ENTERTAINMENT / Gossip
Rosie O'Donnell fights last fight on 'The View'
(AP)
Updated: 2007-05-26 09:01
NEW YORK - Rosie O'Donnell has fought her last fight at "The View." ABC
said Friday she asked for, and received, an early exit from her contract
at the daytime chatfest following her angry confrontation with co-host
Elisabeth Hasselbeck on Wednesday. She was due to leave in mid-June.
This file photo originally supplied by ABC shows Rosie O'Donnell, second
from left, posing with her co-hosts on ABC's 'The View,' Barbara
Walters,left, Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck, right, on the show's
New York set in April 2007. [AP]
It ended a colorful eight-month tenure for O'Donnell that lifted the
show's ratings but no doubt caused heartburn for show creator Barbara
Walters. O'Donnell feuded with Donald Trump and frequently had snippy
exchanges with the more conservative Hasselbeck.
O'Donnell said last month she would be leaving because she could not
agree to a new contract with ABC executives.
"Rosie contributed to one of our most exciting and successful years at
`The View,'" Walters said. "I am most appreciative. Our close and
affectionate relationship will not change."
In a statement, O'Donnell said that "it's been an amazing year and I love
all three women."
No one was feeling the love on Wednesday, when the argument with
Hasselbeck began over O'Donnell's statement last week about the war:
"655,000 Iraqi civilians have died. Who are the terrorists?"
Talk show critics accused O'Donnell of calling U.S. troops terrorists.
She called Hasselbeck "cowardly" for not saying anything in response to
the critics.
"Do not call me a coward, because No. 1, I sit here every single day,
open my heart and tell people what I believe," Hasselbeck retorted, and
their riveting exchange continued despite failed attempts by their
co-hosts to cut to a commercial.
According to a New York Post report, O'Donnell's chief writer, Janette
Barber, was allegedly led out of the building on Wednesday after she was
caught drawing mustaches on photographs of Hasselbeck in "The View"
studios. ABC executives didn't return repeated calls for questions on the
incident Friday.
On Thursday O'Donnell had asked for a day off to celebrate her partner's
birthday. "The View" aired a taped show on Friday.
On her Web site, O'Donnell posted a scrapbooklike video on Friday with
pictures and news clippings of her tenure at "The View." Cyndi Lauper's
"Sisters of Avalon" played in the background.
A day earlier, she posted messages on her Web site indicating she might
not be back.
"When painting there is a point u must step away from the canvas as the
work is done," she wrote. "Any more would take away."
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