Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Rosie O'Donnell Publicly Outed by Barbara Walters

Aired February 15, 2002 - 09:41   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: There has been a lot of speculation about whether Rosie O'Donnell would become the next Ellen Degeneres and publicly out herself. Some are citing the fact that Rosie's been dropping plenty of hints lately, like her recent guest appearance on the popular television show "Will and Grace," where she portrayed a lesbian mother. But apparently, hints were not enough to get the job done. So, just yesterday, Barbara Walters on "The View," with Rosie's blessing, did the outing for her.

Walters said that Rosie was not concerned about public reaction. Quote: "What concerns Rosie, she told the audience, is that she has three adopted children, and a foster child herself, and because she is gay, would not be able to adopt this child in Florida."

So now that the word is out, not only is there a big question about how this will affect her life, but also her financial enterprises. "Find Me," her memoir, is due out in bookstores soon, and joining us now is Michael Wolff, media columnist for "New York Magazine."

Good to see you again. Welcome back.

MICHAEL WOLFF, "NEW YORK MAGAZINE": Thanks for having me.

ZAHN: So what do you make about how this outing was handled? There were hints from the book publishing company that she was going to out herself in the book, but that wasn't enough. We got the true preview yesterday on "The View."

WOLFF: This was may in fact be the longest outing on outing record. When I told someone I was coming to talk about this, they said, oh, wasn't she outed several years ago? And I think that that's partly what's happening here, and why this will probably work for her and probably will create no Ellen moment.

ZAHN: Well, she certainly didn't hide her relationships. For any of us who lived here in New York City, we would see Rosie and her girlfriend in very public places. They made no attempt to hide.

WOLFF: We get our haircuts in the same place, and so I've seen Rosie together with her friend. Yes, I don't think that this has -- it's been one of those kind of two-track secrets. Not a secret, and yet a secret because nobody has acknowledged that we know it's not a secret. "New York" magazine -- actually my magazine did last year -- wrote -- we did an essay about this fact, that this odd thing that the media knows, but they don't say. And it's not -- actually that isn't entirely true, because they don't say, but they say a little bit.

ZAHN: Sure.

WOLFF: And this has so it has really kind of -- kind of step-by- step crept out into the open.

ZAHN: It's interesting to see this morning that people, executives of advertising agencies are saying they don't believe this will have all that much impact on her ability to continue to sell her magazine, and obviously, it's going to probably help sell books?

WOLFF: It will certainly help sell books. The more conflict you can engender sells more books. I'm sure the publishers is hoping she will go out and do something even more outrageous. But I think magazines are a different story. It's more complex. And I'm not sure that anyone knows what's going to happen.

ZAHN: You say it's more complex. Editorials -- you're not suggesting editorial staff are homophobic, are you?

WOLFF: No, but advertisers are. That's not true. That's unfair. But nevertheless, advertisers are conflict-adverse. So whenever there is a situation where, oh, why do we be there, we can go into another magazine, probably the great worry, however, is that Rosie is giving up her television show.

So that's what they're saying in magazine land that -- it's that, hey, you know, we bargained on a person with a television show to sell this magazine. For Grunor and Yar (ph), who own "Rosie" the magazine, I'm sure they're saying, man, this is a double whammy. Not only is she gay, but she's off the air.

ZAHN: But they had a little bit of the warning that she was coming off the air. I mean, she dropped that bomb about a year ago?

WOLFF: Right. But then this combined with this change in persona, and I don't think this is not a moral issue, probably for most people. But is an editorial issue, OK. If she's gay, does this magazine have to reflect this? Does it go on doing what it has been doing? I think unclear to everybody.

ZAHN: I think it's unclear to everyone. Well,we appreciate your dropping by.

Michael Wolff, always good to see you. Usually see you on Fridays, I don't know what that means. You helped take us into the weekend. Thank you.

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