Celebrity News May 01, 2020
Rosie O’Donnell Talks Quarantine, Raising Relief Funds, and Running Into Whoopi Goldberg
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Rosie O'Donnell is doing her part to help in the pandemic, recently bringing back “The Rosie O'Donnell Show” for one night only to benefit The Actors Fund.
Rosie opened up to “Extra's” Renee Bargh about why she wanted to give back, her life in quarantine, and recently bumping into her former “The View” co-star Whoopi Goldberg.
The star raised $600,000 for The Actors Fun, telling Renee, “In times of crisis like that, it's good to give back right away, to throw light on the darkness.”
O'Donnell also talked about her life in lockdown, saying, “I haven't left the house since March 15th… When they were starting to say New York was starting to be the hot spot, I was like... 'Looks like time to go to my Jersey house…' and that's the second hot spot now… I feel afraid to go out, truthfully.”
She is riding out the quarantine with her kids, but not with Elizabeth Rooney, to whom she was engaged.
“Oh, no, she lives in Wooster, Massachusetts,” Rosie said. “We're just trying to figure it out. Who knows? Who knows what the future is? We're very close and she's very connected with the family and everyone loves her and I love her and she's a good person.”
Rosie is famously not a fan of President Trump, and she does not agree with his handling of the pandemic. “It's unbelievable that this country could be in this position and that this president will take no responsibility for what he has done,” she said. “The decisions he's made, starting in December when he was first alerted to this virus — he can pretend all he wants that he knew it was a pandemic before, but we have him on tape every day now lying to the American public.”
Opening up about her time on “The View,” she shared, “It felt like high school a lot. I'd come out of the dressing room and Nicolle [Wallace] and Whoopi [Goldberg] and Rosie [Perez] would all be planning to go to lunch and I'd be the kid they didn't invite.”
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Rosie O’Donnell Gives Update on Barbara Walters
View StoryRosie also described running into Whoopi, who she says never liked her, at Café Carlyle in NYC.
The maitre'd thought they had arrived together and tried to seat them at the same table. O'Donnell explained, “It was a little awkward, but it was sweet. She said... 'Would it be that awful?' like implying that if we had sat together, but I gave her a hug when we were done and I sat down. But I do feel genuinely that she doesn't like me — and that's okay. Not everybody has to… She's a genius. There's no debating it.”
