BROADCASTS.com

This week, Alec sits down with Rosie O\u2019Donnell who says she \u201cnever wanted to be a talk show host \u2026\xa0I wanted to be on Broadway\u2026I wanted to be a Bette Midler backup singer, one of the Harlettes.\u201d

And for over three decades, Rosie has done a lot of things \u2013 she\u2019s been a standup comic, a\xa0Star Search\xa0contestant, an actress, a talk show host, a philanthropist, an activist, a magazine editor, a blogger, a Broadway and television producer, and above all, a mom to five. The latest child, Rosie tells Alec, "rebirthed" her.

On changes in the acceptance of gay actors during the arc of her long career now, she says, "To think that in my lifetime, in my career, that you can be an out performer/actor playing against type \u2013 Neil Patrick Harris playing a womanizer on that show, being out and married with twin boys \u2013 and it doesn't hurt your career. It doesn't do anything. So in a way it's the most beautifully astounding, inspirational thing that I can think about in my 51 years of living."

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