NY Times review of Rosie Live

Wow...this is the NY Times review of Rosie Live! Special that aired last night......

Hokey Comedy With An Enemy List

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: November 27, 2008

Rosie O'Donnell's Wednesday night special on NBC, "Rosie Live," was supposed to be a tribute to the variety shows of the 1970s, but she added a Nixonian twist: Christmas songs, tap-dancing twins and an enemies list.

In between skits, celebrity cameos and hokey novelty acts, the legendarily thin-skinned Ms. O'Donnell found time to take potshots at some of her favorite targets, including Donald Trump, Nancy Grace and Bill O'Reilly. She left out Barbara Walters, with whom Ms. O'Donnell has been feuding ever since Ms. O'Donnell left "The View," perhaps reluctant to draw attention to Ms. Walters's interview with Barack and Michelle Obama on ABC the same night. (Even that Barbara Walters special had a '70s feel, as Ms. Walters reprised her famous interview with Jimmy Carter, asking President-elect Obama if he intended to personally turn off the lights in the White House to conserve energy.)

Ms. O'Donnell's self-referential swats at detractors were light, but they clashed with the context, lending a hard, contemporary edge to what was intended to be a corny, heartfelt homage to variety shows of yesteryear, like "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour" and "The Carol Burnett Show." So did her bizarre product-placement duet with Jane Krakowski, a star of the NBC comedy "30 Rock," who performed a sultry striptease in front of a giant monitor flashing images of White Castle hamburgers, BlackBerrys and Crest Whitestrips.

Nostalgia was also pushed hard. After her monologue, Ms. O'Donnell sang a duet of "City Lights" alongside a sequined, slightly tremulous Liza Minnelli, who rose out of a trap door to join the host on stage. Ms. O'Donnell beamed at Harry Connick Jr. as he channeled Perry Como, crooning "Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas" while wearing a Santa hat.

Alec Baldwin hit Conan O'Brian in the face with a pie, spinning cowboys danced with ropes (albeit in tune to a 1980s hit by Dead or Alive, "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)"), and Alanis Morissette sang a sad ballad in long dark hair and thick bangs, like Cher.

Ms. O'Donnell is usually pretty good at borrowing from the past. Her talk show, which ran from 1996 to 2002, was a hit, mainly because Ms. O'Donnell sought to recreate the kindly, good-humored sensibility of "The Mike Douglas Show." (She asked celebrity guests softball questions and tossed soft squishy balls at her audience.) Ellen DeGeneres picked up that baton and made her own talk show a hit. Ms. O'Donnell went on "The View" and took that show hostage, stoking ratings -- and her own reputation for erratic rage -- by feuding with the likes of Mr. Trump and even her co-hosts. (She and Ms. Walters had a bitter, highly public spat, collateral damage from the Trump war.)

Ms. O'Donnell can be very funny, but she didn't try very hard Wednesday night. Her opening monologue was a riff about her weight, focused on her Spanx support garments, which she described as "onesies for chubby fortysomethings." But Spanx underwear is an overused joke. As she did on "The View," Ms. O'Donnell brought up that she was gay but added a coy comedy bit that didn't really match her usual outspokenness.

Clay Aiken, the "American Idol" star who is appearing on Broadway in "Spamalot" and recently announced that he was gay, made a brief appearance in his costume from that show. He and Ms. O'Donnell named things they have in common, including a son named Parker, then pretended to be stumped about the other trait they share. " Oh, I remember," Ms. O'Donnell said. "We're both Gay ... briel Byrne fans."

The usually funny comedian Kathy Griffin was stuck in one of the show's least amusing skits, appearing on stage in a short blond wing to do a wilted impersonation of Nancy Grace, another O'Donnell bête noire.

Lame jokes are part of the holiday variety genre, along with campy production numbers featuring sexy dancers and cute little children. Celebrity score-settling, on the other hand, belongs to the self-obsessed blogging Facebook generation. Ms. O'Donnell, who frequently takes out her frustrations in a video diary on her Web site, would have been better served leaving herself behind and sticking to the classics.

Whoa....well this review doesn't sound to good. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the show because I was busy watching Michelle & Barack Obama being interviewed by Barbara Walters. (Which I thoroughly enjoyed...sorry Rosie...)

Did anyone happen to catch Rosie Live? Please leave a comment and let me know what you thought...

"The price we pay when pursuing any art or calling, is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side."