Who

Rosie is the genial talk show host-turned-loudmouthed dyke who now spends her days crafting video messages on her blog.

Backstory

Rosie was born in Queens and raised on Long Island where, improbably, she served as both class president and prom queen at her Commack high school. She attended college briefly at Dickinson and BU before dropping out to hit the comedy trail, earning her first break at 22 when she had a five-night winning streak on Star Search. A successful stand-up career followed, along with TV gigs (she appeared opposite the similarly rotund Nell Carter on Gimme a Break and had a stint as a VJ on VH1) and parts in movies: She appeared opposite Madonna in A League of Their Own and as Meg Ryan's co-worker in Sleepless in Seattle.

It was her daytime talk show, though, which debuted in 1996, that vaulted her into the big leagues, winning her a cult following with suburban housewives as she served up softballs to celebs and babbled about her "crush" on Tom Cruise. The ratings bonanza led her to the magazine biz in 2000 when Gruner + Jahr tapped her take over McCall's. But the launch of Rosie coincided with the shift in her public profile and as she turned from chubby-best-friend into angry dyke, the magazine dissolved amid lawsuits and controversy, right around the time she decided to walk away from her talk show. Since then, she's produced one of Broadway's biggest flops, had a very messy role on The View, launched a blog, founded a gay cruise, and gone from lovable to detestable in short order.

Of note

Rosie ditched her image as the "Queen of Nice" shortly after she came out in 2002: She chopped off her hair and started becoming more politically active, speaking out on issues like gay marriage and adoption. She also turned her attention to Broadway, bankrolling Taboo on Broadway, which was panned by critics and cost O'Donnell millions before it was shuttered. Her return to daytime TV in September 2006 was controversial from the start. Even before starting on The View, she'd already had a series of run-ins with Star Jones, whom she'd publicly accused of having gastric bypass surgery. The drama continued immediately after she took her seat opposite Barbara Walters on The View's set: She accused Kelly Ripa of being homophobic, mocked the Chinese community, offended Catholics, outraged gun owners, denounced the war in Iraq, memorably feuded with Donald Trump (who retaliated in kind calling her "disgusting," "a slob" and "an animal") and even alienated her most liberal fans with her half-baked conspiracy theories about Sept. 11th.

As unhinged as it all seemed, it did wonders for The View's ratings. But when O'Donnell and ABC weren't able to negotiate a new contract, she announced her plans to leave the show, departing ahead of schedule after one last contretemps with co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck. But O'Donnell has plenty to keep her busy: She continues to post to her blog, which features bizarre poetry and video snippets of her family and friends. There's also the gay cruise company that she operates with her partner Kelli Carpenter, R. Family Vacations, which was the subject of a 2006 HBO documentary. And although deals to have her host The Price is Right and an MSNBC talk show never panned out, it's seems likely that she'll find her way back to the small screen soon enough.

In print

In late 2007, Rosie published her sophomore memoir, Celebrity Detox, in which she admits she used to beat herself with baseball bats and wooden hangers as a kid to gain attention from her father, behavior she attributes to the death of her mother from breast cancer when she was 10. Her first bestselling memoir, Find Me, was published in 2002.

Personal

O'Donnell officially came out of the closet in 2002 although she was open with friends and family about her sexuality dating back to the early 1980s. In February 2004, she married Kelli Carpenter in San Francisco shortly after Mayor Gavin Newsom announced the city would permit same-sex weddings; the marriage was later annulled by California courts. The couple has three adopted children: Parker, Chelsea and Blake. A fourth child, Vivienne, was born to Carpenter via artificial insemination.

Habitat

The O'Donnell brood lives upstate in one of the three homes she and Carpenter own along the Hudson River. (They use another as a painting studio/business office and use the third for friends visiting from out of town.) They also have apartments in Manhattan and Miami Beach.

No joke

O'Donnell says she's long wrestled with depression but she has a surefire way to keep the blues at bay. She's a proponent of "inversion therapy," which requires her to hang upside down for 15-20 minutes a day.