Blog by Sean Gehon, Wednesday, February 21, 2007

One of my favourite memories as a teenager growing up in Regina, Saskatchewan is coming home after school and watching The Rosie O’Donnell Show with my mom. There was something magical about sharing a laugh with Rosie, hearing her sing off key and telling stories about her growing brood of kids. You got to know the tender side of Rosie as she would talk about being a mom, or see her inner child come bubbling to the surface the day she met Barbara Streisand for the first time on her show. Everyone quickly fell in love with Rosie over the seven seasons of her show, even dubbing her the Queen of Nice. Nowadays, Rosie O’Donnell is behaving more like a five-year-old in desperate need of nap time.

Over the past year we’ve seen Rosie O’Donnell pick fights with Donald Trump and, allegedly, Barbara Walters. What happened to the girl who gave money to charity, talked sweetly about her kids, and didn’t accuse everyone of being homophobic? It seems ever since Rosie got that really bad hair cut a few years ago she’s really lost her sense of humour and ability to be kind. Either that or Rosie finally gave up putting on the fake smile to all of America. If this is the case and Rosie truly was being fake during her talk show’s popularity, I, for one, am truly offended that she would feel the need to lie to us over the show’s seven year run.

What happened to Rosie? Did she decide it was time to get her name back in the papers as often as possible by picking as many fights as possible? Rosie has even gone as far as attempt to pick a fight with the queen of talk, Oprah Winfrey. Luckily for us, Winfrey doesn’t really feel the need to come down to Rosie’s level. One thing can be said positively about the animosity from Rosie towards every living creature on this planet;The View has seen a significant spike in ratings since she opened her big mouth.

As much as I love The View and will one day co-host it with the ladies, I truly miss the days when Rosie was cute, bubbly, and funny. There was nothing better than hearing an obviously homosexual woman gush over Tom Cruise and having him mow her lawn with his shirt off. Everyone loved Rosie and you could see it in the hearts of her audience as they were delighted to speak with her and win some prizes! There was a time when I used to dream about becoming a famous actor and having my first talk show appearance be in a chair opposite Rosie on her very own talk show. Alas, those days are gone and I’ll have to settle for sitting across from her on The View or making my way to Ellen.

Ellen Degeneres has probably made her mark as this millennium's Rosie O’Donnell. Her laid back, conversational style with celebrities and witty brand of day time humour really seems to fill the void that O’Donnell left behind when she abandoned her popular talk show. I started to wonder today, with Rosie’s change, what is Ellen really like? Is daytime’s favourite funny lady really not so nice at the end of the day? This may be an interesting lesson to take… are the people we put in high regard really who they pretend to be?

Rosie may have made a complete one eighty over the past few years but is this just who she’s always been? Whether Rosie is crazy or just finally allowing us to see the real her remains to be seen… I suppose I’ll just have to write another blog about this after I co-host The View… well… some day.

Sean (I need a sandwich.)

• Danielle McGimsie
• Dina Pugliese
• Husein Madhavji
• Sean Gehon
• Star! Expert