HOLLYWOOD Q&A

Q: What happens on game shows, such as “Let’s Make a Deal,” if someone wins something like a spa or hot tub and they live in an apartment? Does the contestant get something else or are they stuck with the item?

A: Past game show contestants always talk about the complicated paperwork involved in being on the show, and one of the key elements of that paperwork is that you win exactly what they said you won on air — unless the show chooses to switch it.

Many of the prizes are given to the show by the manufacturers or service providers as a way to promote themselves. For example, a tour company will give travel tickets to a show as a prize to give away. If a contestant wins them but chooses not to go, the show isn’t going to offer a different prize because then it’s still stuck with the tickets. And it won’t give cash value, because the cash would be coming out of the show’s own pocket.

That said, if a prize isn’t one given to the show ahead of time, the show will sometimes give “cash in lieu,” cutting a check for the prize value instead of going out and purchasing it on the winner’s behalf.

Q: Where did Rosie O’Donnell get her start?

A: For the past several years, Rosie O’Donnell has been living the dream of so many of her co-

competitors on the classic talent-competition show “Star Search.”

Her TV debut was as a standup comedian in an episode of the show in 1984, but she won that episode and so returned — five more times.

Her official biography says she used her “Star Search” winnings to move from her native New York to Los Angeles to pursue acting. And the plan worked: shortly after arriving, she landed a recurring role in the sitcom “Gimme a Break” in 1986 (her addition was an attempt to freshen up the show in what would be its final season).

After it ended, she landed a gig as a VJ on the VH1 music channel. She held that until the point when VH1 — ahead of its time — moved away from just playing videos and toward longer-form programming. They gave her her own show — one that played to her strengths called “Stand-Up Spotlight” — which she hosted for four years.

Her next big role was really her breakout one, as wisecracking third basewoman Doris Murphy in the 1992 baseball classic “A League of Their Own.”

Her star rose pretty rapidly from there to some major film roles, leading to her getting her own daytime talk show, the aptly named “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” in 1996. The rest — not all of it as good, as the tabloids will tell you — is modern-TV history.