Rosie O'Donnell

by George Mair

Life has come full circle for Rosie O'Donnell. The little girl who sang to a wooden spoon in her bedroom and survived early tragedy is now today's hottest star of TV talk shows. She has fame, fortune, family, and her future looks very rosy indeed. From her beginnings on the eighties stand-up circuit and her break on Star Search, Rosie plowed a steady path for herself - to Standup Spotlight, to the big-screen hit A League of Their Own (1992), and currently to her own star. Vehicle, The Rosie O'Donnell Show. Born into a middle-class family, she has always been fascinated by show business. According to her sister, Maureen, Rosie was "equal parts tomboy, cutup, and dreamer." At the age of ten, her mother died of cancer. Her father, physically and emotionally withdrawn from his children, was heavily involved in secretly developing satellites to spy on the Soviet Union. As a result, the five O'Donnell children raised themselves, with a lot of. Help from television. The set was on twenty-four