Posted on 11/06/2003 1:32:05 AM PST by sarcasm
Rosie O'Donnell once taunted a cancer survivor by telling her she would be stricken again with the disease if she lied, the woman testified yesterday.
The so-called Queen of Nice said her own mother lied before cancer killed her, Cindy Spengler, a former employee of O'Donnell's now-defunct magazine, Rosie, testified.
"You know what happens to people who lie? They get sick and they get cancer. If they keep lying, they get it again," Spengler, who battled breast cancer, recalled O'Donnell's saying after a July 2002 staff meeting.
The weepy witness from Westport, Conn., said she replied, "Your mother died of breast cancer. Was she lying?"
Without hesitation, Spengler said O'Donnell - who was 10 when her mom, Roseanne, died - answered, "Yes."
Outside Manhattan Supreme Court, the former talk-show host fessed up to her creepy comments.
"I'm sorry I hurt her the way I did. That was not my intention," said O'Donnell, adding she apologized to Spengler, the magazine's marketing chief, the day after the bizarre blowup.
Asked about calling her mom a liar, O'Donnell would say only it stemmed from a "childhood incident." Her spokesman Cindi Berger explained it had to do with O'Donnell's being molested by a relative as a child.
It was the first time that O'Donnell had admitted to the callous comments. In October 2002, O'Donnell told People magazine the cancer-comment charges were "absurd," adding, "I am never abusive to my staff."
O'Donnell is being sued for $100 million by Gruner+Jahr USA, her partner in her magazine, which went out of business in November 2002.
G+J is accusing O'Donnell of breaching her contract by bolting because she didn't always get her way. In a $125 million countersuit, O'Donnell claims G+J violated the contract by usurping her editorial control.
Despite enduring a tough morning in court listening to Spengler, O'Donnell's attorneys scored points in the afternoon.
They introduced an E-mail Spengler sent to Rosie magazine editor Susan Toepfer suggesting they do a "ding dong the witch is dead" song and dance after O'Donnell resigned.
In another E-mail, Spengler suggested Toepfer conduct an exorcism of O'Donnell's old office to "take out the bad vibes."
But the day's biggest coup for O'Donnell came when G+J CEO Daniel Brewster took the witness stand.
O'Donnell's attorneys introduced a July 15, 2002, E-mail that Brewster wrote to Spengler in which he suggested hiring an editor under O'Donnell who had "a significant degree of autonomy and latitude."
"We cannot permit Rosie magazine to migrate into a manifesto for its namesake's personal views," Brewster wrote.
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