The nice queen also wears the crown of poster girl for women of a larger size (she's an 18). And don't expect an Oprah-like transformation any time soon. "I'm not the kind of person who'd get a cook and a trainer. If I do, call me up and remind me what I just said."
O'Donnell addressed the weighty issue again this year during a model-bashing monologue in the male-bonding movie Beautiful Girls. When she dismissed surgically enhanced centerfolds as "beauty freaks," says O'Donnell, who caught the flick with her sister at a New Jersey theater, "the women stood up and cheered. There was this huge uprising among these overweight, non-perfect women."
This year's other notable big-screen appearance, as an understanding nanny in Harriet the Spy, heightened her profile among kids, who have become some of her show's most avid fans. It's no surprise: With her giddy demeanor, a penchant for belting out goofy pop songs, and an insatiable taste for McDonald's Happy Meal doodads, O'Donnell often seems like an oversize kid herself. "Kids don't see a lot of adults being silly and playing with toys," she says. One of those toys, Sesame Street's Tickle Me Elmo doll, became Christmas' most coveted item after making its debut on Rosie's show. "I don't take full credit," she says. "But I guess I take a little."
If Kmart execs see a sales increase this Christmas season, they can thank Rosie too: Her commercials with Penny Marshall--who directed O'Donnell's movie debut in 1992's baseball comedy A League of Their Own--make shopping there seem almost hip (hey, we said almost). "I love anyone who can improv, and Rosie can improv," says Marshall. "Plus, she understands my mumbling, so she's a friend for life." But the ads did cause at least one problem for Rosie: "I was in Florida for Thanksgiving, and my VCR broke, so I went to the Wal-Mart around the block. It was in the paper: Rosie O'Donnell was at Wal-Mart--the traitor!"
The bad press doesn't bother her. She's even prepared for the inevitable media backlash: "I know it'll happen. ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY will have me as Entertainer of the Year, and then you'll write: 'Entertainer of the Year? Gimme a break--look at her rear!'"
We'd never say that. It wouldn't be nice.
--Bruce Fretts, with additional reporting by Rebecca Ascher-Walsh, Tricia Laine, and Benjamin Svetkey
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"I'm not the kind of person who'd get a cook and a trainer" Rosie on following Oprah's lead
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