One might come to that conclusion after noting the former “View” co-host’s timing in releasing excerpts from her new book. And beyond that, the controversial jabs she takes at her former boss Barbara Walters.
Oh where to begin…
Rosie O’Donnell recently penned a new book called “Celebrity Detox.” (It’s scheduled for publication next month.) In it the comedian speaks out about her tumultuous tenure of “The View” (including her bitter feud with real estate mogul Donald Trump) and her relationship with each of the ladies she sat next to at the “Hot Topics” table—namely show creator Walters.
Let’s just say the book’s barbed entries are not exactly what you would call… flattering.
At one point in the book 45-year-old O’Donnell addresses 77-year-old Walters by writing:
“Barbara Walters is almost twice my age. At some point it becomes necessary to step back. Everyone has to go. Going is part of the gig.”
But O’Donnell’s “honesty” doesn’t stop there. The book also contains this priceless bit:
“And I would be less-than-honest if I were to say that there is no trouble between Barbara and I,” O’Donnell writes. “I mean, our differences are obvious.”
Take for example an incident O’Donnell claims happened on a regular basis. The actress writes in her tell-all that people in “The View” audience would yell “I love you, Rosie,” during commercial breaks – “and Barbara politely tells them in a schoolteacher tone, ‘It is impolite to say I love you to one person when there are four us up here.’”
“There are many rules I don’t understand,” O’Donnell writes.
To add insult to injury O’Donnell’s remarks were splashed in every major newspaper in New York on the same day Walters and “The View” announced the long-delayed hiring of a new co-host, actress Sherri Shepherd.
Show producers called O’Donnell’s excerpts “a wet blanket” on what should have been a day of celebration.
Basically, O’Donnell called on Walters to hang it up on what was supposed to be a banner day on the show the TV journalist helped to create 11 years ago.
The veteran newswoman, who has long reported on the fine art of international diplomacy, employed some of her own by sidestepping the controversy. On Monday Walters told TV’s Extra: “Rosie sent me the book with a note telling me how much she loved me. I have read the book – and I would like to concentrate on the love that she sent.”
Translation: You will never see that ingrate on my show again.