Rosie O'Donnell shakes up show with Florida trip

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By ERIC DEGGANS

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 14, 2000

Ask Rosie O'Donnell why she's so involved with social causes -- from kids' issues to gun control, breast cancer awareness to weight loss -- and you'll get a serious answer.

"You gotta go with your heart and your gut," she says. "You're not used to seeing celebrities do that. Whenever something political happens, and they go ask celebrities about it, they say something non-committal . . . the ol' political two-step. I can't do that."

O'Donnell's passion informs nearly every element of her show business life these days, especially on the daytime show that bears her name.

Today, she speaks on gun control and children's issues at the Million Mom March in Washington, D.C., flying south just in time to start a week's worth of shows Monday from Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom in Orlando.

And while road trips are often serious business for talk shows, O'Donnell's Florida jaunt may feel more like a vacation -- mostly because it brings her closer to her Miami home.

"It's my favorite place," says the 38-year-old entertainer about her South Florida digs, which she visits on weekends and holidays. "I love the heat, the Cuban culture and everything. I always vowed, if I ever had the money, I would move here."

The trip also allows O'Donnell to shake up a show that needs some stimulation.

Featuring musical numbers, Orlando-based trio LFO, and tours of the Disney theme park complex, this week's episodes offer a welcome boost to a program that even O'Donnell admits can "be a little monotonous" at times.

In Tampa, Fox affiliate WTVT-Ch. 13 recently moved the show from 4 p.m. to 3 p.m., away from a bruising competition with Oprah Winfrey.

Though she once looked like a challenger to Winfrey's daytime talk crown, recent months have seen her show outranked by Oprah, Jerry Springer and even Judge Judy, which replaced it at 4 p.m. on WTVT.

"The worst part of this is having to be on at the same time as Oprah (in some markets)," says O'Donnell. "Frankly, when we're on at the same time, I watch her. Because I already know how my show went."

"Innately, we have a lot of the same beliefs and convictions and we pull at the same audience," she adds. "When my show came out, other than her, it was just Jerry Springer and Sally Jessy (Raphael), with all these people fighting."

O'Donnell gets lots of attention these days, appearing on covers for Redbook, Good Housekeeping and McCall's magazines in recent months, and drawing 36-million viewers to ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire during her May 3 appearance.

O'Donnell, who says she rarely sees her own show, says her Millionaire appearance was a rude awakening.

"It was unnerving . . . (because) I was so obnoxious," she says, though she still begged for a slot on the celebrity Millionaire planned for November. "I was sitting there thinking, "My God, Why don't you just shut up?' I sound like I'm killing a cat."

But what may have drawn the most public ire is her aggressive advocacy for gun control laws. It emerged after the Columbine High School shootings last year, when she confronted National Rifle Association spokesman Tom Selleck on her show.

"You never see one celebrity tell another, "I really disagree with how you're using your celebrity. . . . You're promoting a cause that's horrible,' " says O'Donnell, who is still excoriated by NRA advocates on Web pages across the Internet. "But I had to speak to it, because it was so blatant. It really called me to the table, spiritually."

With two years left in her current contract, O'Donnell wonders about life after The Rosie O'Donnell Show -- which she expects to fill with lots of charitable work and social advocacy.

"I always wonder, when I see these celebrities, "Why don't you take all that money and fame and work on something that really matters?' " she adds. "I've had a really great career. (But) when the race is over, you gotta stop running."

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