Posted on 09/24/2002 7:38:24 PM PDT by X918
Has she snapped? Or is she just being her true self?
Rosie O'Donnell's decision to walk away from her magazine last week -- the latest in a series of life-changing moves -- has prompted debate about the star's damn-the-torpedoes behavior.
She pulled out of a business venture valued at more than $100 million. She left 3.5 million readers hanging. She gave up a high-profile platform for her pet causes. And she might wind up spending millions if lawsuits are filed by her or the publisher.
Ever since she quit her talk show and came out as a lesbian in March, she has appeared to be undergoing a transformation that has affected her professionally and personally.
Immediately after leaving the air, she did a couple of profanity-laced nightclub acts, denouncing her former Queen of Nice image and publicly attacking celebrities. She has been spotted out in public, drinking and being loud. She has been the subject of tabloid stories about wrestling with her weight and suffering from depression -- two conditions she acknowledges she has battled.
Then there was the magazine. She says she quit because she just couldn't seem to work things out with her editor. Yet over the weekend, in a complete turnabout from last week's big announcement, she said, ''There is always a chance'' that she and the publisher would work things out. A move perhaps intended to make herself look better if lawsuits were filed?
On Monday, a Gruner + Jahr spokeswoman would only reiterate that the December issue, with Richard Gere slated to be on the cover, would be Rosie's last.
Rosie execs had said the star's behavior was ''abusive'' to staffers. After she quit last week, at least one former Rosie editor sent an e-mail to friends saying, ''Ding Dong the Witch is Dead.''
''This is a tough chick from Long Island,'' says Marc Malkim, contributing editor at New York magazine. He attributes her behavior to her finally being open about her sexuality.
''Her coming out has obviously had a huge impact on her life. Now, she's like, 'I'm free.' ''
Scott Seomin, entertainment media director for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), says O'Donnell is exerting ''who she is.'' He says, ''Quitting the show, having a baby with her lover, cutting her hair -- all of this is about freedom and shedding an identity that wasn't her. And the battles with the publishers are more of the same.''
However, at planetout.com, which is devoted to gay issues, the sentiment is one of disappointment and loss of a high-profile advocate.
Cathy Renna, another GLADD spokeswoman, says, ''The magazine didn't just cover gay and lesbian issues, but they were in there, and the broad audience that reads Rosie is the group you really want to reach.''
Still, behavioral experts don't see an obvious link between O'Donnell's decisions and her sexual orientation.
''It doesn't have to be a 'coming out' issue. It depends on where someone is in life. People will respond very individually,'' says Jorge Petit, vice chairman of the psychiatry department for New York's North General Hospital. ''No one is asking the same question about Oprah discontinuing her book club. We didn't blame that on menopause or a midlife crisis. We said, 'She's making a business decision.' ''
O'Donnell herself said last week that her ''personal life is great.'' And she isn't at home in bed with the shades drawn. She's at work bringing Boy George's new musical, Taboo, to Broadway.
''I think she's clearly reprioritizing things in her life, and I think she might be doing it in a very healthy way,'' says Alan Hilfer, a psychologist with Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn. ''She seems to have plenty of money. Stars quit TV shows. People get restless. I would like to vote in favor of the fact that she's doing something that is smart.''
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I am sure it was hard enough for them before, but now that she has diked out completely I hope she has a good nanny and doesn't have time for them.
Now she has moved her self-destructive behavior out of the closet and into the open for all to see.
She is really coming unglued.
I believe that name is pronounced Semen.
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