Rosie O'Donnell: Barbara Walters Exaggerates, There Was No Camaraderie Off-Camera On "The View"

UPDATE: Walters responded saying "Get a life"

Rosie O'Donnell, whose NBC variety show airs next week, cannot shake questions about her tumultuous time on "The View." And Wednesday morning, she fanned the flames by telling reporters that Barbara Walters misrepresents the camaraderie among co-hosts of "The View."

The Los Angeles Times' Denise Martin reports:

Barbara Walters, [Rosie] told reporters on Wednesday morning, "wanted everyone to believe and think and act as if [the women on 'The View'] get along and are really good friends and happy and hang out together, and, you know, that's just not the reality.

"I'm not saying they loathe each other, but the fact of the matter is, there was not a lot of camaraderie off camera."

O'Donnell famously exited the ABC daytime talk show after months of politically charged bickering with her co-hosts, among them Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who came under scrutiny again in this election year as the show's only staunchly conservative voice.

But she conceded "arguing about politics is not the best use of my talent."

"I didn't grow up thinking, 'I hope I can talk about politics.' If you watch my stand-up comedy, I talk about my life, my family. It only became about [politics] with the job on 'The View.'

Rosie's former sparring partner, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, has been at the center of countless fights on "The View" this election season, but Rosie has reportedly mended fences with the conservative co-host (despite calling her Sarah Palin's "identical cousin" and saying both are "women who hunt in high heels").

There have long been rumors of a feud between Rosie and Barbara Walters, though Walters denies them and has said she has "enormous affection" for Rosie. Rosie has said that Walters fired her from "The View," despite the official stance that it was a mutual agreement that she would leave the program.

"Rosie Live" airs Nov. 26 at 8PM, and is expected to feature Liza Minnelli, Alec Baldwin, Ne-Yo, Alanis Morissette, Gloria Estefan, Kathy Griffin and Jane Krakowski.

The headline and body of this article originally suggested Rosie O'Donnell said Barbara Walters lies about the co-hosts' camaraderie. Upon reevaluating the story, the word "lies" was removed in favor of "exaggerates" and "misrepresents."

Comments

[gracewithease]

Glad Rosie is back. Hope Hasselbeck gets fired.
Read what Steinem wrote about Palin and it was NOT flattering.

[CrackerJacker]

Didn't you hear? CNN is saying Hasselbeck is replacing Oprah in a couple of years time!

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2008/11/19/sbt.new.oprah.cnn

Gaaaaaaah!

[LollieDotCom]

She could be a great replacement for Oprah if this was 1967, she had intellectual curiosity, an open mind, and Fox Fake News was one of the channels on TV way back then.

[Trickydix2000]

Agreed

[IAB]

And what's your idea of modern women...please explain your definition...

Even Gloria Steinem came to Sarah Palin's defense, of all people, realizing that defining women by what YOU see as how they should behave is an exact anathema to the goals and aims of the women's movement...women should be celebrated for diversity of viewpoints, not for their enslavement to PC dogma.

[CrackerJacker]

Perhaps. I'm no fan of Rosie O'Donnell, but I do believe that elected office should be for the best and the brightest - of which would you say Gov. Palin is?

[rzan1]

I mean few people.

[rzan1]

There are view people more PC than Gloria Steinem.

[NotMcCain]

That may be true. But I remember ROSIE saying all kinds of chummy things about Walters et al when she was on "The View".

She has a lot of ability to get (and stay) angry over really little things.

[buddbo1]

You're correct, Rosie has the habit of making big crap from little crap. That is diffrent when she's the crap maker. Barbara Walters, who was treated respectfufly by Star Jones, who tried to respond to her departure in a civil way, was dogged by Barbara , and her pal Larry King in doing so. What goes, can also come. Be careful that the evil you do, doesn't come back at ya!

[IAB]

Rosie, you don't need to hawk your show with this negative s--t...COME ON!

[auramac]

One thing is certain- her show coming up looks pretty good- Kathy Griffin alone makes it worth watching.

[shirleyfeeney]

Rosie...go away. You haven't been away long enough for anyone to miss you.

I guess that's kind of like being the Governor of Alaska, except that I don't know whom is despised more...

[hather]

Remember this old picture of Rosie? Scroll down a little.
http://dyn.politico.com/members/forums/thread.cfm?catid=1&subcatid=1&threadid=225656

[ladycubsfan]

Oh, hell. Just let her speak the truth. It's not like we all haven't figured out for ourselves that Walters lied about the comaraderie off the set. She has to say that.

[CALAVA]

If there's one person who can put on a great variety show it's Rosie.

She didn't say anything that anyone with half a brain couldn't see. Whoopi couldn't care less about anyone else on that panel. And the only talk show hosts Elisabeth is friends with are Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly. Sherri's happy to cash a check and so is Joy.

[DeeW]

Sheesh. When my boss tells other organizations about how well all the employees get along and how we respect each other and have a camaraderie outside the office ... we all just act polite and agree! lol we don't then go up to people and start complaining about our coworkers and about how our boss exaggerated. It's called being an adult. Oh, and professional. Oh...and no one cares.

[IndyStacey]

CORRECTION: Rosie JOKED that Walters fired her in her standup act.

[OpusIsUnderTheBed]

Some people will just not go away. Elliot Spitzer's hooker. Joe the plumber. Governor Palin. Rosie O'Donnell.

Well, at least O.J. went away.

[CrackerJacker]

"Until NEXT TIME!! MWAH HA HA HA HAAAAAA!!!"

[Eric8869]

George W Bush, Karl Rove, Chuck Norris, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Ted Nugent etc.

[bmwracer]

Rosie's raising all this ruckus to shill her upcoming new show... Cheap advertising.

Problem is, people still won't watch.... She's had her day in the sun.

[Eric8869]

She's not done yet. sorry.

[CaliTLC]

Can't they all just get along? Perhaps Rosie should just refuse to talk about the ladies from The View anymore. A high dose of positivity might help the karma for the new show.

[DeeW]

Yes, she should just nod and say positive things. Remember when she was the queen of nice? When she had her first daytime show, she was known as the nicest person on TV. Wow...times have changed.

[Dustee]

I think everybody knows Joy would love to smack Elisabeth.

[chronic]

Id like to slap EH. Very much!!

[Eric8869]

Who doesn't? can't they find a Republican woman who can actually debate and not shout down and start crying?

[Girl28]

I'm sure Rosie's just trying to get a little publicity for her new show. However, I tend to agree with her. Especially when it comes to Joy and Elisabeth. They try to pretend as if they get along great, but if you ever watch the show, it's apparent that they don't care for each other all that much. When one gets offended by the other, they sit their fuming long after the end of the conversation. You can also tell that on any given day that Joy can't wait to throw Elisabeth's "support" for George Bush in her face. Elisabeth also seems to be on edge alot of the time. As a matter of fact I've noticed that on days when Elisabeth is looking fidgety and not really participating in small talk that she has an axe to grind and she's simply waiting for the introduction of a particular topic that's going to have the ladies arguing. On days when she looks more relaxed during hot topics, it's going to be a boring show. I also noticed that after a disagreement Joy won't even look at Elisabeth let alone talk to her. I don't know. They do always pretend to love each other, however neither woman is very good at hiding their true feelings onset.