NEWSWEEK INTERVIEW: Rosie O'Donnell

NEWSWEEK INTERVIEW: Rosie O'Donnell

On Tom Cruise: 'I Saw Him Doing the Couch Jumping ... I Wasn't Mad at Him. I Was Mad at Oprah. Oprah, Couldn't You Have Said, Tommy Come Here! Don't Jump'

Says She's Not Responsible for Star Jones' Departure From 'The View': 'I Would Love to Think I Had the Kind of Power to Say 'Fire Her' ... But What Would My Motive Be for Ruining Her Life?'

NEW YORK, Sept. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Rosie O'Donnell may be the only person in America who blames Oprah Winfrey for Tom Cruise's troubles, reports Senior Writer Marc Peyser in the September 11 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, September 4). "I saw him doing the couch jumping," says O'Donnell in this week's issue. "I wasn't mad at him. I was mad at Oprah. Oprah, couldn't you have said, 'Tommy come here! Don't' jump.'" Rosie says that if Cruise had lost it on her show, she'd have sat him down and retaped the segment. "For me, to love someone is not to get rid of them when they do something you don't think is appropriate," O'Donnell says. "I love him, and love is eternal." She adds that, for the record, she was never actually in love with Cruise. "It never went to sexual," she says. "My Angelina Jolie crush was much more sexual than my Tom Cruise crush ever was."

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060903/NYSU002 )

Peyser talks to O'Donnell as she prepares for ABC's "The View" and shares her thoughts on why Star Jones' departed the show so abruptly: "Fame is a drug, and it distorts your perspective, everyone's perspective, from Tom Cruise to Star to me-every one." And O'Donnell insists she had nothing to do with getting Jones fired. "I would love to think I had the kind of power to say, 'Fire her,'" says O'Donnell. "But what would my motive be for ruining her life?"

O'Donnell's move to "The View" marks a return to the spotlight after a four-year hiatus. She tells Newsweek she turned her back on fame in part so she could be herself and not take any grief for it. "My life was so fast," she says. "I didn't have time to sit home and go to Target and be among the real people, which is what I am." She also freely talks about her long battle with depression. She tells a poignant yet hilarious story about calling Oprah on her private cell phone late one night right after Columbine and crying hysterically. "I went on medication shortly after that phone call," says O'Donnell, who adds that Oprah couldn't have been nicer about being disturbed by a weeping lunatic. "And that day I erased her number from my address book. I just don't need to have it."

So now the question for many is, is Rosie ready to go back on national television? "When I saw the billboard in Times Square, I thought, 'Oh my God,'" she says. "Sometimes it feels exciting. Sometimes it feels like-what's the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing and expecting a different result."

The idea to hire O'Donnell for "The View" came from executive producer Barbara Walters, who has been friends with her for years, reports Peyser. But when Walters wanted to hire her, she had to work to sell the idea to the network. "There were discussions with the ABC brass in which we talked about the new Rosie-not the woman who might have been aggressive or belligerent," says Walters. "There were some concerns about which Rosie we were getting." (Walters says the show will hire a fifth cohost once Rosie has settled in.)

One of O'Donnell's goals on "The View" is not to be so bossy, to learn to ride the bus, rather than drive it. So far, the experiment has been ... a failure, writes Peyser. O'Donnell says of the show's new commercials: "They wrote a skit about a bus. I was like, 'OK, can you let me write it? Give me a day,'" said Rosie. She got her promo, which ends with Walters telling the ladies, cleverly: "You're all stars to me!" But Rosie thought the whole thing looked too grainy, and she immediately complained on her blog. "I saw the new view promos/found myself/in the position/I loathe the most/powerless." That entry made the gossip pages, which didn't please her boss. "I didn't like the blog," says Walters, who wants her new host to stop posting, at least about the show. "I'm counting on Rosie's intelligence and sensitivity and humor. This is, after all, an entertainment show. It is based on people who like each other and are having a good time, not on people who are arguing and unhappy." A few minutes after Walters spoke to Newsweek, she called back. She had just received an enormous bouquet of flowers. The card read: "Barbara, I only want the promos and the show to be great. And I love you. Love, Ro."

(Read story at www.Newsweek.com.)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14638244/site/newsweek

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Source: Newsweek

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