Rosie Views End of Friendship with Elisabeth
In an announcement that surprises, well, pretty much no one, Rosie O'Donnell says she will probably never speak to Elisabeth Hasselback again and adds that she's "not sorry" to be checking out of The View early.
O'Donnell posted a 15-minute video entry on her blog Saturday night, saying she hasn't spoken to her former View cohort since their onair dustup last week and that she "probably won't."
O'Donnell also dished on her early exit from the show, saying that when she saw the split-screen chronicling their bitter 10-minute verbal brawl over the war in Iraq last Wednesday, "I knew that it was over."
"It made The View look like The Jerry Springer Show," O'Donnell said of the debate that resulted in her quitting the show three weeks before the end of her contract.
During their jawing match, O'Donnell called Hasselbeck "cowardly" for not sticking up for her to critics who said she compared U.S. troops to terrorists.
O'Donnell did say that she and Hasselbeck had exchanged emails following the fight. O'Donnell also said Hasselbeck called her at home and spoke to partner Kelli Carpenter "for a long time." Nonetheless, O'Donnell doesn't think the two will likely mend fences.
"I never tried harder to be friends with anyone than I did with Elisabeth but I don't think we ended up there anywhere close," Rosie said in the video.
O'Donnell also addressed reports that her longtime chief writer Janette Barber had drawn mustaches on posters of Hasselbeck on her way out of the studio Wednesday. O'Donnell said it was one quick drawing on one magazine cutout not a rash of anti-Hasselbeck grafitti—"It was a cute little joke on the way out," she explains.
As for rumors that she had trashed her own dressing room, O'Donnell said that was also bunk. "I've never trashed any room," she said. "Do you know how much effort it takes to trash things?"
O'Donnell also added that the thing she was sorry for was leaving without bidding the entire team adieu. "The sad thing is that you don't get to say goodbye to the staff," she said. "The producers there are fantastic."
The comments seemed to indicate that O'Donnell would not be back as a frequent guest cohost and producer of special themed segments on The View next season as previously announced.
O'Donnell also took time to answer reader email. In response to MACaroni's post that said, "Sorry UR leaving early!...Best of luck to you!" O'Donnell replied: "dont b sorry/ i am not."
She also said she didn't plan on making the publicity rounds to address her departure: "no interviews/ u watched it happen/ b 4 ur eyes."
Nevertheless, O'Donnell said that she was felt like she had been a perfect fit with The View crew. "I was like the foster kid there for a year," she explained. "I came and we considered adoption but I didn't really fit into the family and now it's time for the foster kid to come back home."
Meanwhile, in interviews following the fight, Hasselbeck said she harbors no ill-will towards O'Donnell, and ABC execs said that while they were disappointed by the early departure, they wish the controversial star the best.
"We had hoped that Rosie would be with us until the end of her contract three weeks from now, but Rosie has informed us that she would like an early leave," Brian Frons, the president of ABC's Daytime Television Group, said in a statement Friday. "Therefore, we part ways, thank her for her tremendous contribution to The View and wish her well."
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