By Nina Metz, Tribune reporter
Talk host moves into Harpo, Wrigleyville
"I could truly imagine having my whole family move here and live here," Rosie O'Donnell said during a conference call with reporters Wednesday from Harpo Studios on the Near West Side, just a few days from the debut of her new talk show, "The Rosie Show," on the Oprah Winfrey Network (6 p.m. Monday). A one-on-one visit with the 49-year-old mother of four at her office after the conference call confirmed that she has no qualms about rearranging her life for the new venture. O'Donnell plans to fly in for four days every week from her home in Nyack, a suburb of New York City.
She recently purchased a home in Wrigleyville (reportedly for $2.5 million) from Harpo President Erik Logan, who relocated to Los Angeles. "I went and looked at it and I called him up and said, 'If you will leave it furnished, like down to the toilet paper and some of the nightshirts, I think we have a deal.'" O'Donnell will officially move into the home Thursday, after taping a show with Carrie Fisher to air on a future date.
O'Donnell, who is raising her children with ex-partner Kelli Carpenter, said her 14-year-old daughter, Chelsea, will be here with her during the week, and she expects her two youngest children — 11-year-old Blake and 8-year-old Vivi — to make frequent trips, as well. (O'Donnell's oldest, 16-year-old Parker, is at military school in Pennsylvania.)
And though O'Donnell is stepping into the House That Oprah Built, she hasn't been afraid to make changes.
"These were all cubicles here," O'Donnell, said gesturing out beyond the glass window wall of her new office. "I went out to dinner with Oprah and she said, 'Do you have any issues?' and I said, 'It's kind of silly, and I feel badly because it's going to cost money and I don't want you think I'm ungrateful — but: I would like to blow out all the cubicles on the bottom floor and move my office down there and have a common area where people can come and sit and bring their kids and their dogs.' And she was like, 'Seriously?' And I was like, 'Yeah. I need to feel everyone's heartbeat and I need to look at their faces.' And she said, 'Whatever you need.' And, true to her word, five days later it was done."
Gone are the serene blond wood partitions of Winfrey's tenure, replaced with an open area filled with royal blue and white couches and a coffee station. Bright yellow fabric is draped from the exposed loft ceiling.
All was calm in the Harpo offices (across the street from the studio). Calm, but busy. More than once, a head poked into O'Donnell's office during our conversation to remind her of yet another obligation.
"Can I tell you, I'm very tired, in a way that I haven't been. … After doing a double show during the test shows I lost my voice," she said. "I'm not used to speaking this much, so it's going to take a while to get myself really regulated. And now with menopause, I need a lot more sleep than I ever did before. That's why getting in a house is good. (O'Donnell's new girlfriend) Michelle is moving here on Tuesday, we'll have the house with Chelsea, just the three of us, and I think it'll be a little more of a routine."
Not surprisingly, O'Donnell had plenty to say about this next chapter in her life.
Q: How did it come up that you would do the show from Chicago?
A: (OWN) went and scouted locations in New York, and there weren't really any available, at least that I liked. … So I said, "The truth is, I would like to have a studio like Oprah's, but I don't know how we could do that." And Oprah called me and said, "Rosie, would you consider doing it in Chicago if we get you a plane to come back and forth?"
Q: You just bought a house in Wrigleyville. How much time do you think you'll spend here?
A: I'll be here Monday through Thursday, and then I go home (to New York) Thursday afternoon. I'll leave New York at 7 a.m. Mondays, get here by 9 and shoot at noon, and then I go back to New York at, like, 2 o'clock on Thursday. We'll tape the shows day-of (meaning they will air the same day they are taped). The Friday show will be a one-hour reality, behind-the-scenes of what happened all week in the offices. Or maybe the Friday show will be all games.
Q: Are you comfortable with the reality portions and having your off-air time exposed?
A: I love it, although I don't allow (the camera crew) in my home. My daughter Chelsea lives here with me, she's 14. She's here every day — after school she comes (to Harpo). And if the kids are here in the office or around the studio we can shoot them, but I don't want to give (the crew) access to my home. I feel like my kids have given up a lot of their time with me when we're in public — it's not really ever just their time — so I don't really want to cross that line at home.
Q: They will probably become recognizable to anybody who watches the show. How do you feel about that?
A: If you're a fan-fan, you would already know what they look like. So people do know them.
But it's part of what they have to live with. It's the reality of their life that's never going to go away. There was a time before 9/11 when I used to try to hide them, like Michael Jackson did. Not quite with blankets on their heads, but I would never bring them to any event, or if paparazzi came by I would try to cover their faces. But after 9/11 I realized you can't control anything. You have to live (in) faith or fear, and this is part of their truth, that their mother's famous. And for the rest of their lives, that's something they have to live with.
She recently purchased a home in Wrigleyville (reportedly for $2.5 million) from Harpo President Erik Logan, who relocated to Los Angeles. "I went and looked at it and I called him up and said, 'If you will leave it furnished, like down to the toilet paper and some of the nightshirts, I think we have a deal.'" O'Donnell will officially move into the home Thursday, after taping a show with Carrie Fisher to air on a future date.
O'Donnell, who is raising her children with ex-partner Kelli Carpenter, said her 14-year-old daughter, Chelsea, will be here with her during the week, and she expects her two youngest children — 11-year-old Blake and 8-year-old Vivi — to make frequent trips, as well. (O'Donnell's oldest, 16-year-old Parker, is at military school in Pennsylvania.)
And though O'Donnell is stepping into the House That Oprah Built, she hasn't been afraid to make changes.
"These were all cubicles here," O'Donnell, said gesturing out beyond the glass window wall of her new office. "I went out to dinner with Oprah and she said, 'Do you have any issues?' and I said, 'It's kind of silly, and I feel badly because it's going to cost money and I don't want you think I'm ungrateful — but: I would like to blow out all the cubicles on the bottom floor and move my office down there and have a common area where people can come and sit and bring their kids and their dogs.' And she was like, 'Seriously?' And I was like, 'Yeah. I need to feel everyone's heartbeat and I need to look at their faces.' And she said, 'Whatever you need.' And, true to her word, five days later it was done."
Gone are the serene blond wood partitions of Winfrey's tenure, replaced with an open area filled with royal blue and white couches and a coffee station. Bright yellow fabric is draped from the exposed loft ceiling.
All was calm in the Harpo offices (across the street from the studio). Calm, but busy. More than once, a head poked into O'Donnell's office during our conversation to remind her of yet another obligation.
"Can I tell you, I'm very tired, in a way that I haven't been. … After doing a double show during the test shows I lost my voice," she said. "I'm not used to speaking this much, so it's going to take a while to get myself really regulated. And now with menopause, I need a lot more sleep than I ever did before. That's why getting in a house is good. (O'Donnell's new girlfriend) Michelle is moving here on Tuesday, we'll have the house with Chelsea, just the three of us, and I think it'll be a little more of a routine."
Not surprisingly, O'Donnell had plenty to say about this next chapter in her life.
Q: How did it come up that you would do the show from Chicago?
A: (OWN) went and scouted locations in New York, and there weren't really any available, at least that I liked. … So I said, "The truth is, I would like to have a studio like Oprah's, but I don't know how we could do that." And Oprah called me and said, "Rosie, would you consider doing it in Chicago if we get you a plane to come back and forth?"
Q: You just bought a house in Wrigleyville. How much time do you think you'll spend here?
A: I'll be here Monday through Thursday, and then I go home (to New York) Thursday afternoon. I'll leave New York at 7 a.m. Mondays, get here by 9 and shoot at noon, and then I go back to New York at, like, 2 o'clock on Thursday. We'll tape the shows day-of (meaning they will air the same day they are taped). The Friday show will be a one-hour reality, behind-the-scenes of what happened all week in the offices. Or maybe the Friday show will be all games.
Q: Are you comfortable with the reality portions and having your off-air time exposed?
A: I love it, although I don't allow (the camera crew) in my home. My daughter Chelsea lives here with me, she's 14. She's here every day — after school she comes (to Harpo). And if the kids are here in the office or around the studio we can shoot them, but I don't want to give (the crew) access to my home. I feel like my kids have given up a lot of their time with me when we're in public — it's not really ever just their time — so I don't really want to cross that line at home.
Q: They will probably become recognizable to anybody who watches the show. How do you feel about that?
A: If you're a fan-fan, you would already know what they look like. So people do know them.
But it's part of what they have to live with. It's the reality of their life that's never going to go away. There was a time before 9/11 when I used to try to hide them, like Michael Jackson did. Not quite with blankets on their heads, but I would never bring them to any event, or if paparazzi came by I would try to cover their faces. But after 9/11 I realized you can't control anything. You have to live (in) faith or fear, and this is part of their truth, that their mother's famous. And for the rest of their lives, that's something they have to live with.
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