ABC offered Rosie O'Donnell $30 million to stay?

According to ABCNEWS.com O'Donnell was unable to come to a contractual agreement with ABC

The president of daytime programming for the Disney-ABC Television Group, Brian Frons, told ABCNEWS.com, "Going in we knew we would have an amazing year with her, and that anything beyond that would be gravy. But we were willing to take the chance because we understood what a coup it was to entice Ro back to daytime television. So here we are a year later, and while we've tried to come to terms on a deal that would extend her co-hosting duties on 'The View,' we find ourselves unable to agree on some key elements."

According to Barbara Walters, creator and co-executive producer of "The View," the departure is an amicable one.

Walters said in a statement, "I induced Rosie to come back to television on 'The View' even for just one year. She has given the program new vigor, new excitement and wonderful hours of television. I can only be grateful to her for this year. I am very sad that ABC Daytime could not reach an agreement with her for a second year. We will all miss Rosie on 'The View,' and hope she will be back with us often next season. She remains for me a cherished friend and colleague."

Meanwhile, FOX news is reporting that Rosie leaving has nothing to do with contract negotiations breaking down. ABC did not end Rosie’s "View." Rosie ended it.

. Rosie was finished with "The View" over the Christmas holiday when Barbara Walters failed to defend her against Donald Trump.

In fact, it was worse than that: When O’Donnell discovered that Walters had bad-mouthed her to Trump, she decided to leave the show.

Donald Trump isn't shedding any tears over Rosie O'Donnell's decision to leave The View reports Star. The Apprentice host called Star's Ilyssa Panitz from the Beverly Hills Hotel to discuss O'Donnell's departure.

"It was inevitable," Trump tells Star. "She is a highly self-destructive person. Her ratings were doing terrible since the fight she had with me. They had the fight and that is when they were at their all-time high. Since then, they have been tumbling. Rosie is a very self-destructive person. She deserves what she got and ABC finally got smart."
ABC, in fact, wanted O’Donnell to stay with the show. They offered her, as she said on the air, a three-year contract. She refused to sign. Rosie said she’d stay for a year, and this is what you don’t know: She wanted $10 million to do so.

ABC did not turn down the money. They turned down the one-year part. They wanted stability. They would have paid her something like $30 million to sign for three years. That’s how much they wanted her. She was the future of "The View."

In other news, Rosie O'Donnell may be the next star to play innkeeper's wife Madame Thenardier in Broadway's Les Miserables, according to MSNBC.com.

O'Donnell, first fueled rumors of her going into the show when, on April 25th, she was asked by an audience member "Will you do Broadway again?" O'Donnell, replied "I will be going to Les Miserables in September as long as I can sing 'Master of the House!'" Access Hollywood has confirmed that O'Donnell had indeed been asked by Les Mis reports broadwayworld.com

By Fabien Montique posted time [ 6:24 PM]