Celebrity Detox by Rosie O'Donnell - I don't watch daytime TV. I don't watch nighttime TV, come to think of it. So it was really something of a remarkable coincidence that the one time I happened to have the television on during The View was the day Rosie O'Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck had such a vitriolic argument that I stopped what I was doing and sat, dumbstruck, at this train wreck of a broadcast.
I'd heard about the feud with Donald Trump. Who could miss it? It was everywhere. In both instances I could see both sides. It seemed like Rosie lashed out unnecessarily at The Donald, but his overreaction was stunning and unkind. And I could see how Rosie's remarks about our soldiers and the terrorists could be misconstrued, so I felt like Rosie was being a bit bullheaded in her insistence on being right, even though I do think Elisabeth is naive in her support of the war in Iraq.
After the Big Bad Broadcast and Rosie's premature departure from the show, I clicked onto her blog to see what she had to say. A person needs thicker skin than I have to be able to withstand the hatred being spewed at this saucy Irish woman. But there's a lot of love being tossed around as well. Rosie seems to bring out the best and the worst in people. On her blog, she bares it all -- her home life, her anger, her joy, her art, her family and friends. She invites people into her life through this new medium in a naked, honest fashion that few celebrities would dare to do.
So when her book was announced, I ordered a copy. True to form, Rosie bares everything -- warts and all -- in an effort to make sense out of the madness that is the world -- hers and ours -- against the backdrop of her childhood, which was marred by the untimely death of her mother. She showed us, unflinchingly, what loneliness and isolation she felt as a child, and despite my early insistence that I wouldn't get sucked in, I found myself shedding tears for this little damaged girl, who in so many ways remains damaged to this day, but is also strong and brave and solid.
She readily admits to flaws that many of us would not -- selfishness, narcissism, self-loathing. She talks about her weight problem with a candor to which I could relate, having suffered the barbs of my own toddler's honest assessment of my more-than-ample derrière. Even though she laughs about it, I could feel the pain beneath that laughter.
I was surprised that so much of the book focused not on her feud with Elisabeth, but on the fray with Donald Trump and her feelings about Barbara Walters, whom she felt did not come through for her when the going got tough, and found myself wanting to explain to Rosie what terror some people feel when faced with confrontation. I know, I know. Walters is a journalist and should be unafraid of unpleasantness, but it seemed to me that she was simply being human. I've heard Walters is upset about the book, but really I felt like Rosie went out of her way to show how much she loves and respects her.
There's a large portion of it devoted to her admiration for Barbra Streisand, an affection that was nurtured by Rosie's mother before she died.
I think what struck me most about this book is Rosie's intensity. She seems to feel things more intensely than others, and in ways that would make me take to my bed for days. It's probably what makes her an artist, but what also gives her pain. In the end, I was left a little sad by this woman whose life is so open for people to see and pick apart, and I wish her all the best.
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