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But
there is no doubt that the confluence of events since 2002
have not painted a pretty picture of O’Donnell. The ugly demise
of her magazine, in which both she and her publishers threw vicious
statements at each other in the press and in court, made O’Donnell
look mean-spirited and somewhat petty. The fact that the lawsuit
was dismissed by the judge, who decided that neither side deserved
to receive any damages, only further supported the conclusion that
O’Donnell was simply stirring up bad publicity.
Simultaneously,
O’Donnell was pursuing Boy George to star in a Broadway production
which focused on 1980s gay performance artist Leigh Bowery. The
production, Taboo, ended up losing $10 million after a 100-show
run that received consistently negative reviews. As O’Donnell’s
first creative venture after her decidedly mainstream talk show,
Taboo and her involvement in it—including her claims that
she had cut her hair short in order to prove to Boy George that
she was gay enough to produce the play—surely was a shocker
to her straight fans, but primarily because it contrasted so sharply
with the still-lingering image of Rosie as the Queen of Nice.
Now
that she is no longer working full-time on a daytime talk show,
O’Donnell has had the opportunity to pursue creative endeavors
that allow her to be more than simply "nice." Her choices
have shown her to be a complex and moody individual, but a real
one—not a smiling, carefully manufactured talk-show host.
One
of O’Donnell's most interesting decisions in the
past few years is to begin making art that reflects the people and
events in her life. Her artwork, which incorporates news pieces,
photographs, and oils in a variety of collages, reveals an individual
with a unique and passionate perspective on pop culture, as well
as a loving mother. O’Donnell’s art is clearly the work
of someone with deeply held convictions and a commitment to speaking
out about them.
Her
artwork—and her public support for gay adoption and gay marriage—also
serves to remind us that there still are things that lesbians should
be angry about. Inequality is not going to be successfully fought
by always being polite. Sometimes the truth is, in fact, very ugly,
and it is helpful to have a celebrity who is willing to say things
like “I would like to tell Laura Bush and her husband I find
the proposed amendment [banning gay marriage] very, very, very,
very shocking and immoral.”
Recently,
O’Donnell and her partner have undertaken several
steps to improve her somewhat-damaged image. Rosie
seems to be adopting a more traditionally feminine appearance again,
and although their marriage was clearly a political as well as personal
statement, Rosie and Kelli are undeniably joyful in the photos and
media coverage of the event.
Kelli
O'Donnell's recent appearance on 20/20--her first public
interview since becoming involved with Rosie--provided an image
of Rosie that countered some of the harshness of the past year.
As Kelli (who grew up in a conservative Christian family) talks
about how she and Rosie met, and how their relationship forced her
parents to finally accept their daughter's sexuality, she not only
comes across as intelligent, confidant, and sincere, but sweet,
polite, and tactful: the perfect complement to Rosie's more polarizing
personality.
But
although she may be less confrontational than Rosie, Kelli clearly
loves and respects Rosie as she is. "I don't think I could
have fallen in love with her if she was 100% like she was on the
talk show. I love that she's a little bit darker," Kelli told
Walters. "The creative and artistic part [of her] brings her
to an introverted place, [and] I love that about her."
Rosie
and Kelli’s most recent business venture (with gay travel
expert Greg Kaminsky), a travel and tour company for gay families
called R Family Vacations, sets sail this July with a cruise to
the Bahamas. Described by Rosie as “the first gay cruise with
family values,” the company demonstrates once again her commitment
to supporting the rights of gay families.
These
recent developments and Kelli's introduction to the public
provide a more well-rounded image of Rosie, and
enable the public to get a more complete picture of who she really
is. But will Americans accept this more complicated Rosie?
As
a nation, we've never been very good at shades of gray, at acknowledging
that a person can be both sweet and sarcastic, friendly and angry,
nice and (sometimes) mean. But America's preference for black-and-white
answers and easy categorization is becoming increasingly difficult
to sustain in this era of information overflow: we simply know too
much about most of our celebrities and public figures to put them
into neat little boxes anymore.
And
it is only going to get more difficult to one-dimensionalize
celebrities going forward, which makes the public's struggle to
make sense of the conflicting images of Rosie O'Donnell not only
important for lesbian visibility, but a harbinger of what is to
come. We need to accept that Rosie, like all other figures public
and private, is only human; her success, and ours, depends
on it.
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