Now that she is stepping down from the ABC daytime series, the world will sorely miss her sage wisdom.
But one good conspiracy deserves another, so here goes: I don rsquo;t buy for one minute that she is leaving ldquo;View rdquo; because of stalled contract negotiations. I think the network dumped her.
Hear me out before you assume I rsquo;m nuttier than O rsquo;Donnell. I already know what you rsquo;re going to say: Why would ABC jettison the show rsquo;s star attraction? O rsquo;Donnell is pretty much single-handedly responsible for the dramatic ratings increase ldquo;View rdquo; registered during the course of the year she spent there.
But ask yourself what ABC was risking by keeping O rsquo;Donnell on the air. Yes, the most controversial of her bizarre musings on Donald Trump, the Iraq war and Asian speech patterns generated a ton of free publicity for the show. But surely in the wake of the Don Imus fiasco, Walt Disney Co.
execs must have been looking at O rsquo;Donnell and wondering just how much longer this time bomb was going to tick before exploding in their faces.
O rsquo;Donnell has been flirting with the outer edges of broadcast content boundaries for quite some time now. Now that Imus has brought those lines into sharper focus, it seems she would have inevitably uttered something so inappropriate that ldquo;nappy-headed hos rdquo; would seem like a Hallmark card sentiment.
Imus may be an obvious comparison, but there is another person who offers a more direct parallel: Bill Maher. O rsquo;Donnell rsquo;s cringe-worthy style is not new territory for ABC, which sent Maher packing from his late-night series not long after he practically complimented the terrorists in the wake of Sept. 11.
My theory may seem even loonier in light of the fact that both O rsquo;Donnell and ABC have stated that their relationship will continue on a limited basis after she leaves ldquo;View rdquo; in June, in the form of guest appearances on the program and special episodes on subjects like depression. But it is within the realm of possibility that ABC would rather be seen playing nice with O rsquo;Donnell than heaving her overboard, which would have ignited a media frenzy of Imusian proportions. Chalk up her departure to contractual disagreements, and no one seems like the bad guy.
ABC won rsquo;t look like a censor, and O rsquo;Donnell won rsquo;t look like a maniac.
It rsquo;s hard to believe it would be coincidental that O rsquo;Donnell rsquo;s exit is coming the same week as a highly publicized appearance she made in Manhattan at a Women in Communications luncheon during which she grabbed her crotch, uttered profanity and made fun of News Corp. overlord Rupert Murdoch to his face.
If you rsquo;re Disney CEO Robert Iger, do you start wondering if you rsquo;re next?
In the wake of the luncheon fiasco, ldquo;View rdquo; doyenne Barbara Walters distanced herself from O rsquo;Donnell rsquo;s remarks, as she had to do repeatedly right up until O rsquo;Donnell rsquo;s on-air au revoir Wednesday. Walters claimed she had nothing to do with O rsquo;Donnell rsquo;s departure.
This from a woman who news reports described as burying her face in her hands when she was present during O rsquo;Donnell rsquo;s attack on Murdoch.
Too bad the only person with less credibility than O rsquo;Donnell has this all in perspective: Trump. As he told Bill O rsquo;Reilly on Fox News, ldquo;I am convinced that Disney threw her over the side, absolutely.
rdquo; Which leads me to write a sentence this columnist never thought would emerge from his brain: Trump is right.
News RSS