Rosie Helps Homophobic Filmmakers?

Talk Show Host Recently Revealed Sexuality

TheHawaiiChannel.com/March 21, 2002

After recently announcing that she is a lesbian, syndicated television talk show host Rosie O'Donnell has learned this week that an Oscar-nominated film project she aided allegedly has homophobic ties.

According to the Hollywood Reporter online, O'Donnell has asked to have her name and voice removed from "Artists and Orphans: A True Drama" after learning that the filmmakers belong to a group described as a "homophobic cult."

"Artists and Orphans" is facing off against two other films for the Oscar for best documentary short film Sunday in Hollywood, Calf. According to the Reporter, the film follows a New York theater group as it travels to the former Soviet republic of Georgia to help orphaned and abandoned children.

O'Donnell's spokeswoman, Cindi Berger, said Wednesday that O'Donnell discovered that the filmmakers, including director Lianne Klapper McNally, are involved with the Fourth Way School -- a group emphasizing personal development. But according to the Reporter, various newspapers have reported that it also bans homosexuals and believes gays shouldn't be parents.

O'Donnell has been vocal in the past about gays' adoption rights.

"If Rosie had known the truth about this organization, she never would have consented to lend her name and voice," Berger told the Reporter. "Rosie is angry that the background wasn't disclosed to her."

David Goldstein, a lawyer who represents "Angels and Orphans" told the New York Daily News that the claims are "completely baseless."