Veggie Blog

That’s the thing about fame. If you live like a famous person, you will pay the price. And it’s a high price, and a dangerous game, because fame, the drug can sneak up on you in increments. You don’t notice the increments, that they’re increasing until you’re so far away from ever making eye contact with another human being and being “real,” that you don’t even know you’re not “real” anymore.

When O’Donnell’s mother was diagnosed with cancer in 1973, ten-year-old Rosie believed that fame could cure her. Though she was still a kid, she had already grasped the cultural connection between talent and money. If she could become famous, the funds would pour in – and buy her mom the miracle cure that could save her life.

Rosie’s mother died, but the bond in her daughter’s mind between stardom and hope survived, propelling 0’Donnell into a career as a talk show host and passionate philanthropist.

At times funny, at others heartbreaking, but always intensely honest, CELEBRITY DETOX is Rosie’s story of the years after she walked away from her top-rated TV show in 2002, and her reasons for going back on the air in 2006. In it, O’Donnell takes you inside the world of talk show TV, speaking candidly about the conflicts and challenges she faced as co-host on ABC’s The View. Along the way O’Donnell shows us how fame becomes addiction and explores whether or not it’s possible for an addict to safely, and sanely, return to the spotlight. She reveals her everyday interactions with her family, and the pressures of being both an ordinary mom and a “personality.” She tells of the lifelong admiration she has had for an entertainment icon and of her complicated friendships with her TV colleagues – and talks openly about some dark passages from her own past.