Stand-up comic cum television personality at the Don't Tell Mamaa piano bar (two photos above) in New York City, 2004, carries on with her chihuahua puppy. She and her family have had multiple chihuahuas over the years. At the page-bottom are two photos from 2008 of Rosie with a merle chihuahua named Chopper, who belonged to one of her friends who is a breeder.

I went like twenty years before the new millenium never watching any tv, so for a long time I never knew who Rosie was. The first time I saw her, I'd walked into a friend's house one afternoon, and the television was on. It was Rosie's talk show. I did a double-take and having seen her for only five seconds said, "Good lord, since when did national television start handing out talk shows to dykes? Maybe I should get a tv if things have changed that much."

My friend, a dyke like me, said, "Oh, she's not gay, she just looks that way."

At the time, she was still more or less in the closet for television purposes. And we all thought it pretty cool when she decided to be a wee bit more honest.

She was the first public figure I ever heard call her spouse "my wife" (Kelli Carpenter) instead of the icky-gicky phrase "my significant other."

Culturally that was always hard for lesbian couples to say that, and it was praiseworthy that she battered down that barrier.

So, any celebrity who is both gay and likes chihuahuas I usually get a soft spot for, but I dunno, Rosie generally annoys me. Her crude observations are rarely actually funny, and frequently hurtful without benefit of laugh. She seems too often a genuine sour puss.

It nevertheless struck me as sad when she and her wife broke up, as there were not only chihuahuas involved, but four actual children too. Divorce always sucks when there's so much of a family.

O'Donnell presently has a long-hair chihuahua, Misty, shown in the photo in-text. She said in 2009, on her satelllite radio show, "When Kelli moved out two years ago, I got the dog because I wanted another child or something to love. Misty burrows into the covers and sleeps right next to me." The four children, notes Rosie, fight over who gets to take care of her when Rosie's off to work.