Rosie O’Donnell – Known As ‘The Beast’ By Staff At The View – Reportedly Tried To ATTACK Her Producer

Rosie O’Donnell – Known As ‘The Beast’ By Staff At The View – Reportedly Tried To ATTACK Her Producer

It’s no secret that Rosie O’Donnell appears to be a very damaged individual. According to recent reports, the ultra-liberal loudmouth is not only remarkably unpleasant, but violent as well.

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Rosie O’Donnell had to be physically restrained from a senior producer at The View, exploded into rages over perceived slights by ‘Team Whoopi’ and was known as ‘The ‘Beast’ by staff who feared going to work each day, a source has told Daily Mail Online exclusively.

A new lawsuit threatens to further expose the toxic atmosphere behind-the-scenes at the daytime talk show as Rosie, 53, now faces slander claims by a former ABC colleague.

Jennifer Shephard-Brookman, an Emmy-award winning producer who spent 14 years at The View, claims that Rosie destroyed her professional reputation by repeatedly falsely accusing her of leaking stories to the press and left her in ‘intense emotional distress’.

The civil lawsuit,  in New York’s Supreme Court, also alleges that in September 2014, Rosie pinned Brookman to a chair while getting in her face and berating her.

Brookman, who was fired from ABC last year over an alleged ‘vicious’ email she sent to Rosie, refused to comment on the lawsuit when contacted by Daily Mail Online on Monday.

She has strongly denied ever leaking information about The View.

However a source close to the show claims that Ms Brookman had been left a ‘nervous wreck’ by Rosie.

In January, Rosie ‘stormed towards Jennifer and had to be physically restrained by her own staff who were dragging her away, screaming and shouting’, the source claims.

The scene appears to have been sparked by Rosie making thinly-veiled accusations about Brookman leaking stories to the press in a packed meeting.

The following day, tensions were still high at a staff meeting and following a series of muttered remarks, the confrontation between the two women spilled out into the hall.

According to the source, Brookman does not appear to have been the only target of Rosie’s ire and a climate of fear descended over the talk show set.

The source said: ‘Anyone who challenges Rosie, or says no to her and doesn’t let her be the empress, becomes a target. She wanted to be treated like an executive producer, without having the title.

‘All these people at The View were under the thumb of a bully. They were worried about Rosie.

‘They lived in fear of “The Beast”, as they would call her.’

The only person who seemed to escape Rosie’s abuse was moderator, Whoopi Goldberg.

In September 2014, a news story appeared, according to the lawsuit, which claimed O’Donnell wanted to take control of the show and the role of moderator from Whoopi and that the pair clashed over O’Donnell’s efforts to take control.

The lawsuit claims that Rosie ‘would become upset if she was not granted the coverage she expected, and accused Brookman of teaming with Goldberg to undermine O’Donnell’.

And if Rosie perceived any staff to be on, what she dubbed ‘Team Whoopi’, then it meant that individual was against Rosie and became a target.

The source contends: ‘Rosie wouldn’t dare say anything to Whoopi because she was too afraid of her.’

Rosie O’Donnell first joined The View in late 2006, staying for one season, in what would become known as ‘Round One’ to staffers.

During that time, according to Brookman’s civil suit, Rosie ‘feuded with Mr [Bill] Geddie, the executive producer of the show since 1997, and senior staffers and co-hosts of the show, and reportedly fell into rages, screamed at the staff, insulted them, and was so vicious that some of the staffers on the show spoke of O’Donnell using the word ‘hate”.’

Rosie left the show in 2007 after an explosive showdown live on-air with Elisabeth Hasselback over the Iraq War.

Seven years later, following the retirement of The View’s founder Barbara Walters and a revolving door of panel members, Rosie returned in July 2014, known to staffers as ‘Round Two’.

Around this time, news stories started popping up about Rosie’s outrageous behind-the-scenes behavior, including some on Daily Mail Online.

According to Brookman’s lawsuit, ‘a story was reported in the media that she [Rosie] disliked and probably could not co-exist with Mr Geddie, and that Mr Geddie may be terminated from his job on the show’.

Soon afterwards, the producer, who had helped Barbara Walters shape The View into a daytime TV success since the late Nineties, left the show along with supervising producer, Alexandra Cohen, and director Mark Gentile.

A source tells Daily Mail Online: ‘Many staff believe that Bill Geddie was fired because of Rosie and that it was one of her demands for returning to the show.’

At this point, Brookman remained as the only long-serving senior production staffer on The View, the lawsuit stated.

Just days later, in September 2014, the producer was confronted by Rosie.

According to the suit, Rosie accused the producer of conspiring with Whoopi to ‘shift the coverage of a story on the show, specifically about the beheading of James Foley by ISIS, away from her and to Whoopi’.

O’Donnell screamed at Brookman that she ‘owned’ the story and was upset that Whoopi covered the story.

Rosie grabbed ‘the arms of the chair in which Ms Brookman was sitting, leaning very close to her face, and prohibiting her from leaving, while continuing to aggressively and loudly berate her for giving the coverage of the story to Ms Goldberg’, according to the lawsuit.

The insider told Daily Mail Online about a second incident in January 2015 when Rosie almost completely lost control, a day after accusing Brookman of leaking information to the press.

Following a staff meeting, ‘Rosie had to be physically restrained from Jennifer, her own people had to drag her away. Many people witnessed it.

‘Rosie has an extraordinarily aggressive approach with people,’ the source said.

The lawsuit mentions a number of stories which appeared in the press over Rosie’s troubled relationships with co-stars and staffers.

The examples cited include a story from September 2014 where Rosie was said to have a hard time ‘playing second fiddle’ to Whoopi, wanted to be in charge and griped in front of the studio audience about a perceived on-air snub when Whoopi cut her off.

A month later, Rosie was said to have ‘melted down’ on the producers about her lack of involvement in the marketing plans for the show and that she disagreed with them.

Then in November, several articles appeared which claimed Rosie ‘micromanaged the show’ and ‘is bi-polar’ in her interactions with staff.

It was also claimed that Rosie had fought with and screamed at Whoopi and staff about the discussions of several topics including the Bill Cosby rape scandal and the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

Rosie then was said to be enraged that show producers agreed to allow only Whoopi to interview former model Beverly Johnson about her accusation of drugging and attempted sexual abuse against Bill Cosby.

Another story appeared in December, claiming Rosie was ‘malcontent’, ‘bringing down’ The View and was ‘impossibly rude to members of the cast and crew’ and was outraged when it became clear that Whoopi would remain moderator.

In January 2015, during a Hot Topics planning meeting, attended by Brookman, executive producers, William Wolff and Brian Balthazar, co-host Nicolle Wallace, two guest co-hosts from outside ABC, and other staffers, Rosie publicly accused  Brookman of betraying personal and professional confidences by leaking certain sensitive information to the media, the lawsuit stated.

Whoopi was not at the meeting – but ‘would have opposed O’Donnell’s accusation against Ms Brookman, and would have defended Ms Brookman’, the suit read.

The lawsuit said that Brookman felt ‘attacked’ by Rosie at the meeting and was forced to deny she would leak any information about the show to the media.

Rosie’s team told Vanity Fair in May that she didn’t name a colleague at the meeting – but she seemed to implicate Ms Brookman by saying someone’s teenage son might have been the leak. The producer was the only person in the room with a teenage son.

At what point will the entertainment industry finally turn their back on O’Donnell? She is not only, by many reports, terrible to work with, she is polarizing and obnoxious.

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