Rosie O'Donnell's book is
something everyone can relate to 
Saturday, October 13th,
2007
Well, I have finished reading Celebrity
Detox , by Rosie O'Donnell, the
book I'd been waiting so long to review. I won't spoil the book for you - I just want to explain the intense connection I
just had. I feel like I sat down with Ro and had long glass of
wine, listened to her points of view, started skeptically but agreed with
most...and found I could relate to her 100%. The thing
about Rosie that skyrocketed her to fame is that she's
relatable. No matter how vehemently you may disagree with her on certain topics, you
read this book, I guarantee you will understand this woman. What motivates
her, moves her, depresses her. Her primaries and her
grays. And you will relate to her.
At first, I felt she was cocky. She
refers to herself as a "nationally known figure of pop culture," with
more money than any human being needs. She describes her entrance
onto The View as "the new kid on the block but she's not an
ordinary new kid. She's the kid who comes to school in a Mercedes,
the kid who is prince of some small island - you get it."
But she doesn't
retreat from sides of herself, she openly acknowledges: "Ruthie,
my Kabbalah teacher, with whom I regularly meet, and who teaches me all things
spirtual, told me my ego is my biggest fault and challenge.
Oy vey." And you'll realize the meaning behind wealth and "celebrity" is clearly
just not there for her. She talks about how she went to a class at
age twenty-two to learn how to manage her checking account, because she
just didn't understand the system. She calls an amount she wants
to give "ten hundred thousand." She doesn't understand why Barbara
Walters got offended when she called her wealthy. Money is paper
to her. It is not, to her, what it is to most people, you can
choose to believe that or not.
And, inside, she is so soft.
She describes her son, in the emergency
room after fracturing an elbow, how he told the doctor he
"broke his skeleton," and she writes, "And my knees wobble as my heart
again grows."
Those are moments when you remember America falling
in love with Rosie O'Donnell: when she fell in
love with "Tickle Me Elmo." "When I said I loved Tickle Me
Elmo, it was because I did, no because the company had some financial
stock in that particular slice of airtime." Exactly. It was genuine, and everyone
could see it in her eyes on their television
screens, and the "yellow" blur was so real that you could feel it,
and everyone had to have one for that reason, for what they saw
in her eyes. Real. Fathomable. She had the same "yellow" - her word for
a beautful feeling - in her eyes when she talked about her crush on Tom
Cruise, initially.
You can clearly see the absence of her inner light
when she is speaking from a prompter or hearing a voice in her her ear,
for which she describes her hate of the "IFB," a listening device
networks use to speak into their ears about advertisements or what they
should say next.
Rosie didn't write as much about 9/11 as I
might have thought. Most people know her stance on that by now;
she breaches the topic, but doesn't delve into it, the
controversy. The first time I took notice of Rosie - really took
notice - was when she spoke out about her feelings on 9/11.
It's one of the reasons I bought her book. When I saw the backlash
against her for it, I was furious.
She was born in New York, raised there,
works there, knows people that died in the tragedy. How dare
anyone - in the media or otherwise - say hateful things towards
her for seeking the truth behind the attacks? The woman is the
definition of a patriot, willing to sacrifice what the masses might
think of her, in the name of truth. Brave. The land of the
brave.
And then, strangely, I realized that Rosie
and I have eerily similar lives (although add her daughter, Chelsea's
passion for animals). I started my blog in November of 2006, after
frustration toward the media and mainstream T.V. had reached it's
boiling point. She began hers one month later. I dislike Kid
Nation (hence my petition, which I've gotten a
lot flack for), Entertainment Tonight, FOX, Paris Hilton in the
media. We both watch Dancing with the Stars and talk
about our love for Target and bitterness towards George W. Bush and his
cronies. For close to a year, Rosie O'Donnell and I have been
bitching about the same causes, digging for the same truths, reading
CrooksandLiars and the Huffington Post, pushing toward the same
goal: to spread reality - not ABC's or CBS's versions of reality,
but reality - over the internet.
Of course, I'm a much, much smaller fish in
that pond, but to sit down and read this book, it was like I got to have
a conversation with my long lost soul-twin about: What the
hell is going on in this world right now?
I think you will truly feel similar, feel
you relate to her, and perhaps see things a little differently than
you're used to. And that's okay.
The quote of hers from Celebrity
Detox that I agree with so much, but that pains me at the same
time: "Why Celebrity A hates Celebrity B. Why Celebrity
B loves Celebrity A. What Celebrity C thinks of Celebrity A and
B. Hot topics. Things that burn. Burns that scar the
skin, peel away pink and underneath is new and too tender to
touch. So much hurts here. Shhh. Don't say this.
Shhh."
It pains me because I see it firsthand
everyday. Because I post some of it, but mostly only when
I feel there is something in the story that can inspire change in
some way. Because I have to, to stay alive. I am
just ConnieTalk. I am not an enterprise with large sponsors or
talking heads. And despite the diversity and genius behind Google,
who constantly strives to bring us the information we're looking for
instead of the info big corporations want to show us, there's this
hierarchy in place, even online. The news sites that get the top
headlines are the ones that get the most traffic, and the ones that get
the most web traffic are the ones with the big sponsors: ABC, CBS,
NBC, FOX, CNN.
So us littlier guys are left with
keywords. You cover the hot topics, you get exposure. But
when you blog about George W. Bush, the presidential candidates, foreign
policy, the Iraq War, you are drowned. They cover it so much, they
soak the competition. The majority of my traffic comes from random
things I've posted about not wearing fur - because Jennifer Lopez's name
is in it. Or autism, because Jenny McCarthy's name is in it.
I see this and I know it, and in order for me to keep planting
breadcrumbs of truth, I have to put that out there to
survive.
And here's why, Ro. We're plagued, here in the U.S., in regards
to politics, with a fatal combination of lack of interest in politics, and
lack of those "in the know" wanting to provide information. Only
3 out of 10 Americans say they have knowledge in politics, according to the latest Harris poll. I post
an article about the IRS, or Dick Cheney, I get few comments. I
post something about Botox, I get pages of them. They haven't
woken. They will. Because, as Ro and I well know, the future
is the internet, the future is cyberspace where there are no "cut to a
commercial" interruptions and no "shh, don't talk about that," at least
not yet. It's utter, uninterrupted freedom. Freedom of
information, the best of it's kind.
And so, because the mass media has convinced
everyone that they are interested in this illusion of "celebrity," I
have to approach a lot of superficiality that I'd rather leave under it's rock. But under every rock, Ro, I plant a
crumb. I will not, for example, report anything on Britney Spears other than antifur
commentary, because America is doing to Britney what Rosie knows
they did to Anna and will continue to do. Until there are more crumbs than
garbage, and the Britney's and the Anna's don't matter anymore. Until
hard-working bloggers like us plant enough seeds to fully bloom, thick, full, vines of
truth, that spider up through cracks beyond red tape, steely eyes, fat
wallets.
Get me?
Go snag your
copy!
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