Planet Abell

T he reviews of Rosie O'Donnell's on-air fight with Elizabeth Hasselbeck are in, and the winner is: live TV. I wonder if ABC is considering re-opening the negotiations with their soon-to-leave "The View" star? "The View" is supposed to be a combustible mix but casting is always a crapshoot and contrived friction always rings hollow. Wednesday's terribly personal exchange seemed terribly real and utterly fascinating, on a par with John Stewart's skewering of Tucker Carlson a couple of years ago. O'Donnell occasionally expresses herself so inartfully that her words do not match what one charitably believes she believes. Her remarks on the collapse of World Trade Tower 7 allowed her critics to argue O'Donnell was suggesting US complicity in the 9/11 attack. This time she By walking away from her own Emmy-winning talk and an eponymous magazine years ago Rosie has established that she is motivated more by the length of a commitment than the comp...

T here isn't any real evidence that Rosie O'Donnell was shown the door at ABC, even though it isn't really possible to know for sure why these two parties with obvious common interests have decided to part company. The story is that Rosie wanted a one-year extension for being the lead host of "The View" and that ABC wanted to lock her into more time. The New York Times also reports that Rosie's salary demands were too high. ABC could have been feeling some heat in this post-Imus world (though Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly's employers seem to have NASA-grade tiles between them and the civilized world). Rosie, who is often restless in her work -- she gave up her top-rated daytime talker and walked away from her eponymous named magazine -- could just be playing her "I couldn't care less" card again. But you can't blame anyone for speculating about the reasons someone gives up a major, attention-getting pulpit. Or has it taken away. ...