A lengthy expose in the new Vanity Fair claims veteran journalist Barbara Walters wasn't thrilled that Rosie O'Donnell would return to The View. Writer Suzanna Andrews asked the show creator and long-time star if bringing back the liberal comedienne was a good idea. Walters paused and then responded, "Rosie and Whoopi together was not peaches and cream... I don’t think we needed the two of them together."
She added, “It was not a combination that I would have thought was a natural.” If Walters truly didn't want O'Donnell to return, perhaps she should have been a little more forceful. After all, O'Donnell is the woman who repeatedly promoted 9/11 conspiracy theories.
Andrews also recounted a profanity-laced argument between Goldberg and O'Donnell that occurred during a commercial break:
There was the screaming match between O’Donnell and a senior producer that was so intense that staff had to physically separate the women. There were the reports that Rosie Perez had broken down in tears backstage, rumors that Whoopi Goldberg had ordered that the senior ABC executive in charge of The View was not to speak to her, or even approach her. And the persistent rumors of a power struggle between Rosie O’Donnell and Whoopi Goldberg that last September, just two weeks into the season, erupted in a blowup between the two stars in front of the studio audience. During a commercial break, O’Donnell took the microphone and began complaining that Goldberg had cut her off and “hurt my feelings.”
Goldberg explained that they’d run out of time, but O’Donnell did not know it because she refused to wear an earpiece on air. O’Donnell persisted. “This isn’t the time for this, Rosie,” replied Goldberg, according to the Daily Mail. But O’Donnell continued to vent, and Goldberg snapped. “Fuck it, I told you to leave it alone and you just don’t want to listen,” she shouted, as the audience sat in stunned silence. “If you want to go there, Rosie, I will, dammit. I’m really sick of your shit.” Five months later, in mid-February, O’Donnell abruptly left the show.
For a recap of O'Donnell's more outragous liberal outbursts, go here.
