Celebrity Detox: (The Fame Game)
by Rosie O'Donnell
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Book Reviews of Celebrity Detox: (The Fame Game)
Book Review: Too Much Left Out to Be Truly Compelling
Summary: 2 Stars
I'm a fairly regular reader of Rosie's blog so I'm familiar with her candor and frankness, which I appreciate. I really do. But this book left me wanting more than what was offered.
First of all, it started in the wrong place. In order for the average Joe to understand exactly what "celebrity" and "stardom" mean to someone who came from an average background and upbringing, Rosie should have started this book from the night she stood onstage accepting the first Emmy for her daytime talk show. She clutched her award and, speaking through tears of apparent joy, exclaimed that dreams really do come true! So, aside from not having enough time for her children, what went so horribly wrong?
OK, so people whispered about her behind her back and stood waiting for her outside a bathroom stall (and I agree this doesn't sound the least bit pleasant). What else? I wanted to know more about the progress and transition of seeking privacy over fame. Rosie says in her book that fame is addictive but doesn't say why or how in any real detail. Is it the money? The attention? Not having to wait in line for a seat to anything? Meeting and possibly hanging with stars that make you go ga-ga?
Rosie spent the last 8 months or so saying how Donald Trump doesn't deserve her attention. She wouldn't even say his name preferring to call him the Dump Truck. Yet, in this book, she calls him every name she can think of in describing how insignificant he is and how little impact he has on her life. Uh ... what does that accomplish except to bring him back out of his spider hole? Why roll around in the gutter with this loser now? Why give him one more reason to book appearances on every talk show in the world to rant about that "fat little Rosie." She shouldn't have lowered herself to even include him, especially since he supposedly has no effect on her.
Somewhere along the way it appears Rosie mistook entertainer or comedienne for activist and political mediator. I don't disagree with her on her political positions. I stand right there with her on most everything she advocates. But she doesn't address that transition in her book either. The Rosie of "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" is a far different Rosie than we saw on "The View" this past year. I've heard her say or read on her blog that she credits the change to getting older. That's it? I don't think so. I think there's more to it than that. And I fully expect another book tackling that very issue when Rosie is ready to deal with that aspect of her life. I have no doubt it will be just as honest as this book. I just hope it's more flush with stories and details.
After all that I've written, I still recommend this book. Just don't be swayed by the headline I just saw on my newly arrived TV Guide: "Rosie's Shocking New Book!" There's nothing shocking here. And if someone perceives Ms. O'Donnell's honest words about herself as shocking, then he/she needs to get out more. Seriously.
Book Review: Aptly Titled Therapy Session
Summary: 4 Stars
I have been a longtime fan of the talk show personality of Rosie O'Donnell, even tho' I do not agree with her personal views (let's just say I am more Elisabeth Hasselbeck than Rosie O'Donnell). As a talk show host Rosie was the perfect host because she made it okay for every day people to be intrigued with the celebrities she interviewed. After all, Rosie was into her guests as much as the audience. She was and is authentic and real, even with her extremely rough edges and all. Thus I enjoyed her autobiography CELEBRITY DETOX.
This book is more a therapy session and a detox for Rosie once more coming out of celebrity and trying to find happiness and normalcy in her life. It is all over the board and abruptly goes from one thing to the other but not in an irritating way, rather in the way I bet she lives her life. Celebrity Detox makes it clear Rosie is a damaged, hurting victim of abuse still desperately seeking salvation from her wounds but searching in places salvation can not be found--in two celebrity heros/icons Barbra Streisand and Barbara Walters both of whom were also heros of her mothers. Tho' only alluded to, it is apparent that Rosie was not only abandoned by her mother when her mother died when Rosie was 10. She was also betrayed and unprotected by her mother--3 issues that have haunted her and continue to haunt her--abandonement, betrayal and unprotection. Rosie told her mom of the abuse in the only way she could...her mom humored her to the extent of literally cutting down the tree "bad man" climbed up, but when Rosie told her it didn't work, the bad man still comes in her room at night, her mom betrayed her by calling her a liar and implying Rosie would lose her love if she didn't drop this lie. So Rosie lived on with the abuse, defending herself by breaking her own bones to obtain not only attention but "nightime weapons" with the casts. Heartbreaking for any little girl to live through.
I am not surprised that she was more devastated by Barbara Walters' betrayal than she was of Donald Trump's public annialation of her. She already thought of Donald Trump as a pathetic human being. He can only hurt her in the pocket book. She was devasted by Barbara Walters because she made Barbara her surrogate mother so much so she hoped Barbara would do everything RIGHT her mother did WRONG--i.e. protect her and definitely NOT abandon her nor betray her. By not defending her to Donald Trump and the public Ms. Walters did everything Rosie's mother did to her--left her once more alone, unprotected and open to abuse.
All said and done, CELEBRITY DETOX is a fascinating read into the life of a damaged little girl grown up and turned famous ... twice. You'll feel compassion for Rosie, disdain for Donald Trump and sympathy for Barbra Streisand and Barbara Walters who love and admire Rosie but in their own humaness can not be everything Rosie hopes they will be.
Book Review: Rosie...PURE YELLOW
Summary: 5 Stars
Rosie is one of those people...you know what I mean, you either love her or you hate her...My question is this and I'm really asking...I wonder why SO MANY people hate her SO MUCH?? I remember learning in kindergarten that HONESTY is the BEST policy. And seeing as this country in SO celebrity obsessed, you would think more people would enjoy Rosie's frank honesty. You don't have to like her politics...polictics are tricky, but geez... you have to respect her honesty. Celebrity Detox is no exception. It is the MOST HONEST, REAL, and RAW memoir I think I've ever read. Rosie pulls no punches while speaking about her very public experience on The View (which I only watched because of her and have stopped watching since her departure) I feel that I take everything with a grain of salt, but if you watched The View last year, and really watched it, you can pinpoint the moments on TV that Rosie discusses in her book. And let me tell ya, you can't diagree with her. When watching those four ladies discuss the trials and tribulations of Lindsey's latest drinking binge, I often remembered Barbara Walter's REPETITIVE reminders about why she wanted to create The View..."I always wanted to do a show with different women from different backgrounds discussing relavant and important topics...blad blah blah..." And yet as soon as they hired Rosie, asked to moderate this round table format and AFTER knowing what they know about how she operates, let her loose so to speak, Barbara seemed to shut off completely...Why? Because there was TOO much discussion about important topics by different women with different backgrounds? Or too much that didn't fit into The View's agenda? Was there too much inturruption or moderation from Rosie when it came to Bill Getty's (The View's Exec Producer) grooming of America's silliest goose Elizabeth Hasselbeck into the next great Fox News Puppet? For the amount of time Barbara STILL spends perverbially patting herself on the back as to why she created The View, she seemed to have forgotten this ground breaking format while Rosie moderated and almost literally thumbed her nose at these women by often speaking up and over everyone just to "calm" them down because she didn't like the frankness of Rosie O'Donnell. The most ironic thing about the hire of Rosie by Barbara is that she did so AFTER a screening of her documentary about her same sex family friendly cruise line! Barbara???!!!! C'Mon? What did you think you were signing on for when you boarded the Rosie O'Donnell ship? Ratings...that's what...and you got them...and Rosie got a great book out of it...all proceeds from Celebrity Detox go to Rosie's foundation by the way...Like rosie has mentioned on her blog...I wonder how much of that QVC Trump Steak money goes to starving children in Africa...hmmmm...Whatever. Get the book. It's a great read from an HONEST person and TRUE artist.Book Review: I Can See Why Barbara Walters is Mad. . .
Summary: 3 Stars
. . .but she shouldn't be. She is of that generation/mentality that appreciates the surface image more than the reality. Rosie has stripped the varnish off of Barbara and shown her for what she is: an amazingly accomplished, dynamic, conflicted, emotionally frightened, well-intentioned woman. I'm sure Barbara sees it as a slam, but I came away from the book like Barbara more than I ever have. At least I felt I understood her now.
And Rosie doesn't spare this kind of critical evaluation from herself. She admits her failings readily.
The book is full of candor, honesty--just what anyone would expect from Rosie, even her detractors.
But it could have been better. So much of it feels disjointed: pieces of blogs, bits of interviews, excerpts from a discarded draft of the same book--all rest uneasily next to anecdotes surrounding her time on "The View," the program that she made must-see television by her mere presence.
But the book lacks focus (and yes, I know that this can be attributed to Rosie's unconventional "style," but hear me out). While ostensibly about Rosie's adjustment to fame, very little of that journey is chronicled here. There are snippets, but not enough to fully convey what that meteroic rise has been like for her. The relationship to Barbara Walters is what comes through most compellingly. Each moment chronicled between Rosie and Barbara is a real "scene," and it made me wish she had focused the book exclusively on her year at "The View, rather than moving back and forth through time and intercutting with blog material, etc.
But perhaps that's asking for too disciplined a product from a mind that clearly relishes jumping from one bit to another. I do think, however, it would have made a better book. "The View" material is really the most compelling material in the book, and even vague descriptions of sexual abuse are all used to serve that material. But people like Joy Behar and even Elisabeth Hasselbeck get little face time in these pages. And what about Jahero, Rosie's cult-inducing video blog segements that corresponded with her "View" appearances? The book would have been richer and more directioned if she had focused on this tumultuous year alone. After all, 60% of the book is about "The View," (in one way or another), and the other 40% just doesn't seem to be enough space to say all that Rosie is trying/wanting to say about fame.
But, in the end, the book earns three stars for its honesty and for Rosie's sometimes poetic prose. She has the raw makings of a very good writer--which is saying a great deal more than one can say about other celebrity-penned books. The woman emerges as complex, exasperating, fascinating, heroic--and someone you would like to know.
Book Review: Not quite...
Summary: 3 Stars
I read and enjoyed Rosie's last book: "Find Me". After watching her on the View and vaguely following the blow-up between she and her co-host, Elisabeth, I was curious about how that built up. When Rosie claimed she was writing this book to "answer those questions" about what happened that day and immediately after, I looked forward to her explanation. That's why I was disappointed by "Celebrity Detox". It didn't go there. In fact, there's hardly a word about the incident prior to the last chapter (about five pages). Instead, she focuses on ear transmitters far more than anyone cares to read (or know). She talks about the Trump scuffle but doesn't even do her position justice in her own book. I came away from those chapters wondering if her beef was with Donald Trump and his poor behavior or her hurt over a quote that Trump assigned to Barbara Walters. Shortly after that, she goes off on the ear transmitters and how she saw the other hosts (who wore them even after Rosie's refusal and wishes) slowly came to agree with her and speak their mind (implying that, prior to that point, they'd been getting prompting and feedback in the devices). In the last chapter, she only mentions Elisabeth by sharing that she'd sent her and e-mail of support only a week or two before that Elisabeth may have been put-off by (Rosie tells Elisabeth she loves her and is proud of her asking John Stamos to stay and do crafts). But, that's where it ends. She never goes into the background regarding how Elisabeth disrespected her by not defending her in another interview. She says nothing really tangible about the feud at all.
However, if you're not looking for more insight on the squabble, then the book is okay. It's often repetitive. But, based on Rosie's art and poetry, it makes sense that she would have certain themes throughout the book. If you're looking for a perspective on how celebrity makes you different, then this may be the book you want to read. And, if you'd like to have a better understanding of why she left her own show, then I'd recommend this. Her reflections of 9/11 between she and her brother are interesting (and I've had my daughter read them as an example of how perspective is, at times, everything).