(Vanessa Williams and) All of Broadway Says Goodbye to Rosie

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/18/08 at 8:05am

May 22, 2002.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBz2Om69Irk

[tazber]

Posted: 11/18/08 at 8:33am

I wish she would have just stayed away.

[shameless]

Posted: 11/18/08 at 8:42am

See, that was the Rosie that I loved! Hopefully, that's who's hosting Rosie Live.

[bdwaygirl]

Posted: 11/18/08 at 8:49am

I loved her talk show. I was in the audience about four different times. So much fun to be there. I think I still have this episode on tape somewhere.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/18/08 at 9:43am

She was a bundle of joy--and the best thing to happen to Broadway since Ed Sullivan.

Then she turned into a lesbian Rosanne Barr.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/18/08 at 12:58pm

Paging Phyllis.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 11/18/08 at 1:11pm

I'm here, Ben. I'm right here.

Wonderful clip and seeing my Vanessa singing and dancing always brightens my day. I just can't stand Rosie O'Donnell.

[TulitaPepsi]

Posted: 11/18/08 at 1:28pm

After her stance on Prop 8, she is dead to me. Dead.

[lusciouslace]

Posted: 11/18/08 at 2:36pm

What kills me is that, yeah, at one time she was really likable television personality. People loved her show and she was just fun and joyous. Then she came out with a vengence after the show was over. And all these stories about how she was a terror to work for. Then she goes and does The View and was a terror on there, too. (Yeah she got them ratings, but still...) Now she's got this variety show and her commercials are all cute and funny and haha look it's old Rosie. Nope...sorry. You aren't fooling anybody. You lost that persona years ago and in my opinion you can't get it back. And yeah...her whole "stance" on Prop 8 was hypocritical and awful. I don't think you can even call it a stance. She never offered an actual explanation, she just said nope...not supporting it...nope.

[grnsmwhr]

Posted: 11/18/08 at 11:42pm

Did she actually say that? I thought the discussion was why she didn't donate money to it's defeat. That's not the same thing.

[NGD2225]

Posted: 11/18/08 at 11:46pm

See, that was the Rosie that I loved! Hopefully, that's who's hosting Rosie Live.
-------------------------
Same here, I miss TONY Rosie.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 11/19/08 at 2:41am

Crazy nostalgia. Most of those shows are gone now. I see Aida, Millie, Oklahoma, Beauty and the Beast, 42nd Street, Contact, Rent... and then shows that I never thought would still be open Chicago, Lion King, Mamma Mia... crazy.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/19/08 at 7:02am

Her show was a daily infusion of joy. I miss it, and in my denial, I prefer to disconnect the current person from the one who came into my home every 10 a.m. And as a New Yorker, I found her the single most comforting presence after 9/11. When she came back on, mixed with fear, sadness and rage, she was a guidepost. When she flew for the first time, when people were afraid to board planes, it was deeply affecting. Her video diaries of that era were remarkable. So I'll keep that Rosie in my mind and heart.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/19/08 at 8:10am

Some people you forgive, because they're crazy, like your relatives.

I forgive Rosie, Bette and Donna Summer.

And I forgive Vanessa Williams for being so mean to Daniel.

[cmleidi]

Posted: 11/19/08 at 1:20pm

I do miss her show and her unwavering support for Broadway. I've liked all Rosie incarnations since the show went off the air. I was even amused by that ridiculous haircut she had. She certainly received venomous criticism for her tenure on The View, but considering the fights are more frequent and more personal these days [and I'm only going by the clips I've seen since I no longer watch], you would think these same people would blame the one person involved both times.

Why do people feel the need to contribute to a thread by saying they do not like the person or production/film/show under discussion? If you don't like someone, why bother reading the thread? I know this common behavior, but I don't understand it.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 11/19/08 at 1:25pm

For what it's worth, I miss her on THE VIEW, too. It was unmissable. I liked her Golde in FIDDLER. I just respond to her, and must support Pal Joey's sentiments.

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow]

Posted: 11/19/08 at 1:27pm

What did Bette do?

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 11/19/08 at 1:30pm

but considering the fights are more frequent and more personal these days [and I'm only going by the clips I've seen since I no longer watch]

I would disagree. They may fight more, but no one made things more personal than Rosie. I cite her last appearance on the show as example number 1.

I liked her and her old show a lot, but I thought her time on The View made her into as big of a blustering gasbag as the right-wing counterparts she'd decry.

And I posted in this thread because I was paged.

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow]

Posted: 11/19/08 at 1:33pm

I really think that Rosie is seriously special sometimes.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 11/19/08 at 1:40pm

Bette Midler on Larry King in 2003.

KING: Should they be allowed to marry?

MIDLER: Should gay people be allowed to marry? That's a really good question. I think -- I'm a really big believer in all the civil rights that everyone else has. I believe in gay people sharing the civil rights. I believe that they're entitled to them. I believe they're entitled to the insurances. I believe they're entitled to all those things...

KING: Visits in the hospital, make decisions...

MIDLER: All that stuff, yes. As far as marriage is concerned, I come from a -- you know, doesn't seem to be hurting anybody. You know, I'm of two minds. On the one hand, I'm a married woman. You know, I mean, I've -- I took vows. I took civil vows, though. I did not take religious vows. And so I...

KING: By choice?

MIDLER: Well, yes, by choice. So I -- you know, and when it comes to religion, I don't really know what to say because I'm -- I'm in my tribe, and I try to be a good Jew, but on the other hand, I don't know what the -- how people feel. My feeling is, Well, who's it really going to hurt? But then, if you're a religious person, you're get all knocked out because of the things that...

KING: By the way, I saw you in "Fiddler."

MIDLER: You did?

KING: (SINGING) Matchmaker, matchmaker...

MIDLER: Oh, my God!

KING: ... make me a match...

MIDLER: So Larry, I guess I didn't do so good on that last question, huh? (LAUGHTER)

KING: No!

MIDLER: Well, I'll tell you something. I...

KING: I understand. It's a dilemma to you.

MIDLER: It's a real dilemma, but I think it's a dilemma to a lot of people. I don't think it really hurts anybody. I think -- I think -- to tell you the truth, my -- my -- many, many, many of the homosexual men that I know -- I can't speak for the women because -- the way I feel -- the women, they can look at each other from across a crowded room, and suddenly, they're mates for life. You know, they -- you know, they'll go out for a Coke, and they'll just be, you know, move in, and that'll be the end of it. But gay men, they like to -- you know, they like to move around. They like to have -- you know, they're -- that's part of it. That's part of the fun of being a gay man. So if they're married, does that mean they're not going to cheat, they're only going to be with one...

KING: Well, that's what they say, they want to make the commitment.

MIDLER: They want to make the commitment...

KING: Why shouldn't society let them make the commitment?

MIDLER: Well, it's interesting.

KING: That's what they're saying.

MIDLER: It's very interesting. I'm really wondering how -- what that commitment is going to be about.

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow]

Posted: 11/19/08 at 1:48pm

Yikes. She was doing ok until that last bit. As bad as that was, at least she didn't mean any REAL harm by what she said, I mean at least I hope.

[cmleidi]

Posted: 11/19/08 at 1:52pm

I watched every episode of the View during her tenure and I found her reasonably restrained in dealing with EH. EH was giving interviews to everyone who would listen about how she was friends with Rosie and they all got along. Yet she wouldn't take Fox News to task for their blatantly untrue remarks about Rosie and Joy Behar. Rosie had every right to be angry. I was angry for her. Rosie was cast as the mean, angry lesbian who bullied poor, helpless, blonde Elisabeth.

I don't understand Rosie's stance on Prop 8. Was she saying her marriage was statement enough? It was a bit of a guessing game.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 11/19/08 at 1:53pm

I think some of us felt the harm actually came because she didn't mean any harm. Here's a woman who didn't marry till she was 40, and she certainly didn't live that part of her life as a nun. Who was she - friend or not - to judge what sort of behavior one must conform to to be granted civil rights?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/19/08 at 2:10pm

But the thing is, Bette was totally right about the generation currently in their mid-40s and above, which would be the gay men she knows best. There was a time when monogamy and marriage were seen as the assimilationist moves that they are. And now the movement is completely dominated by the assimilationist impulse, and that's fine. But it doesn't mean there weren't plenty of us who never wanted it.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 11/19/08 at 2:41pm

Ditto to what Namo said. When I was coming out in the 1970s, the LAST thing any gay man wanted to do was get married. First of all, we wanted to f*ck around and second of all, marriage was a corrupt institution that we wanted no part of. That was the generation of gay men with who Bette came of age.

(Of course many of the men of that generation are dead now, but that's another thread.)

It wasn't until the 90s that "gay marriage" became an issue. And those of us who were schooled in the 70s were like "What? When did this become the issue?"

So that's why It's easy for me to forgive Crazy Cousin Bette for that--she just didn't know any men in gay marriages.

She does now.