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Twelve days after she ignited a firefight following a
report that her son's bodyguard had applied for a gun
license, Rosie O'Donnell remains under siege. The
popular talk show diva, still in stage makeup, rattles
off gun statistics as she conducts an interview in her
sports utility vehicle. "You know, 30,000 people are
shot dead in America every year," O'Donnell says, as
the chauffeured SUV pulls into a gated community in
Greenwich, Conn., passes a security checkpoint and
winds through a series of private roads. She's still
talking when the car rolls toward the plastic
basketball hoop at the top of her driveway and pulls up
in front of her white Victorian home, where plastic
cars and gyms dot a yard: "It's a $6 billion industry, yet
the gun industry is unregulated. If you have a toy
chain saw, you have to make sure it does not hurt
anyone!"
Beyond the foyer, where three low shelves hold
munchkin-size tennis shoes and sandals, O'Donnell,
38, enters the kitchen, opens one of the two
refrigerators, where the shelves are neatly lined with
bottled water, juices and sodas, and offers her guest a
drink. After she pops open a Diet Coke for herself,
O'Donnell props her elbows on the huge wooden island
and resumes. "When I do a pediatric AIDS event, it's all,
'Isn't she nice, helping kids,' " she says. "You know,
more kids die from gunshots than pediatric AIDS. But
if you stand up for gun safety and legislation and
responsibility, you are considered to be un-American!
It's not easy being Rosie these days. A single working
mom of three, who since 1996 has enjoyed a love affair
with the public as the Queen of Nice, O'Donnell has
during the past year acquired the mantle of the
country's leading celebrity advocate of gun control.
"She has humanized this issue for us," says Donna
Dees-Thomases, who founded the Million Mom March
at which O'Donnell served as emcee in Washington,
D.C., on May 14, Mother's Day. "She has made it easier
for people to get involved." The flip side is that
O'Donnell's outspoken push for what she calls "sensible
gun legislation" has made her a target of the powerful
National Rifle Association, whose president, actor
Charlton Heston, calls her "Tokyo Rosie." Now the NRA and other critics are having a field
day after her local paper, Greenwich Time, reported on
May 25 that the bodyguard whom O'Donnell hired to
keep an eye on her oldest child, Parker, 5, has applied
for a license to carry a concealed firearm. Since Parker
has signed up to attend public kindergarten, the report
touched a nerve in posh Greenwich. "I don't think a gun
should be brought into a grade school," says local
selectman Peter Crumbine. Elsewhere the report has
become a cudgel with which to bludgeon O'Donnell.
"People can spot a hypocrite," says Wayne LaPierre, the
NRA's executive vice president. "She's not carrying the
firearm herself, but she's paying someone to guard her.
What about people who can't afford armed
bodyguards?"
O'Donnell has hardly been ducking the controversy.
During a tough grilling by Katie Couric on the Today
show on June 1, O'Donnell said she had known nothing
about the bodyguard's firearm application and had
insisted, "Please, let's have one unarmed," when
security firms persuaded her to hire a guard for her
children, Parker, Chelsea, 2 1/2, and Blake, 6 months.
When Couric asked, "Are you going to insist now that
this individual not carry a gun?" O'Donnell opened
herself to more bashing by answering, "My family's
security will be discussed with the people who are
hired to ensure that they are, in fact, safe."
O'Donnell charges indignantly that the Greenwich
police released information about the bodyguard's
application. She's also angry that police came onto her
son's preschool property and searched the bodyguard,
whom she identifies only as Marcos. "That there was no
gun was, I'm sure, disappointing to them." Stressing
that her goal isn't to outlaw guns but to make sure
they're licensed and registered, O'Donnell says,
"Whether or not my family is in need of armed guards,
that doesn't change my position on gun control. It's not
inconsistent."
Fans see no reason why Rosie should apologize for
taking precautions to keep her children safe. "She's not
being a hypocrite," says singer Melissa Manchester,
who performed at the May march. "The Million Mom
March is not to take away guns, it's to regulate guns."
Actress and fellow activist Susan Sarandon is appalled
that the effort to discredit O'Donnell involved her
children. "You just don't go after somebody's kids," she
says, adding, "That's the way they are going to harass
her." Sarah Brady, chairwoman of Handgun Control
and wife of former Reagan press secretary James
Brady, who suffered permanent brain damage after
John Hinckley Jr. shot him in 1981, warns, "Rosie's
courage has made her a target for extremists."
Won't be sending her son to public school
now
Being out-front on so politically charged an issue as
gun control exacts a price. O'Donnell, who went
through the public school system in Commack, N.Y.,
had hoped to send her children to public school. "After
all the publicity, I don't think Parker will be going
there," she says with a sigh. "My friends and siblings
say that sometimes I don't take the fame part into
account enough." This isn't the first time, however,
that O'Donnell has been forced to confront her
celebrity. Her move to Greenwich last spring, she says,
was precipitated by "some security issues at my other
house" in Nyack, N.Y.
There is also a toll on her work. "It hurts my career
more than it helps," she says. "I realize that I alienate a
lot of people." In December she allowed her contract as a
pitchwoman with Kmart to expire after she checked out
press reports that the chain sells rifles and shotguns.
"I didn't know Kmart sold guns," she says. The real
losers have proved to be the various charities to which
O'Donnell has been donating her $10 million Kmart
salary since she began the gig in 1995. "But you know
what?" she says. "I don't want to take money from the
sale of guns and then give it to charities that help
people whose kids were killed."
-- JILL SMOLOWE
-- CYNTHIA WANG and MARIANNE STOCHMAL in
Greenwich, JANE PODESTA in Washington, D.C., and
EVE HEYN in New York City
Copyright © 2000 Time Inc.
Twelve days after she ignited a firefight following a
report that her son's bodyguard had applied for a gun
license, Rosie O'Donnell remains under siege. The
popular talk show diva, still in stage makeup, rattles
off gun statistics as she conducts an interview in her
sports utility vehicle. "You know, 30,000 people are
shot dead in America every year," O'Donnell says, as
the chauffeured SUV pulls into a gated community in
Greenwich, Conn., passes a security checkpoint and
winds through a series of private roads. She's still
talking when the car rolls toward the plastic
basketball hoop at the top of her driveway and pulls up
in front of her white Victorian home, where plastic
cars and gyms dot a yard: "It's a $6 billion industry, yet
the gun industry is unregulated. If you have a toy
chain saw, you have to make sure it does not hurt
anyone!"
Beyond the foyer, where three low shelves hold
munchkin-size tennis shoes and sandals, O'Donnell,
38, enters the kitchen, opens one of the two
refrigerators, where the shelves are neatly lined with
bottled water, juices and sodas, and offers her guest a
drink. After she pops open a Diet Coke for herself,
O'Donnell props her elbows on the huge wooden island
and resumes. "When I do a pediatric AIDS event, it's all,
'Isn't she nice, helping kids,' " she says. "You know,
more kids die from gunshots than pediatric AIDS. But
if you stand up for gun safety and legislation and
responsibility, you are considered to be un-American!
It's not easy being Rosie these days. A single working
mom of three, who since 1996 has enjoyed a love affair
with the public as the Queen of Nice, O'Donnell has
during the past year acquired the mantle of the
country's leading celebrity advocate of gun control.
"She has humanized this issue for us," says Donna
Dees-Thomases, who founded the Million Mom March
at which O'Donnell served as emcee in Washington,
D.C., on May 14, Mother's Day. "She has made it easier
for people to get involved." The flip side is that
O'Donnell's outspoken push for what she calls "sensible
gun legislation" has made her a target of the powerful
National Rifle Association, whose president, actor
Charlton Heston, calls her "Tokyo Rosie." Now the NRA and other critics are having a field
day after her local paper, Greenwich Time, reported on
May 25 that the bodyguard whom O'Donnell hired to
keep an eye on her oldest child, Parker, 5, has applied
for a license to carry a concealed firearm. Since Parker
has signed up to attend public kindergarten, the report
touched a nerve in posh Greenwich. "I don't think a gun
should be brought into a grade school," says local
selectman Peter Crumbine. Elsewhere the report has
become a cudgel with which to bludgeon O'Donnell.
"People can spot a hypocrite," says Wayne LaPierre, the
NRA's executive vice president. "She's not carrying the
firearm herself, but she's paying someone to guard her.
What about people who can't afford armed
bodyguards?"
O'Donnell has hardly been ducking the controversy.
During a tough grilling by Katie Couric on the Today
show on June 1, O'Donnell said she had known nothing
about the bodyguard's firearm application and had
insisted, "Please, let's have one unarmed," when
security firms persuaded her to hire a guard for her
children, Parker, Chelsea, 2 1/2, and Blake, 6 months.
When Couric asked, "Are you going to insist now that
this individual not carry a gun?" O'Donnell opened
herself to more bashing by answering, "My family's
security will be discussed with the people who are
hired to ensure that they are, in fact, safe."
O'Donnell charges indignantly that the Greenwich
police released information about the bodyguard's
application. She's also angry that police came onto her
son's preschool property and searched the bodyguard,
whom she identifies only as Marcos. "That there was no
gun was, I'm sure, disappointing to them." Stressing
that her goal isn't to outlaw guns but to make sure
they're licensed and registered, O'Donnell says,
"Whether or not my family is in need of armed guards,
that doesn't change my position on gun control. It's not
inconsistent."
Fans see no reason why Rosie should apologize for
taking precautions to keep her children safe. "She's not
being a hypocrite," says singer Melissa Manchester,
who performed at the May march. "The Million Mom
March is not to take away guns, it's to regulate guns."
Actress and fellow activist Susan Sarandon is appalled
that the effort to discredit O'Donnell involved her
children. "You just don't go after somebody's kids," she
says, adding, "That's the way they are going to harass
her." Sarah Brady, chairwoman of Handgun Control
and wife of former Reagan press secretary James
Brady, who suffered permanent brain damage after
John Hinckley Jr. shot him in 1981, warns, "Rosie's
courage has made her a target for extremists."
Won't be sending her son to public school
now
Being out-front on so politically charged an issue as
gun control exacts a price. O'Donnell, who went
through the public school system in Commack, N.Y.,
had hoped to send her children to public school. "After
all the publicity, I don't think Parker will be going
there," she says with a sigh. "My friends and siblings
say that sometimes I don't take the fame part into
account enough." This isn't the first time, however,
that O'Donnell has been forced to confront her
celebrity. Her move to Greenwich last spring, she says,
was precipitated by "some security issues at my other
house" in Nyack, N.Y.
There is also a toll on her work. "It hurts my career
more than it helps," she says. "I realize that I alienate a
lot of people." In December she allowed her contract as a
pitchwoman with Kmart to expire after she checked out
press reports that the chain sells rifles and shotguns.
"I didn't know Kmart sold guns," she says. The real
losers have proved to be the various charities to which
O'Donnell has been donating her $10 million Kmart
salary since she began the gig in 1995. "But you know
what?" she says. "I don't want to take money from the
sale of guns and then give it to charities that help
people whose kids were killed."
-- JILL SMOLOWE
-- CYNTHIA WANG and MARIANNE STOCHMAL in
Greenwich, JANE PODESTA in Washington, D.C., and
EVE HEYN in New York City
Copyright © 2000 Time Inc.
