Barbara Walters tells he new costar and employee, Rosie O’Donnell, that she doesn’t like Rosie’s blog. Can you believe that? Here is a show in which the women are supposed to be genuine and open but Barbara doesn’t want them to be too much of either. As if we didn’t already know it was utterly phony. From a Newsweek interview:
One of O’Donnell’s goals on “The View” is not to be so bossy, to learn to ride the bus, rather than drive it. So far, the experiment has been … a failure. Take the show’s new commercials. “They wrote a skit about a bus. I was, like, ‘OK, can you let me write it? Give me a day’,” said Rosie. She got her promo, which ends with Walters’s telling the ladies, cleverly: “You’re all stars to me!” But Rosie thought the whole thing looked too grainy, and she immediately complained on her blog. “I saw the new view promos/found myself/in the position/I loathe the most/powerless.” That entry made the gossip pages, which didn’t please her boss. “I didn’t like the blog,” says Walters, who wants O’Donnell to stop posting, at least about the show. “I’m counting on Rosie’s intelligence and sensitivity and humor. This is, after all, an entertainment show. It is based on people who like each other and are having a good time, not on people who are arguing and unhappy.” A few minutes after Walters spoke to NEWSWEEK, she called back. She had just received an enormous bouquet of flowers. The card read: “Barbara, I only want the promos and the show to be great. And I love you. Love, Ro.”
Yes, even Rosie has problems blogging about the boss. But I say: You go, Ro.
how long till rosie gets dooced ..
rosie gets canned …sues abc ..wins millions. doesn’t have to deal with
that old barbara chick .
I sympathize with her issues as a blogger taking heat from an employee, but in terms of her blog I just can’t get past the instant messenger lingo and the lack of capitalization and punctuation. And her reason for not using punctuation is lame at best:
Mark
rule number 5 of “how to blog”
5. dont tell your mom, your work, your friends, the people you want to date, or the people you want to work for about your blog. if they find out and you’d rather they didnt read it, ask them nicely to grant you your privacy.
Babs is definately Rosie’s new mom and new work and like most employers clearly doesn’t know the first thing about what a blog is and how it can add to the transparency and buzz that will keep The View a talked-about (aka $ucce$$ful) show about gossip.
rule #25
25. dont use your real name. dont write about your work unless you dont care about getting fired.
as much as i used to hate Rosie during her VH-1 days, and like her during the first year of her “Rosie” talk show, and then hate her again after that, i warmed up to her after seeing her HBO special about the gay/lesbian family ocean cruise. and i respect her for doing her own thing on her blog. its very rare for even a non-celeb to write about their real feelings in their own blog – and i dont know of any other celeb on a major network show who blogs other than Dave Navarro (Rockstar: Supernova).
so props to her, but if Rosie cant educate Barbara on how good for the show Rosie’s blog can be for the show, she should obey her boss, no matter how hard it is to bite one’s tongue.
if Rosie is smart, any time she has the urge to dish about working on the trainwreck that is the View, she should, instead of hitting publish in her blog, hit Save in Word and on the day she’s fired go to a book publisher and get that book sold pronto. and the best part about it for Rosie is, the book will already be done.
If Rosie doesn’t want to use punctuation – so what? It’s part of her “persona”. It’s intentional. It’s also her blog and she can do whatever she wants. There are consequences – it might annoy some and they’ll go away – but, their hers to worry about and consider.
I’m also really disappointed in Barbara Walters. It’s sad that she doesn’t see Rosie’s blog as the asset it could be. It’s that “command and control” management attitude – and that’s so 1980!
So can I. And what I want to do is mock her for her awful writing.