LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Rosie O'donnell: Queens
built 219 days ago
Rosie O'Donnell's mother died of cancer, and was buried on O'Donnell's eleventh birthday. Her parents had kept her illness from the family, leaving O'Donnell and her siblings unprepared for her death. Her father did not allow the children to attend their mother's funeral, and she says he "wasn't very available" after that. The children were raised mostly by each other, with help from neighbors and teachers. O'Donnell shielded herself from all this by developing a sharp sense of humor, and idealized fictional families from The Sound of Music to The Brady Bunch. In high school she was a good athlete, homecoming queen and class president, but says she never dated.
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Rosie caught the acting bug when she imitated Gilda Radner's character "Roseanne Rosannadanna" for a high school skit--inciting praise, then a conviction to pursue an acting career through comedy. By watching and imitating other comics, such as Jerry Seinfeld, O'Donnell eventually came up with her own material and honed her magnetic presence for the stage. After graduating from high school (O'Donnell was elected prom queen, homecoming queen, most school-spirited student, and class president), she embarked on a grand tour of the United States, appearing in 49 states over a five-year period. It was a difficult and enlightening time for O'Donnell, as she realized the unhealthy lifestyle and the sexist climate revolving around the comedy world. She told Robert Hoffler of Buzz, "Everybody was doing drugs and drinking, and I was just this little girl on the road, scared in her room."
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"Like Rosie herself, her art is LOUD. It's so eager to speak to you that it incorporates words....deeply personal is a piece called "Queer," which has "KILL THE QUEEN QUEER" on it. Snicker at the obviousness, or let go of your jaded defense mechanisms and experience the panicky (am I a target?) and mournful (this is something people still hear before they're attacked) impact this phrase causes."
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