Rosie Plays Nice, Mostly, on 'View' Rift

'Nothing But Respect' for Walters; Slams 'Split Screen' Director

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(Nov. 24) - Rosie O'Donnell displayed a unique style of damage control during her visit to NBC's "Today" show on Monday, piling on ample praise for her old boss at "The View" -- whom she angered last week -- and later a dig at the director responsible for her most controversial moment on the talk show.
Officially there to plug her upcoming variety show, "Rosie Live," O'Donnell chatted with Meredith Vieira about the backlash from a recent LA Times story in which she revealed "there was not a lot of camaraderie" between the women of "The View," and faulted Barbara Walters for trying to convince viewers otherwise.
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Daytime View' Drama

10. Flat Earth Society: When she joined the show, Sherri Shepherd told her co-hosts she wasn't a political junkie and promised to get up to speed on current events for their daily hot topics discussions. But who could've guessed that Shepherd was so, um, geographically challenged? A debate on evolution led to the declaration that she didn't know if the world was flat or round.

Mark J. Terrill, AP

9. Rosie Rips Ripa, Ripa Rips Rosie: When Rosie O'Donnell accused Kelly Ripa of being homophobic after Ripa dissed Clay Aiken for covering her mouth with his hand, O'Donnell not only offended Ripa, but also implied something about Aiken's sexuality that he has never publicly confirmed. Ripa got her revenge, though, calling into 'The View' and labeling O'Donnell's accusation "outrageous."

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8. Babs Makes a Boob of Herself: On a May 2005 show,Barbara Walters dissed a woman who, while on the same airplane as Babs, had publicly nursed her baby. The comment set off a wave of backlash and "lactivism" -- 200 women showed up outside ABC studios in New York and very publicly breastfed their infants (good thing Walters hadn't dissed the woman for changing a dirty diaper.)

Evan Agostini, AP

7. The 'I Do' Adieu? Before Star Jones' ill-fated 2004 nuptials, she offended media watchers, her co-stars and good taste by soliciting wedding freebies that she then mentioned on air. The tacky habit reportedly led to her 'View' downfall, but not till after she'd wrangled free invites, tuxedos, bridesmaid dresses and other goodies. She now blames the failure of her marriage on "letting the media in" to her relationship.

Yolanda Perez, ABC

6. Whoopi's in the Doghouse: Controversy didn't leave the building with O'Donnell's departure. On Whoopi Goldberg's first day as moderator, she made comments that many pet lovers took to mean she was defending NFL-er Michael Vick for dogfighting. She clarified that she only meant to put his actions into context, and ended up offending Southerners in the process. Outraged 'View'ers, meet Whoopi.

Steve Fenn, AP

5. Whoopi Hassles the Hasselbeck: A discussion on a proposed Hillary Clinton "baby bond" turned into a tense discussion of abortion between Elisabeth and Goldberg during an Oct. 2007 Hot Topics segment, with Goldberg telling Hasselbeck to "back off" and show reverence for women who had found themselves in the position of considering an abortion.

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4. Elisabeth Can Hassle Back: You have to hand it to Elisabeth -- love her or hate her, she gives as good as she gets. Like during a heated discussion with Sandra Bernhard, who'd quipped that Laura Bush was "heavily medicated." Elisabeth, clearly ticked off, told Bernhard to stop calling her "honey"; the tension led Joy Behar to walk off the set temporarily ... and 'View' fans to turn up the volume.

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3. Star's War: Star Jones made a surprise announcement on the June 27, 2006, episode: She was leaving. Also a surprise to Babs and her co-stars: An interview Jones gave right before the show, in which she said she'd actually been fired. That kicked off a war of words that played out in the media, and the June 27 show was Jones' last.

ABC

2. The Donald Vs. O'Donnell: There was no winner in the insult war between O'Donnell and Donald Trump, especially not viewers, who were treated to an ongoing brouhaha that only served to show how many ways Rosie could mock Trump's wealth and comb over, and how many synonyms for the words "fat" and "loser" he could mine from his thesaurus.

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1. A Bad Split: As if this meltdown of all meltdowns wasn't contentious enough, with calling Hasselbeck a "coward" and Elisabeth replying that Rosie was responsible for defending herself, the final straw that allegedly galled O'Donnell so much that she decided she couldn't continue on the show was the director's decision to air the imbroglio on a split screen.

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She says her comments were blown out of proportion and, above all, regrets hurting Walters, who addressed disgruntled ex-employees during the Nov. 20 episode: "There are some people who have done the show and then for years feel they have to dump on it ... I resent it. If the shoe fits, lady, ladies, get on with your lives! We are not perfect. We are not always happy," Walters said on the air.
"The fact that I hurt her hurts me," O'Donnell told Vieira. "She is one of the women who paved the way for every other woman in broadcasting."
O'Donnell admitted her relationship with Walters has become very strained since leaving "The View" in May, and that the article only worsened it. She knew its use of the word "liar" would "hurt her." But on "Today," she had nothing but good things to say about her former colleague.
"You can't ever look at her life and career,and have anything but respect for her ... and I do love her. And that's the bottom line," adding "love is complicated." WATCH >>
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"I'm like the rowdy teenage daughter she can't control."
All love aside, an interview with Rosie wouldn't be complete without a few zingers. Vieira, also a "View" veteran, asked about the circumstances that led to her exit from the chat fest.
She said that following the "Donald Trump thing" -- the two had a verbal jousting match for weeks -- she knew she likely wasn't going to sign up for another year, but it was another key moment that sealed the deal: the split screen.
"The split screen day was tough for me," she said referring to an extremely heated argument she had with Elisabeth Hasselbeck when the show's director decided it would be best to show both panelists at the same time.
O'Donnell was upset at the time that her younger colleague failed to defend her against accusations that she was anti-American.
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Fight Faces on The View

Barbara Walters is either about to make a great point or she's vying for a spot on 'Dancing With the Stars.' Here, she gets heated discussing Heather Mills. "She was extremely difficult," said Walters.

Sherri Shepherd is totally going to eat your head. No, we're kidding, she's just laughing here. Shepherd became a permanent co-host on September 10, 2007 after numerous turns as a guest host on 'The View.'

Rosie and Elisabeth look irate in their now-famous May 23, 2007 fight. Rosie was upset that Elisabeth failed to defend her friend against accusations that Rosie is anti-American.

Rosie is going to go medieval on Elisabeth right about... NOW. This argument was the precursor to Rosie's departure from 'The View.' On May. 25, 2007, two days after the fight, Rosie asked to be released from her contract.

"Oh no you didn't, Joy Behar." Before the feud with Rosie began in earnest, Joy disagreed with Elisabeth's statement that Bush has a solid plan to pull troops out of Iraq.

Whoopi Goldberg and Elisabeth Hasselbeck have trouble seeing eye to eye.

Whoopi causes Elisabeth to cross her arms and glare. Elisabeth causes Whoopi to gesture wildly. Together, they cause us to lower the volume on our TVs.

Barbara Walters gestures so fast when she's on a roll, she's like an angry hummingbird. This year has been especially volatile on 'The View' as election talk causes tempers to flare. Sole conservative Elisabeth Hasselbeck is often at the center of controversy.

An argument breaks out over tax relief and McCain's alleged similarities to Bush. As the fight heats up, Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck take center stage.

But as she has said previously, the blame goes not to Hasselbeck, but the show's director, whom she blasted as someone who "takes a long time to get a single [shot] of anything."
"Rosie, there you go again," Vieira exclaimed. O'Donnell then noted that the split screen technique had not be been before the incident, or since. "Do you think that was not planned?"
Before veering the discussion towards her variety show, airing Wednesday night, O'Donnell said she doesn't regret her time on the show.
"It was never my goal to hurt anyone there, and i did the best I could for the nine months and when it was my time to go, I left."
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2008-11-24 08:54:18