Rosie…Always Cringeworthy

Today’s Village Voice includes this wonderful opener by Julian Dibbell, about Rosie
O’Donnell.

“Can there be anything more cringe-inducing than a CBS Hallmark Special starring Rosie O’Donnell as a developmentally challenged 43-year-old whose faith in people touches the lives of those around her? Trust me. There can: Try wading through the 1,000-plus fan notes posted to O’Donnell’s very own “r blog” while the special aired.

The vast majority of posters found Stanislavskian genius (“I smell an emmy!”) in a performance best described as Hoffman’s Rain Man meets Sesame Street’s Grover. For that matter, see O’Donnell’s own response to the premiere screening, blogged days earlier in her signature online voice, an unmistakable blend of self-display, self-deprecation, and freshman-year poetics: “i couldn’t stay for the after party/cause i felt like i might throw up/it’s embarrassing to cry/at your own movie//i’ll take narcissism for 500 alex.”