Rosie O'Donnell returns to TV

Rosie O'Donnell who left the daytime talk show in 2007 after a single tumultuous season returns to TV on Sunday night with a Lifetime movie about the foster-care system called America.

Rosie O'Donnell says she doesn't have time these days to view ��The View.��
��I don't watch it too much,'' O'Donnell said. ``I don't really watch too much daytime, having four kids and being kind of overwhelmed by that.''
O'Donnell who left the daytime talk show in 2007 after a single tumultuous season returns to TV on Sunday night with a Lifetime movie about the foster-care system called America.She had been a foster parent to two children, including a girl named Rosie for 1 {years, when an intern in 2002 handed her the book by E.R. Frank that inspired the movie.
O'Donnell, who co-wrote the script and is executive producer, plays a therapist for a boy aging out of foster care. She discovered her 17-year-old co-star Philip Johnson while eating at a Detroit diner just days before production was to begin.

��He was at a table with two uncles, three sisters and a dad. And I would watch him listen to each conversation,'' O'Donnell said. ��I was staring at them so much, finally one of the uncles said 'Isn't that Roseanne Barr?' And I said 'Close enough!'''
O'Donnell is raising four children with Kelli Carpenter, who she married five years ago in a San Francisco ceremony courts later invalidated. They range in age from 13-year-old Parker to 6-year-old Vivi.

The former host of ``The Rosie O'Donnell'' show said she found this year's Academy Awards to be ��beautifully gay,'' and praised acceptance speeches by ``Milk'' screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and the film's star, Sean Penn.
``I thought that was absolutely heartwrenching and perfect,'' she said. ``It was very moving to me. And I thought Hugh Jackman was wonderful.''
In the wake of California voters banning same-sex marriage, O'Donnell said she expects the gay-rights movement to move beyond individual states.
��We keep walking forward,'' she said. ��Civil rights don't happen overnight. I think it's going to happen, and it's going to happen soon. It will be national.''
��When you think really how long the gay-rights movement has been around, it's not that long,'' she added. ��It's tremendous progress. When my career began, no one would even insinuate anyone was gay. People wouldn't even bring it up. It was never mentioned. It was almost a taboo subject.
��When I was (first) on TV, it was before Will & Grace, it was before Ellen came out. And not one person ever asked me. Times have changed just in my lifetime. To walk down the street in Manhattan and see 20-year-old guys holding hands or young, cute lesbians. ... I think 'Wow.' There has been tremendous progress made. Just in my lifetime. And I'm almost 47.''

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