Ladies Who Punch by Ramin Setoodeh

Author:Ramin Setoodeh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Macmillan

13

Rosie vs. Donald

As a talk show host, Rosie O’Donnell was skilled in identifying trends early. Sure enough, she tried to warn us about Donald Trump’s misogyny a decade before his presidency. She could never stomach his false swagger, braggadocio, and, later, endless gloating about his ratings for The Apprentice. After attending his 1993 wedding to Marla Maples at the Plaza Hotel (and hearing all the details about their divorce), she wouldn’t book him as a guest on The Rosie O’Donnell Show because she thought he was a jerk. “He’s the most absurdly transparent con man,” Rosie told me. “He’s dumb. His parents didn’t like him; they sent him away to New York Military Academy. He punched his kid in the face at college,” she said, referring to a 2016 Facebook post written by one of Donald Jr.’s former classmates. Rosie brought up stories about his neglecting his parental duties while he played a real estate mogul instead. “He never spoke to his children,” she said. “I’m friendly with Marla, which is how I was at his wedding. I know the shit that he did.”

When pressed for more details, Rosie hedged, for once. “I can’t say it. You know why Marla doesn’t say it? There are real reasons you don’t say it. People are afraid of him.” She leaned forward in her seat. “I am not.”

That became abundantly clear on the morning of December 20, 2006. It was Christmas on The View, and the set was decked out like the North Pole with a giant tree and wreaths. The staff could use a bit of holiday cheer. After four months of walking on eggshells, there would be a hiatus, when the show could reset. Despite all the turmoil backstage, The View’s ratings were still riding high. Senator Hillary Clinton was in the studio that day, making her second appearance on the show. Her advisers had decided that she could use The View as a warm-up act, as she prepared to announce her bid as the first plausible female presidential candidate in US history. Clinton had agreed to sit through some chitchat, to gauge how she fared in the crossfire about what it was like to be a woman eyeing the nation’s most powerful job. She’d be “revealing everything, from whether she wants to move back to the White House in ’08 to what she really thinks of the war in Iraq,” the show’s announcer vowed.

Normally, nothing would have stopped Barbara from face time with a Clinton. But the senator’s booking had materialized late, leaving Barbara adrift: she was on a Caribbean vacation, aboard a yacht with Judge Judy Sheindlin and Cindy Adams. Rosie was free to steer the show without any pushback. The guest cohost that day was entertainment lawyer Crystal McCrary Anthony, joining Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who had fully adopted her new role as Rosie’s work wife. It confounded most of the producers, including Bill Geddie, that they had become so close. “I remember Bill and I both

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