ROSIE’S REVENGE!
O’Donnell sets sights on The View – without Whoopi!
SCHEMING Rosie O’Donnell is betting the third time’s the charm as she angles once again to return to The View, according to sources who say she’s hoping for sweet payback by seeing her nemesis Whoopi Goldberg get canned in the process!
The 60-year-old motormouth originally replaced Meredith Vieira as moderator of the morning talkfest in 2006, but was sent packing after a year when producers feared her politically charged diatribes were turning off viewers.
Goldberg, 67, was tapped to replace O’Donnell — but when Rosie rejoined the show in 2014, it was a match made in hell!
“Whoopi was mean as anyone has ever been on television to me, personally — while I was sitting there,” says Rosie, who threw in the towel after just four months. Now, insiders insist Rosie is eyeing a return to the show amid reports Whoopi is on thin ice!
While Rosie’s rep and an ABC spokesperson insist the TV tattle is untrue, a source spills, “O’Donnell really misses having a huge forum of a national TV show to weigh in on the news of the day. If Whoopi is out, she wants back in. And that would be delicious revenge for Rosie, since she considers Whoopi her tormentor!” Whoopi — whose $8 million annual contract runs through the 2024-2025 season — was punished with a two-week suspension last season for what were perceived as antiSemitic remarks on air. She apologized, but a show source says a permanent parting of the ways is right around the corner.
“Whoopi is increasingly cranky and disinterested on The View, but she keeps collecting the paychecks because it’s easy money,” snipes another source.
“But you get the sense that if they came to her with a buyout package, she would take it and save face by claiming she’s retiring rather than being forced out.
“Rosie could handle being second banana to Joy Behar — all that matters to her is that Whoopi isn’t around!”