “I was surprised, to tell you the truth, and very thankful.”
There was also this clearly edited-in homage that ROLLING STONE’s Emily Zemler pointed out in her own post-morted from this morning:
Later during the show, O’Donnell paid tribute to Hayden Panettiere, who died over the weekend. She recalled how the actress had appeared on The Rosie O’Donnell Show multiple times. “I’m just heartbroken over the passing of Hayden Panettiere last night,” O’Donnell said. “She was on my show many times as a little girl, and I got to know her as a grown woman. And she was so brave talking about mental health before people were really ready to hear about it, and very sad. My love to her family and friends, and she will be missed. Godspeed, Hayden.
It was timely, genuine and indeed…nice. Just like the Rosie I used to know and love.
Still, in the wake of her digs at her nemesis and his odiously misoygnistic rambling at the expense of a new CNN reporter-cum-cockblocker (Kristin Holmes) that happened during his daily Tourette’s episodes that we’ve now come to know as Oval Office press conferences there’s certainly the potential that the war of words between them will escalate before the week is over. Based on the way the Paniettiere tribute was grafted onto the production it’s entirely possible these episodes were indeed pre-taped (if I had better connections or a less pounding migraine, I’d probably find a way to confirm that or not; if you’re in better shape than moi on those fronts pretty please chime in). She’s also not been shy about sharing her feelings about him and the cesspool of a country she believes he’s fostered in many interviews that accompanied last week’s kickoff show–including other portions of the ones we’ve sourced above. I’ll concede I’m fearing the worst.
That said, one way or the other I’ll be watching–hopefully in the manner that the majority of Kimmel’s audience dpes these days. On my device via YouTube or Hulu the following morning. Try to tone down the rhetoric once more, Rosie Posie. My head and heart will be ever grateful.
Until next time…