Rosie O'Donnell
is staging a groundbreaking return to daytime TV as she
reportedly joins the opinionated roundtable of women on
ABC's The View. O'Donnell would replace Meredith
Vieira, who is succeeding the departing Katie Couric as
cohost of NBC's The Today Show.
During the years
of her own successful talk show, O'Donnell was dubbed
the "queen of nice." While the star has always maintained
that she had never hidden her sexual identity, she was
also not out on the air. That all changed when she
publicly came out as a powerful and effective activist
for LGBT causes, with a special emphasis on gay
parenting.
O'Donnell's
reported return to daytime TV now, as an out lesbian mom, is
significant in several ways. She would join the ABC morning
chatfest as a member of a previously all-heterosexual
"girls' club" that includes Joy Behar, Star Jones
Reynolds, and Elizabeth Hasselbeck. And her addition
to the cast could be read among The View's
mainstream fan base as a vote of confidence from View
founder Barbara Walters, herself a trailblazer among
broadcast journalists.
Calls to
O'Donnell's representatives for confirmation of the story
had not yet been returned at press time. (The
Advocate)