Rosie O’Donnell Wins Popularity Poll …

… to find the most annoying celebrity.

Rosie O’Donnell has gone from winning awards as the host of her own talk show to winning a popularity poll of the most annoying celebrity. Parade Magazine polled its readers and heard from 44% of the 2,000 respondents that they would give the award to Rosie. Paris Hilton was second in the poll with only 20%, Ann Coulter was third with 16%, and Heather Mills came in fourth with 12%. My biggest question right now is why everyone that is annoying is a woman. I hear you men snickering over there.

Ignoring that woman factor, what is it that makes Rosie so annoying now. She wasn’t nearly as much so when she had her own daytime talk show. Well, some would say she was, but not 44%. Back then, she was known as the Queen of Nice, remember? She was funny and warm, and won eleven Daytime Emmy Awards, for best host and best talk show. Something changed after this to remove her from public favor.

Rosie did happen to come out around the end of her talk show, admitting to everyone and ending speculation that she was gay, but that can’t be the reason for her falling out of favor. I mean there isn’t a talk show host right now that is more loved than Ellen DeGeneres, and she had come out several years before her talk show began. It seems she started to lose that Queen of Nice tag during her talk show when she started attacking Tom Selleck for his association with the NRA. He contended they had agreed not to discuss it, while she stated they hadn’t. After this, she continued to be more and more vocal about her stance on gun control, which was fine, but had a way of alienating some people.

Rosie had been a spokesperson for Kmart, but fell under attack as some felt she shouldn’t be supporting a retailer that sold guns. She and the discount store parted ways. Her bodyguard applied for licensing of a concealed weapon, angering many parents of the school her child attended, as they contended they didn’t want someone with a gun walking around in the hallways of the school. Ironically, Rosie contended she needed the ultra protection of her family because of her tough stance on gun control.

By the time she left her talk show it was as if the gloves were off. She began attacking many celebrities in her standup act, something she seemed against during her talk show. She began a magazine with her face and name on it, but ended up leaving over creative control of the periodical. Rose then started a crusade against same sex couples not being allowed to become adoptive parents when a child she was fostering with the hopes of adopting was taken away from her. She was wanting to add to her brood of three adoptive children and one child conceived through sperm donation to her partner, Kelli. They were legally married in a ceremony in San Francisco later.

While being out of the public eye for some time, Rosie was invited back by Barbara Walters to cohost The View when Meredith Vieira left for The Today Show. It would seem that back on another daytime talk show, Rosie would return to being The Queen of Nice, but instead she only became more mean. She got into an argument back and forth with Kelly Ripa when Kelly objected to Clay Aiken putting his hand on her mouth to shush her. Rosie contended it was a homophobic move. She mocked the Chinese language with the pretend words “ching-chong,” claiming she didn’t know it was offensive, and then got into a long fight with Donald Trump after questioning why he was the “moral compass” of 20 year olds in America after Miss Teen USA was allowed to keep her crown after some unbecoming behavior.

All of this was okay, and was raising the viewership of The View, but the problem was Rosie wasn’t only outspoken with people off the show. She was also outspoken with the others on the show. She got into many heated arguments with fellow cohost Elisabeth Hasselbeck who seemed to have the most diabolically different political view from Rosie. She had already decided to end her tenure on The View at the end of the season, yet made a statement that the United States are the real terrorists here for the stance on the war, and wanted Elisabeth to back her up, which just wasn’t going to happen. Rosie left before the end of the season, without even the support of Barbara anymore.

It seems after all this that Rosie can be the Queen of Nice when she wants to be and can also go on the attack when she wants to. Who the real Rosie O’ Donnell is something probably no one knows except for her partner, Kelli. I suspect she’s both, and only showed the nice side before when it was befitting. Yet, once the cat was out of the bag regarding her sexuality, it was as if she decided to just let it all out and speak her mind about everything. That’s great, as people should be able to be themselves, but you have to still include the nice in there as well, otherwise, you’ll be named “annoying.”

Popularity: 21% [?]