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TOM ZUCCOSure, sometimes she makes thousands as a celebrity impersonator. But the day job is where her heart lies.
ST. PETERSBURG - The kids in freshman English know what their teacher does in her spare time. She performs on stage in front of hundreds of people, sings, tells jokes and is flying to California in December to tape an episode of Hollywood Squares.
One day this week she was wearing a black pantsuit, which made her look even more like Rosie O'Donnell, the film star, comedian and former talk show host she impersonates.
They also know she'll learn all their names, praise them at even the slightest opportunity and call their parents if they're in danger of failing.
Vicki Browne stood in front of her class, opened a copy of To Kill A Mockingbird, and started reading. Thirty minds that were on crushes, cars and cell phones suddenly returned to Room 125 at St. Petersburg High School.
Browne became Atticus Finch, a lawyer in rural Alabama in the 1930s who defends a black man accused of raping a white woman.
"Now Scout, you might hear some ugly things at school," Browne said, sliding into her best Atticus. "But hold your head high and keep your fists down."
The kids are hanging on every word when the bell rings, and they're talking about the book's central themes of prejudice and racism as they pack up and leave.
"It's just a hook," Browne said after the last student was gone. "We talked at the beginning of the year about what I do in my off time, and they're fine with it.
"But I'm a teacher. That's what I love. The Rosie thing is for fun."
The Rosie thing.
For most of the year, Browne teaches freshman and honors English at St. Petersburg High and coaches the debate team. But in the summer and on weekends when she can fit it in, she puts on a dark suit or a League of Their Own baseball shirt, cops an attitude, and becomes Rosie O'Donnell for trade shows, conventions and charity events. She poses for pictures mostly. "Meet and greet," as the talent agencies put it.
"I sign autographs "Vicki as Rosie,' " she said. "I got into a big argument about that once. They wanted me to sign as Rosie, but she's not dead. So it would be like a forgery."
Browne, 38, first began to realize she was a dead ringer for O'Donnell in college at Stetson University. And when she started teaching high school in Orlando, she heard it all the time. So when Universal Studios held an audition for a Rosie impersonator, she applied. They picked her out of a field of nearly 300 women.
Being Rosie, she has made as much as $3,000 for three days in Chicago, and as little as $300 for an afternoon in Orlando.
She also turned down a $7,000 weeklong gig in Las Vegas. "But that was the week of exams, and we had a debate tournament in Nashville," Browne said. "I couldn't miss that. Are you kidding me?"
It helps that unlike the legion of people who impersonate Madonna, Cher or Elvis (thin or bloated), Browne is one of only a few who do Rosie O'Donnell. She has been repeatedly told that she looks like Monica Lewinsky. But if she puts on a beret, it's as Rosie.
"She (Lewinsky) is not a good role model for kids," Browne said, "so I just won't do it."
Even though O'Donnell's show ended last year and the 41-year-old actor/host has been largely out of the news, Browne keeps getting calls.
"I thought it was over, so I wanted to lose a few pounds," Browne said. "But not now. Not with Hollywood Squares coming up." Browne will be among several celebrity lookalikes who will be contestants on the game show, which is scheduled to air the week of Feb. 9.
She and her husband, Stephen, will pay their own way to Los Angeles. Browne will get $500 to be on the show, and if she wins a prize, say a trip to Hawaii, she keeps it. If she wins cash, 10 percent goes to her agent.
Twenty or even 10 years ago, Browne might have had a problem teaching school and impersonating an openly gay entertainer.
"But 10 years ago, no entertainers were openly gay," she said. "I don't think Rosie's ever done anything morally wrong.
"What you teach about Monica Lewinsky is "Don't do that.' But Rosie has got the right idea. That we are put on the Earth to help people.
"One kid asked me once if I was scared to do her because she's gay. I told him I don't care about her sex life. I care about her as a person. The kids all know I'm straight. I've got pictures of my husband everywhere.
"But I think they get a clear picture that I have no problem with someone who is gay. I think that's really good for the kids to see."
St. Petersburg High principal Linda Benware, who Browne and others say bears more than a passing resemblance to Florence Henderson of Brady Bunch fame, is among Browne's many fans. But not because of a likeness to a celebrity.
"I've been in the business almost 30 years," Benware said, "and it'd be hard to think of anyone as inspiring, caring, loving and supportive of her students, the faculty and the community as a whole as Vicki. The Rosie part is a creative, fun outlet that enriches her teaching life.
"I've never been uncomfortable with it."
Nor have her students.
"When she came here my freshman year, our debate team was just about nonexistent," said Lindsay Lake, a junior who is a captain of the debate team. "Her first year, we qualified for nationals. That's almost unheard of.
"I don't think she's ever been with her husband on Valentine's Day because she's been at a tournament with us. A lot of teachers don't want to be that committed to a bunch of teenagers. But she puts us first.
"I'll remember her the rest of my life. She's funny and generous and loud and creative.
"That's who she really is, and that's the best thing in the world."