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American Morning

Rosie Lawsuit

Aired November 06, 2003 - 09:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Mark Dagostino has seen all the courtroom drama firsthand. He's been covering the Rosie case for people magazine. He joins us this morning.
Nice to see you. Thanks for joining us.

MARK DAGOSTINO, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: Glad to be here.

O'BRIEN: Very emotional and dramatic testify that we've seen. First let's talk about Cindy Spangler's (ph) just sobbing on the stand. Obviously breast cancer survivor, was told that cancer is what comes to people who lie.

DAGOSTINO: Right.

O'BRIEN: What was Rosie's reaction when she's watching her former friend, and coworker, and person who protected her a lot with the sort of the suits at the magazine, sobbing on the stand?

DAGOSTINO: She was clearly hurt. And you know, you could tell immediately that she felt horrible that her statement was, as she put it, interpreted that way. You know, she says it was part of a bigger conversation, she didn't mean it as an attack or a mean thing to say against Cindy Spangler, but it's clearly, that's the way it was interpreted.

O'BRIEN: Don Brewster is a CEO of G&J. Clearly the two of them, despise probably is a word that does not go far enough...

DAGOSTINO: Clearly.

O'BRIEN: ... in describing their relationship.

DAGOSTINO: Yes, clearly. Even, as he was testifying, Rosie at one point sort of pounded her fist on the table to something he said. Another time she gasped audibly in the courtroom, just flabbergasted at what, you know, clearly something that she interpreted was a lie or something that he said on the stand, that she just couldn't believe he was saying on the public record.

O'BRIEN: And through other people's testimony, has she done similar things or she''s sort of been very calm?

DAGOSTINO: She's been pretty reserved throughout. There have been a couple of times. There's been some laughter in the courtroom, when someone was, one of her former colleagues, was asked to describe her performance doing a stand-up routine at the Mohegan Sun Casino, and the lawyer asked about it, and the colleague said, well, she kind of bombed. And Rosie laughed, and the whole courtroom laughed. And there have been some pretty light moments in between all of this, you know, heavy drama and heavy testimony.

O'BRIEN: As we mentioned, this really comes down to a breach of contract dispute with both sides suing the other for saying that they're the ones who broke the contract.

The disaster kind of started at the beginning when Susan Tepfer (ph), who was brought in from "People" magazine, or had been at "People" magazine at one point, to be Rosie's -- to work with Rosie, to be the editor, and yet Rosie thought that Susan was going to report to her, and Susan made sure that it was not in her contract. She had a different set of bosses.

Is that going to be sort of the critical element, regardless of all the drama, what's going to be sort of the factual, critical element in this trial?

DAGOSTINO: It really is. Judge Ira Gamerman (ph) is just a no- nonsense judge. And remember, there's no jury in this trial. This is all being decided by one man who's sitting there in the robe. And he is -- he's brought it up time and again in sort of questioning what the attorneys are doing and what they're going over, and clearly, this is a contract dispute. He's going to interpret the language of that contract that Bruno Jahr (ph) took and that Rosie took, the precedents that were set in the first year of the magazine when Rosie did approve every single item that went into the magazine, as opposed to when Susan Tepfer came in, some of the changes -- we've seen this in testimony already, some of the changes that Rosie was requesting simply weren't made. And the magazine went to print, not with what Rosie had requested, but the way Susan Tepfer decided to put it in.

O'BRIEN: So in some ways, all of this drama, conversations about sexual orientation for Rosie O'Donnell, conversations about whether or not she's horribly mean and vicious, and spiteful and horrible to her employees sort of irrelevant.

DAGOSTINO: Right.

O'BRIEN: At the end of the day they're good copy to talk about but they're not going to have anything to do with what's in a contract.

DAGOSTINO: It's wonderful drama in a courtroom, but it's simply not a breach of contract to yell at someone and be mean to someone.

O'BRIEN: What's Rosie O'Donnell been saying? I know that she's really made a point to come out and talk to the journalist. She's got Cindy Berger, her publicist, by her side. So obviously, this is a PR strategy to have quotables everyday, defending yourself, that are going to be on the news.

DAGOSTINO: Right. In fact, in some points, Rosie is saying so much, Cindy is literally dragging her away from the press. But you know, Rosie wants to talk and she feels that she has been wronged, and she just has said time and time again, I'm not going to give one cent. She also says from the beginning we all could have walked away from this peacefully, I agreed to leave them with my $6 million investment and simply walk away from this. And we all could have been happy and just let it close down. And you know, she insists that they want war. And...

O'BRIEN: Does it surprise you at all that you don't have these sort of press conferences from G&J, people spinning their side? Because you do get a one-sided spin at the end of every single day.

DAGOSTINO: Absolutely. And...

O'BRIEN: And from a woman who's a comedienne and funny and...

DAGOSTINO: Exactly. And can turn a phrase and make it sound great in the papers the next day and grab headlines, you know, every single day from this. The Gruner & Jahr people are imply -- it's a large corporation, they're one of the largest publishers in the U.S., and they simply are, you know, what they consider, taking the high road, they're trying their case in court and not in the press.

O'BRIEN: Mark Dagostino, "People" magazine. Nice to have you. Thanks so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired November 6, 2003 - 09:08   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Mark Dagostino has seen all the courtroom drama firsthand. He's been covering the Rosie case for people magazine. He joins us this morning.
Nice to see you. Thanks for joining us.

MARK DAGOSTINO, "PEOPLE" MAGAZINE: Glad to be here.

O'BRIEN: Very emotional and dramatic testify that we've seen. First let's talk about Cindy Spangler's (ph) just sobbing on the stand. Obviously breast cancer survivor, was told that cancer is what comes to people who lie.

DAGOSTINO: Right.

O'BRIEN: What was Rosie's reaction when she's watching her former friend, and coworker, and person who protected her a lot with the sort of the suits at the magazine, sobbing on the stand?

DAGOSTINO: She was clearly hurt. And you know, you could tell immediately that she felt horrible that her statement was, as she put it, interpreted that way. You know, she says it was part of a bigger conversation, she didn't mean it as an attack or a mean thing to say against Cindy Spangler, but it's clearly, that's the way it was interpreted.

O'BRIEN: Don Brewster is a CEO of G&J. Clearly the two of them, despise probably is a word that does not go far enough...

DAGOSTINO: Clearly.

O'BRIEN: ... in describing their relationship.

DAGOSTINO: Yes, clearly. Even, as he was testifying, Rosie at one point sort of pounded her fist on the table to something he said. Another time she gasped audibly in the courtroom, just flabbergasted at what, you know, clearly something that she interpreted was a lie or something that he said on the stand, that she just couldn't believe he was saying on the public record.

O'BRIEN: And through other people's testimony, has she done similar things or she''s sort of been very calm?

DAGOSTINO: She's been pretty reserved throughout. There have been a couple of times. There's been some laughter in the courtroom, when someone was, one of her former colleagues, was asked to describe her performance doing a stand-up routine at the Mohegan Sun Casino, and the lawyer asked about it, and the colleague said, well, she kind of bombed. And Rosie laughed, and the whole courtroom laughed. And there have been some pretty light moments in between all of this, you know, heavy drama and heavy testimony.

O'BRIEN: As we mentioned, this really comes down to a breach of contract dispute with both sides suing the other for saying that they're the ones who broke the contract.

The disaster kind of started at the beginning when Susan Tepfer (ph), who was brought in from "People" magazine, or had been at "People" magazine at one point, to be Rosie's -- to work with Rosie, to be the editor, and yet Rosie thought that Susan was going to report to her, and Susan made sure that it was not in her contract. She had a different set of bosses.

Is that going to be sort of the critical element, regardless of all the drama, what's going to be sort of the factual, critical element in this trial?

DAGOSTINO: It really is. Judge Ira Gamerman (ph) is just a no- nonsense judge. And remember, there's no jury in this trial. This is all being decided by one man who's sitting there in the robe. And he is -- he's brought it up time and again in sort of questioning what the attorneys are doing and what they're going over, and clearly, this is a contract dispute. He's going to interpret the language of that contract that Bruno Jahr (ph) took and that Rosie took, the precedents that were set in the first year of the magazine when Rosie did approve every single item that went into the magazine, as opposed to when Susan Tepfer came in, some of the changes -- we've seen this in testimony already, some of the changes that Rosie was requesting simply weren't made. And the magazine went to print, not with what Rosie had requested, but the way Susan Tepfer decided to put it in.

O'BRIEN: So in some ways, all of this drama, conversations about sexual orientation for Rosie O'Donnell, conversations about whether or not she's horribly mean and vicious, and spiteful and horrible to her employees sort of irrelevant.

DAGOSTINO: Right.

O'BRIEN: At the end of the day they're good copy to talk about but they're not going to have anything to do with what's in a contract.

DAGOSTINO: It's wonderful drama in a courtroom, but it's simply not a breach of contract to yell at someone and be mean to someone.

O'BRIEN: What's Rosie O'Donnell been saying? I know that she's really made a point to come out and talk to the journalist. She's got Cindy Berger, her publicist, by her side. So obviously, this is a PR strategy to have quotables everyday, defending yourself, that are going to be on the news.

DAGOSTINO: Right. In fact, in some points, Rosie is saying so much, Cindy is literally dragging her away from the press. But you know, Rosie wants to talk and she feels that she has been wronged, and she just has said time and time again, I'm not going to give one cent. She also says from the beginning we all could have walked away from this peacefully, I agreed to leave them with my $6 million investment and simply walk away from this. And we all could have been happy and just let it close down. And you know, she insists that they want war. And...

O'BRIEN: Does it surprise you at all that you don't have these sort of press conferences from G&J, people spinning their side? Because you do get a one-sided spin at the end of every single day.

DAGOSTINO: Absolutely. And...

O'BRIEN: And from a woman who's a comedienne and funny and...

DAGOSTINO: Exactly. And can turn a phrase and make it sound great in the papers the next day and grab headlines, you know, every single day from this. The Gruner & Jahr people are imply -- it's a large corporation, they're one of the largest publishers in the U.S., and they simply are, you know, what they consider, taking the high road, they're trying their case in court and not in the press.

O'BRIEN: Mark Dagostino, "People" magazine. Nice to have you. Thanks so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com