Rosie Back On Stand
Witty, spunky, talking fast and loud and facing friendly questions from her own attorney, Rosie O'Donnell took the stand Thursday to talk about a business dispute that got very personal — so personal, she sometimes feels like O.J. Simpson.
"I think it's a tremendous waste of time and money and it could have all been settled so long ago," O'Donnell told CBS News Early Show Co- anchor Harry Smith outside of court. "I feel like I'm in some sort of surreal movie and it's not even me.
"It's like O.J. Simpson, like I murdered someone," O'Donnell added. "You know what I did? I had a bad contract dispute with a magazine company. It seems disproportionate the amount of media attention this is getting. It really does."
O'Donnell is expected to return to the stand Friday, reports Early Show Correspondent John Frankel
O'Donnell was so effusive on the stand, the judge even asked her to speak lower and slower and often interrupted O'Donnell, instructing to answer specific questions without offering commentary. In return, O'Donnell often resorted to "yes" and "no" responses and appeared uncomfortable. But in front of the cameras, she was confident.
The dispute, in part, is over a cover picture that O'Donnell said made her look fat and prompted her to walk. The cover, showing O'Donnell standing between two actresses from the cable television show "The Sopranos," was never used.
"It became obvious to me that G+J no longer wanted me to control my own magazine," she said, referring to Gruner and Jahr, the publishing company that claims O'Donnell's contract barred her from abandoning the magazine.
A G+J executive testified that O'Donnell's departure cost the company as much as $35 million.
O'Donnell's testimony focused more on disagreements over story ideas, personnel and the magazine staying true to her essence. She claimed she only agreed to start her now-defunct namesake magazine after being promised full creative control by the company now suing her.
"I hope that the judge, maybe after they rest their case, will have a summary judgment where they have not proven anything, and then we can all be done with this charade," she said. "It's theater. It's spectacle. Yeah, it's enjoyable."
G+J is suing O'Donnell for $100 million, alleging breach of contract for walking away. O'Donnell is countersuing for $125 million, declaring that by cutting her out of key editorial decisions, G+J had violated its contract with her.
O'Donnell maintains she was forthright with the publisher of her now-defunct magazine, telling its chief executive at only their second meeting that she was gay and that she was quitting her television program.
Despite the revelations, O'Donnell testified Thursday that G+J CEO Daniel Brewster agreed that she could have full creative control of "Rosie" magazine, which published from April 2001 through December 2002.
Brewster testified that he was never told before the magazine started about O'Donnell's sexual orientation or TV plans.
"I have absolutely no recollection of that," Brewster told Matthew Fishbein, one of his lawyers.
In testimony Wednesday and earlier Thursday, Brewster said O'Donnell's inflexibility and controlling nature caused much of the tension at the magazine during its final months.