Celebrity Detox: (The Fame Game)
by Rosie O'Donnell
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Book Summary Information
Author: Rosie O'DonnellEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-10-09
ISBN: 0446582247
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Book Reviews of Celebrity Detox: (The Fame Game)
Book Review: Compulsory Dehumanization and the Celebrity Existence
Summary: 5 Stars
Rosie O'Donnell. The name conjures as many images and feelings as roles she has played over the years: comedienne, actress, talk show host, child advocate, philanthropist, gay rights advocate, Broadway star and patron, anti-war crusader, feminist, and now, social critic. It would be easy to describe her (as some, in this age of sound bytes, have) as 'the world's second most famous lesbian' or a 'professional ballbuster' who's riled some major chauvinist icons (some with famous combovers) in the last year with her no-holds-barred attack on the socio-economic system which pretends to value women while making them complicit in their own self-hatred.
Whatever appraisal one chooses to make of Rosie O'Donnell, one thing she can never be accused of is of being coy: this is a woman who seeks (and frequently achieves) authenticity. Personal truth is the goal, and sometimes her personal truth can rile the establishment. But, as Rosie reveals in "Celebrity Detox," the fury of the establishment is a far smaller force to have to contend with than her own need to be authentic, which, when subverted, diminishes her humanity and leaves her (as it has done with so many others) as a caricature, a manufactured image, a "celebrity" who has very little to in fact celebrate, removed twice from herself and relegated to being a shadow's shadow.
For those of us who watched her year on "The View," a tenure the media has frequently characterized as stormy, contentious, and controversial (a claim simultaneously oblivious and indicative of the media's long-since suspended ability to utilize what used to be known as critical thinking) Rosie became the voice of what was brewing quietly but remained unspoken, and it was a voice that an increasingly fascist political climate would not tolerate: but looking back, we wonder, why the furor? Certainly she said things which were contentious and anti-establishment, but revolutionary? Hardly. A nightly survey of cable TV's Olbermann, Stewart, Colbert, and Maher will yield similar opinions. But none of them were subject to the scrutiny the former Queen of Nice has had to endure. So, one is left asking, why the furor over Rosie?
No woman in recent memory--not Oprah, not Hillary, not Diane Sawyer--has used her voice or position in the media to enlighten a complacent populace of its willingness, ignorance, and indifference to its now destructive function as the forlorn global superpower. The question, then, naturally arises, what is so threatening about a powerful female voice? Why is the outrage of one woman so much more volatile than the collective condemnation of "liberal" male activists?
In short, she did what no woman before her has done: she used the platform of a daytime TV talk show to espouse the strong, unflinching, progressive opinions of a feminist in a forum used to pretty young and middle-aged women chatting innocuously over fashion trends, gourmet recipes, feminine bodily functions and the requisite fawning over celebrity hunks. What it isn't used to is a dynamic and compelling debate over social and political issues, one which challenges the mainstream ideology and (in this era of a near-fascist American sentiment where patriotism has acquired the status of pseudo-religion) includes a call-to-arms of viewers in defense of democracy and human rights. Such high voltage debate is usually the domain of the male-dominated cable shows which have for years now reduced the democratic debate to a two-sided and myopic screaming fest which is, precisely, propaganda.
Which brings us to "Celebrity Detox": this is, essentially, a story about relationships between women, specifically the bonds between Rosie and a cadre of important women in her life: her mother, her wife, her daughters, her colleagues, and, especially, Barbara Walters.
It is somewhat ironic that for a woman who spent a year on the air reigniting the feminist consciousness, she is rather critical of Walters who, by Rosie's own admission, was a trailblazing feminist leader in her own day. Walters's accomplishments need not be repeated, but what is worth mentioning is her seeming inability to strike with force when the situation warrants--she is, Rosie observes, someone who likes to keep the peace, even if the peace can only be kept by reneging on personal and professional loyalties and, in the event of the Rosie-Trump battle, the feminist trailblazer appeasing a blatantly misogynistic and egomaniacal billionaire.
In "Detox" she continues to make deservedly searing indictments of the Bush Administration, the Old Boys Network and Wealthy Elites Clubs, and the Media. On global warming: "[The government] want the pennies in their pockets now, and they're addicted to oil in a way that makes the sickest heroin junkie look healthy." On 'The View': "I had come to understand that the show was not produced in the spirit of art, or even adventure. It lacked a heartbeat. A pulse. Humanity--truth." On Donald Trump: "I honestly did not anticipate the malice of his response; but looking back at it, I can understand it. I assumed Donald believed he had money. I did not assume Donald believed he was money." And her melancholy observations on Celebrity: "Fame is the ultimate expression of hierarchy. And hierarchy is the ultimate structure on which anger, jealousy, and humiliation hang . . . No matter how great, how rich, how brilliant, how fat, there will always be someone else with more. This, perhaps, is the hurt we humans have never learned to hold." In all, her observations give credence to the Roseann O'Donnell who, in spite of her loud, brassy public persona, is intensely reflective, solemn, and insightful.
But the most telling moments of the book are of what she has learned from the absence of her mother and her search for a replacement in a woman like Barbara Walters. Much like O'Donnell's last book, "Find Me," a lot of the personal details come off the page as intimate revelations, the kind one does not expect to be privy to. She reveals, half angry and half sad, that "She betrayed me in many ways, my mother." This is echoed in the fierceness with which she confronts Walters over her lackadaisical defense of Rosie from Trump's relentless media crusade. She tells the story of her mom having a tree chopped down outside her window after she revealed a man was climbing it to come into her window. Who was this man? Fantasy or reality? Like other aspects of Rosie's life, she hints that it's both.
Rosie hinted in "Find Me" that she was abused as a child, but refrains from providing additional details--what she learned in her childhood was not to talk, which in adulthood has transmuted into an insistence that all things be brought out into the light and dealt with in the open, regardless of the attendant shame or guilt. This forthrightness was on display during her tenure at 'The View' and may have, in the end, been more than she bargained for. It was certainly more than Walters had bargained for who still seems to be coming to grips with what transpired last year. In the end, it seems, both women have come to an understanding and have learned to love each other in a genuine way, with all the hurt, struggle, and complexity that define valued relationships.
I remember telling someone when I first heard that Rosie was joining 'The View' that it would not work: she is too dynamic, too fearless, and too large a personality to be part of an ensemble, much less a willing piece of a composite enslaved to the dictates of a media corporation. Certain talents cannot share the stage--and even when they try, the spotlight becomes invariably fixated on them. In a world where violence, misogyny, and war are trumpeted as the bearings of strength, Rosie's refusal to go quietly and complacently has reignited the idealistic humanism which, for now, the spotlight continues to elude.
Summary of Celebrity Detox: (The Fame Game)
Sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking, and always brutally honest, this is Rosie O'Donnell's surprising account of the pain, regret, and euphoria involved in withdrawing from celebrity life--and the terrifying dangers of relapsing into the spotlight.CELEBRITY DETOX is Rosie's story of the years after she walked away from her top-rated TV show in 2002, and her reasons for going back on the air in 2006. In it, she takes you inside the world of talk show TV, speaking candidly about the conflicts and challenges she faced as cohost on ABC's The View. Along the way Rosie shows us how fame becomes addiction and explores whether or not it's possible for an addict to safely, and sanely, return to the spotlight.
Chronicling the ups and downs of "the fame game," Rosie O'Donnell illuminates not only what it's like to be a celebrity, but also what it's like to be a mother, a daughter, a leader, a friend, a sister, a wife...in short, a human being.
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