Latest news with #RosieO'Donnell
Scotsman
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
US superstar comic Rosie O'Donnell on her Edinburgh Fringe debut
After relocating to Ireland, US superstar comic Rosie O'Donnell is making her Fringe debut at the age of 63. Interview by Kate Copstick Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... There is, I believe, a powerful argument for saving your first hour of personal narrative based comedy until you have a personal narrative worth talking about. Rosie O'Donnell has several best-selling books and a way with words that surely has to owe something to the Irish gene pool on which she and her siblings floated to New York State. So she qualifies as the ideal Edinburgh Virgin. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad US comedian, actor and chat show host Rosie O'Donnell makes her Edinburgh Fringe debut after relocating to Ireland. | Gene Reed Now she has floated right back to Ireland, unwilling to risk living in Donald Trump's America. With more than a little justification, given Donald's statements that he was 'giving serious consideration to taking away' O'Donnell's citizenship because she is 'not in the best interests of our Great Country'. However America's loss is Edinburgh's gain as the 63 year old, multi-award winning film and TV icon has been found each Wednesday for the past several months, at 6pm, honing her first ever hour at the Fringe. She and her daughter arrived in Ireland in January, never having lived outside the US before and not having a clue as to what it might be like or how they might be received. When she got the offer to bring a show to Edinburgh she said yes right away, 'because it was going to let me focus on something other than the politics of America'. To be fair, O'Donnell and 'the politics of America' have never actually been best buds. She had problems with Bush, she opposed the much loved National Rifle Association and she and Trump have been less than civil for 20 years. But before and since, her career has been extraordinary. Even at school she was voted homecoming queen, prom queen, senior class president, and class clown. She spent five years as a club stand-up before being picked up by Star Search, which she won five weeks in a row. Were she not such a decent, warm, funny woman, I would be losing any liking for her at this point. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad And she does love stand-up. 'It is intoxicating,' she says. 'The highest drug there is. To be 'making' a laugh, just you, you are the writer, you are the performer, you have the audience in the palm of your hands. You kind of feel the presence of God.' Her stand-up career started at the age of 16 when the brother of a school friend saw her in a sketch at high school. At the time, young Rosie had plans on being an actress, a Bette Midler back-up singer on Broadway to be specific. 'The fact that I couldn't sing did not deter me,' she says. But she did the gig, with no material and a room full of school friends. 'I killed it,' she says. 'How violent that expression is.' Second gig had no friends in the room. 'I died a horrible death.' But she got a job MCing the club and learned the business through watching the other comics on the bill. At 18 she dropped out of College to take up an offer of $250 and a bus ticket from Tickles Comedy Club in Toledo. The rest, as they say, is herstory. She still loves stand-up but 'I enjoyed it more before I was famous … when I could make cashiers laugh. Now I am well known there is the feeling that they will laugh at anything.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Her TV shows garnered more Emmys and Tonys and other sparkly awards than Donald Trump has had legal battles, as well as crowning her The Queen of Nice. I ask if she thinks that when you are older you are more able to own your own mistakes and be more comfortable turning them into comedy. 'I think that with menopause and ageing comes wisdom,' she says. 'You can look properly at the stew of your life, you can understand it, you can process it.' And it seems that quite a lot of this wisdom is going into her debut Edinburgh hour. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I want to re-introduce myself as a fully grown 63-year-old woman, and not the 30-something woman they remember from movies and chat shows,' she says. She has learned, she says, 'to stop blaming other people. And to stop trying to make things more palatable to you – or to an audience.' O'Donnell wanted, from an early age, to be famous. But not for the reason you might think. At ten years old she watched her mother die from cancer. 'And I thought if I was Barbra Streisand I could go on a TV show and ask everyone to send $10 and I could get money for the medication to make my mother well.' Now she is famous, she is still driven to use celebrity to help. Since 1997 her For All Kids foundation - started with $3 of her own money - has given away more than $22 million in early child care and education programmes. 'It's the main reason why I continue to push myself and my career to do more and more because of the amount that you're able to raise for charity.' For herself, she is not driven by money, she says, as I mention the 'hit and run' performances that frequently give big name visitors to the Fringe a bad name. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'In my thirties, when I was doing the TV shows, I had an Oprah-esque deal' she says. 'I am financially set for life. So leaving Trump's America has been nothing but a positive move. The rampant consumerism that has been encouraged has, she says 'done damage to the soul of America'. But she has left with all her socio-political strengths and drives intact. She is horrified at the actions of Israel in Gaza. 'There is blood on the hands of the United States. What we are seeing on the footage coming out of Gaza is like the images from the liberation of Auschwitz. And to deny it does a disservice to life itself.' She is looking forward to coming to Scotland. She has been once before – to Edinburgh, in August, aged 11. Her overweening memory is of the cold. 'This will be my introduction to the people of Scotland,' she says. 'I would say, just come to the show with an open mind. And I am hoping the people of Scotland will be as open and welcoming as the Irish.'
Extra.ie
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Extra.ie
Rosie O'Donnell 'almost made very expensive mistake' while saving woman from choking
Rosie O'Donnell joked that she nearly made a very expensive mistake after she saved an elderly woman from choking. The comedian moved to Ireland following the re-election of Donald Trump — with whom she had a long rivalry — with her child Clay, and spoke earlier this month about how she saved a 90-year-old woman from choking at the Dillon Hotel. Appearing on Ireland AM on Friday (July 25) Rosie elaborated on the incident; but joked that while she called for people to call 911, she was told that the emergency number here is 999. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ireland AM (@irelandamvmtv) 'I ran over like an EMT,' Rosie explained. 'I had taken a course [on CPR] when I was in my 20s, but I didn't know — I was panicking. My friend was there and we were doing the Heimlich, I was in the front of her and she didn't know how to do it. So in the final minute, because I was so scared, I pushed, and I went up and then [the steak] flew out.' Rosie then said that she 'kept screaming 'call 911!' and then finally I sat down and the woman at the next table says 'Rosie, it's not 911, it's 999.'' 'There was an American ambulance on the way,' host Martin King joked, while Rosie immediately quipped 'it costs $30,000.' Rosie O'Donnell joked that she nearly made a very expensive mistake after she saved an elderly woman from choking. Pic:'So you're good at saving people from choking?' chef Jack O'Keeffe then asked Rosie, before joking 'you should've been at Croke Park on Sunday' — a reference to Cork's undoing in the second half of the All-Ireland final against Tipperary. Rosie has been welcomed to Ireland with open arms; and bookies are even putting her in the running for the President of Ireland. Ladbrokes are saying Rosie could put herself forward for the Irish presidency, especially since she is seeking Irish citizenship through descent, which would make her eligible. Rosie moved to Ireland last year and has been welcomed with open arms; with some people reckoning she could even go for the President of Ireland. Pic: Virgin Media Television Punters have also seemingly put Rosie as a potential dark horse, with 10/1 odds of winning if she does end up running. 'Rosie O'Donnell has really captured the hearts and minds of the Irish people,' Ladbrokes spokesperson Cal Gildart said. 'Her endearing charm has led punters to back her for a run at the presidency. We may see her appearing on a ballot paper in November.'
Extra.ie
24-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Extra.ie
Could Rosie O'Donnell run for president?
Could Rosie O'Donnell's name appear on the ballot paper this November? Bookies aren't ruling it out! The comedian and actress has been living in Ireland with her child, Clay, since January, after Donald Trump, with whom she has been in a very public feud, was re-elected for a second term in the 2024 Presidential election. Now, Ladbrokes are saying Rosie could put herself forward for Irish presidency, especially since she is seeking Irish citizenship through descent, which would make her eligible. Rosie O'Donnell. Pic:for ELLE Punters seem to have taken to O'Donnell, who has been outspoken about her love for Ireland. She is currently 10/1 to run in the election in November. Ladbrokes spokesperson Cal Gildart said: 'Rosie O'Donnell has really captured the hearts and minds of the Irish people. 'Her endearing charm has led punters to back her for a run at the presidency. We may see her appearing on a ballot paper in November.' Rosie O'Donnell. Pic: MediaPunch/REX/Shutterstock Speaking on Ireland AM earlier this month, Rosie explained that she feels 'so much safer' in Ireland. She said: 'It's so much safer. In fact, [Clay's] with friends walking places now. And when I was first here, they were telling me when we were looking for places to stay and live, they were like 'oh [it's] a great place because they'll be able to take their back to school.' 'And I was like 'over my dead body, they're not riding a bike to school.' And now they're able to do that. It's just such a different culture and different feeling of safety for Clay as well as me.' So far, only Independent TD Catherine Connolly and Fine Gael's Mairead McGuinness have officially anounced their presidential bid.
New York Post
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Rosie O'Donnell says she ‘expected' Trump to threaten her citizenship after ‘20 years of abuse'
Rosie O'Donnell said she wasn't surprised that President Trump threatened to revoke her US citizenship, claiming that she's endured '20 years of abuse' from her longtime foe. The former talk show host took to social media Tuesday to slam the 'absurd' attack after the president triggered a social media brawl with O'Donnell when he branded her a 'threat to humanity' in a fiery post on his platform. 'I'm safe here in Ireland. I'm out of the reach of the tangerine Mussolini,' the former talk show host said in a nearly 10-minute TikTok video addressing her longstanding feud with Trump. Advertisement 4 Rosie O'Donnell addressed her long-standing feud with President Trump on TikTok. TikTok/Rosie O'Donnell 'I have to say that I was expecting him to do something as absurd as he did for a few reasons. Number one, I read Project 2025. Number two, I've had 20 years of abuse from him so I knew it wasn't going to stop, and number three, I know myself well enough to know that I wasn't going to shut up.' O'Donnell, 63, moved overseas to the Dublin suburb of Howth with her 12-year-old non-binary child in January in response to Trump's victory against Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. Advertisement She called the move a 'necessity' to protect her family, saying her 'heart couldn't take the pain' of what Trump was planning – or what he has already done. But the actress, who was born on Long Island, remains unfazed by the president's warning shot. 'Can't take away someone's citizenship, they have to renounce it themselves in the constitution, so, you know, I'm not that worried,' the 'A League of Their Own' star remarked. Advertisement 4 President Trump said he was considering stripping O'Donnell, who moved to Ireland, of her US citizenship. Al Drago – Pool via CNP / MEGA 'However, the Supreme Court has given him unbridled powers and I believe his dementia forces him to think that he is actually a king. We don't have kings in America. That's why we started America, not wanting to have kings, no monarchy. Liberty and justice for all, for all people in the United States.' Under current law, Americans cannot lose their US citizenship status even if they obtain citizenship elsewhere. On Saturday, the commander in chief raged on Truth Social that he's giving 'serious consideration' to taking away the former TV personality's citizenship. Advertisement 4 Rosie O'Donnell and Broadway cast members protesting in front of the White House. REUTERS 'Because of the fact that Rosie O'Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great County, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship,' Trump wrote. 'She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her. GOD BLESS AMERICA!' The actress quickly fired back with a flurry of Instagram posts ripping Trump as 'dangerous old soulless man' who craves 'loyalty' and picturing him with notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. 4 O'Donnell said she will never renounce her citizenship — regardless of what Trump says. AP While it remains unclear what legal grounds Trump could invoke to strip O'Donnell of her citizenship, she claimed the prez was clearly 'rattled,' as she was still living 'rent free' in his 'collapsing brain' nearly two decades after their infamous feud erupted in 2006. In her latest post, the activist made it clear she has no intention of ever renouncing her citizenship. Advertisement 'I will never renounce my American citizenship,' she said. 'I am waiting happily for my Irish citizenship so that I can be a dual citizen, but I will never renounce my American citizenship, ever.'
NZ Herald
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Ellen DeGeneres backs comedian in heated Trump row
Ellen DeGeneres has thrown her support behind Rosie O'Donnell after her latest row with Donald Trump. The US President lashed out at the comedian over the weekend as he branded her a 'threat to humanity' on his Truth Social platform and threatened to revoke her US citizenship but Ellen has
