She played out her options in movies culminating in a turn as Betty Rubble in the live-action version of The Flintstones. In 1996, O'Donnell used her fame to find her niche and hit her stride, tweaking the late-night talk show format by adding a little daytime flavor and airing her show five times/week in the afternoons. The then-closeted lesbian had an odd fascination with the widely rumored-to-be-gay Tom Cruise, as well as interviewed celebrities, talked about Broadway and handed out prizes to her studio audience. She continued to rest at the pinnacle of her popularity for six years. Then, she decided to officially come out, quit her show and sport a butch-dyke do, an homage to The Culture Club. Caroline Rhea took over hosting duties of her show but, considering the crown jewel was now missing, unsurprisingly plummeted in the ratings. A short while later, recognizing the vacancy in the lesbian daytime talk show slot, Ellen Degeneres capitalized on her recent career upswing and rode that shit to permanent fame. Morning show The View, on the other hand, used O'Donnell to breathe life back into the floundering media coffee klatch and helped introduced the popular segment "Hot Topics." Her hard liberal conspiracy theories and infamous split-screen battle with token conservative Elisabeth Hasselbeck skyrocketed the ratings and prompted her abrupt exit.
While The View has been sitting pretty ever since, thanks to O'Donnell, Rosie has struggled in her personal and professional life. The mother of four children (she lost her fifth child--a foster kid--due to Florida's anti-gay adoption laws), she split with her longtime partner Kelli Carpenter several years ago. When she's not sporting a bandanna atop an unmade-up face on the visually unforgiving YouTube, she's parting ways with Oprah Winfrey's struggling new cable channel. Celebitchy offers some really interesting thoughts on their breakup. Her controversial opinions have led her to be a constant target of conservatives, including entertainment personality and businessperson Donald Trump, often cheaply deriding her by using her overweight figure against her. (The lesson being that, girls, it's not okay to have unpopular opinions and express them, and, if you do, you risk others making a mockery out of your physical appearance. Boys get their own example with Michael Moore.)After her talk show, she also had a radio show, authored books and revamped McCall's magazine under her banner. She's known for her charity work, often child-specific and including LGBT-related causes. With a big mouth on her and constant need to speak, we haven't seen the last of Rosie. Whether it will be on network TV or the stand up circuit remains to be seen. She's an interesting case study for celebrity, as she wears her emotions and opinions on her sleeves, she has used her brand in a variety of endeavors over the years. Played out? Or about to be reinvented? If she ever made up with The Donald and did Celebrity Apprentice, I would have to say that would be pretty epic. Today, she turns the big 5-0.
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