Rosie to
join The View

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)