People: Rosie retorts to the Donald
Rosie O’Donnell says Donald Trump is a man obsessed.
“It’s the way I look. He can’t resist. I love when people say you’re fat like you don’t know,” O’Donnell joked Monday on ABC’s “The View.” “It’s always the first comment of someone who disagrees with you if you happen to be on the plus side.”
Trump has been hurling insults at O’Donnell since she criticized his news conference with Miss USA Tara Conner last month. Trump announced that Conner would be allowed to keep her title, which had been in jeopardy because of underage drinking.
“Boy, did I hit a nerve with that guy,” O’Donnell said Monday, calling Trump a “comb-over bunny” for his relentless attacks on her, which include saying that Barbara Walters, creator of “The View,” had told him she didn’t want the 44-year-old comedian on the show.
Walters said Monday that Trump’s remarks were “totally untrue” and expressed a wish that “we could rise above it.”
“It’s not we, it’s him,” said O’Donnell. “He’s doing every show in America. He’s on QVC talking …”
“The guy, he’s obsessed with me, obviously,” she said.
Trump, in a statement to The Associated Press, said O’Donnell had gotten it wrong.
“I used the word ‘slob,’ I used the word ‘degenerate’ and I used the words ‘not very smart.’ The word ‘fat’ played a very small role, if any, in my description of her,”’ he said.
One reject speaks for another
Author Jeffrey Archer, who was cast out of Britain’s Conservative Party after being jailed on perjury charges, is coming to the defense of another noted black sheep: Judas Iscariot.
Archer announced Sunday that his new novel chronicling the life of the man who betrayed Jesus, “The Gospel According to Judas, by Benjamin Iscariot,” will be published in March. He said he wrote the book in collaboration with religious scholar Frank Moloney.
The book imagines Judas as a politician who betrays Jesus not for money but because he believes Jesus is an ineffective leader unable to challenge the authority of the Romans.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa has recorded an audio version of the novel.
Archer left prison in 2003 after serving two years for perjury and obstructing justice. He was convicted of lying during his successful 1987 libel action against the Daily Star newspaper, which claimed he had hired a prostitute.
Rihanna’s just an island girl
Rihanna has won the top entertainer award for the second consecutive year at the Barbados Music Awards. The 18-year-old R&B singer, who was born Robyn Rihanna Fenty on the Caribbean island, won several other categories including best album for “A Girl Like Me” and best song for the Top 10 single “Unfaithful.”
The birthday bunch
Author Judith Krantz is 79. Sports announcer Dick Enberg is 72. Singer Joan Baez is 66. Actress Susannah York is 66. Guitarist Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin is 63. Singer David Johansen (aka Buster Poindexter) is 57. Singer Crystal Gayle is 56. Guitarist Eric Erlandson (Hole) is 44. Actress Joely Richardson is 42. Guitarist Carl Bell of Fuel is 40. Singer Steve Harwell of Smash Mouth is 40. Singer Dave Matthews of the Dave Matthews Band is 40.