Rosie O'Donnell
has fought her last fight at The View. ABC said
Friday she will not be back on the television talk
show following her angry confrontation with cohost Elisabeth
Hasselbeck on Wednesday.
It ended a
colorful eight-month tenure for O'Donnell that lifted the
show's ratings but no doubt caused heartburn for show
creator Barbara Walters. O'Donnell feuded with Donald
Trump and frequently had tense exchanges with the more
conservative Hasselbeck.
O'Donnell said
last month she would be leaving because she could not
agree to a new contract with ABC executives.
''Rosie
contributed to one of our most exciting and successful years
at The View," Walters said. ''I am most
appreciative. Our close and affectionate relationship will
not change.''
In a statement
O'Donnell said that ''it's been an amazing year, and I
love all three women.''
No one was
feeling the love on Wednesday, when the argument with
Hasselbeck began over O'Donnell's statement last week about
the war: ''655,000 Iraqi civilians have died. Who are
the terrorists?''
Talk-show critics
accused O'Donnell of calling U.S. troops terrorists.
She called Hasselbeck ''cowardly'' for not saying anything
in response to the critics.
''Do not call me
a coward, because number 1, I sit here every single day,
open my heart, and tell people what I believe,'' Hasselbeck
retorted, and their riveting exchange continued
despite failed attempts by their cohosts to cut to a
commercial.
According to a
New York Post report, O'Donnell's chief
writer, Janette Barber, was allegedly led out of the
building on Wednesday after she was caught drawing mustaches
on photographs of Hasselbeck in The View
studios. ABC executives did not return repeated calls
for questions on the incident Friday.
On Thursday,
O'Donnell had asked for a day off to celebrate her partner's
birthday. The View aired a taped show on
Friday.
On her Web site
O'Donnell posted a scrapbook-like video on Friday with
pictures and news clippings of her tenure at The
View. Cyndi Lauper's ''Sisters of Babylon'' played in
the background. A day earlier she had posted messages
on her Web site indicating she might not be back.
''When painting there is a point u must step away from
the canvas as the work is done,'' she wrote. ''Any more
would take away.'' (AP)
