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Rosie Laughs Off Her Troubles

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By WALT BELCHER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 13, 2008

Rosie O'Donnell says being asked to join the first True Colors tour last year was like being tossed a life raft.

"I had just been voted the most annoying celebrity in America by readers of Parade magazine," she says in a telephone interview. "I beat out Ann Coulter, which is an honor because I didn't think anyone could top her."

The True Colors offer came from longtime pal Cyndi Lauper (see accompanying story). O'Donnell had just left Barbara Walter's morning gabfest, "The View," after a controversial year that included a public feud with Donald Trump and frequent squabbles with conservative co-panelist Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

"It was a crazy year," says O'Donnell, who only did "The View" for a year to see if she was ready for a longer haul on daytime TV. "I learned that I don't want to do it," she says, adding that it was "exhausting" having her opinions judged and debated in the media.

She says the tour, which raises money and awareness for gay, lesbian and transgender rights, gave her a chance to get her comedy footing back.

"I'm back for 18 of the concerts this year," she says. "I talk about the last four years of my life and what it's like being 46. You can get lazy as a comic and recycle old material but it's a challenge to work up all new material."

She adds that the tour is more than just a chance to make people laugh.

"It's important that we have equality, justice and peace for all of us," she says. "We've had so many of our rights stripped away since 9/11 and this tour urges people to register to vote and go out and make a difference."

O'Donnell's career spans television, films and theater, from the Emmy-winning "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" and a recurring role on FX's "Nip/Tuck" to films such as "A League of Their Own," "Sleepless in Seattle" and "The Flintstones."

O'Donnell, who has homes in New York and Miami, publicly came out as a lesbian in 2002 after she learned Florida state laws prohibit homosexuals and bisexuals from adopting.

She had adopted three children before she got involved in foster care in Florida. She says she read about a neglected 5-year-old in Miami's Little Havana who had been raped. "I went to visit the girl in the hospital and it inspired me to become a foster parent," she says.

In 2000, she became a foster parent to 2-year-old Mia, whom she eventually wanted to adopt. "We had her for a year and a half but when we tried to adopt her, the state wanted us to sign a paper saying that we were not now or never had been homosexual. I thought this just couldn't be legal, but it was," she says.

O'Donnell says Mia was taken from her home and later adopted by a heterosexual couple, friends of hers who live near her Miami home.

In 2004, when San Francisco authorized gay marriages, O'Donnell and longtime partner Kelli Carpenter were wed there.

O'Donnell says she won't be returning to daytime television unless she gets an offer to host a game show, and it has to be one of the classics like "The Price Is Right." Another close friend, comic Fran Drescher, is trying to find a network home for a new sitcom in which they would co-star.

She says she plans to one day live in Florida full time. "It's such a beautiful place and there's a rich Cuban culture in Miami," she says.

But she says living in Florida can be a both a joy and a terror because there are places where gays and lesbians are not accepted.

"I hope the country is going to change in the future because it seems like we've lost ground in recent years," she says. "If people would just live and let live, then we might find happiness."

Reporter Walt Belcher can be reached at (813) 259-7654 or wbelcher@tampatrib.com.

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