Rosie O'Donnell provided narration for Fourth Way School connected documentary

The Village Voice/March 20, 2002
By Michael Musto

Rosie O'Donnell has made waves fighting for gay adoption with her recent coming-out brouhaha. But here comes a setback: Rosie provided the narration for one of this year's Oscar-nominated Documentary Short Subjects - Lianne Klapper McNally's Artists and Orphans: A True Drama. It's about a theater group that travels to the Republic of Georgia and tries to help the country's orphaned and abandoned children.

Alas, Klapper, star Sharon Gans, and all the other artists reportedly belong to the Fourth Way School, which self-described cult expert Rick Ross recently told MSNBC.com's Jeannette Walls is deeply racist and homophobic; it "has excluded black members and will accept gays only if they are interested in changing their sexual preference."

I spoke to a former member of the school, who backed up these claims. As of press time, Klapper hadn't returned a request for comment and Gans couldn't be reached.