ROLL CALL: Sanjaya Gets Surreal & Rosie Responds To Fans

Your Daily Dispatch of Celebrity Shenanigans by Tommy Vergason

May 25, 2007

ROSIE RESPONDS: On her official Web site yesterday evening, Rosie O’Donnell responded to fans’ posted questions regarding Wednesday’s on-air “View” argument with Elisabeth Hasselbeck. When asked if she was “OK” by a person named Judy, Rosie replied, “i am sad judy / so sad / but i will b ok.” She also simply wrote “no” when asked if she had talked to Hasselbeck since the incident, and when someone named Lydia wrote “How do you stay strong and don’t let anything get under your skin?,” Rosie replied, “lidia it IS under my skin / i cant scrub it off.” Rosie’s last day with “The View” is scheduled for June 20th. She is reportedly expected to return to work on Tuesday, despite various rumors that she won’t return due to Wednesday’s incident (as well as a post from Rosie on her Web site Wednesday saying “yes it may be time to be done”).

More Celebrity Scoop After the Video!

SANJAYA’S SURREAL ‘INSTALLATION’: A video popped up online Tuesday called “The Sanjaya Installation,” featuring a sunglasses-clad man who looked an awful lot like “American Idol” finalist Sanjaya Malakar. In the video, the man said that he was actually a grad student named Bill Vendall who had invented “Sanjaya” as a character for an “experimental art project,” indicating that the Sanjaya who caused such a buzz on “Idol” this season was not at all what he appeared. DEFAMER wrote that the video was made and distributed by some grad students at the Rhode Island School of Design, and speculation arose over whether this was truly Sanjaya in the video, or if it was an elaborate hoax. It turns out it was both — it is Sanjaya, and it is a hoax! The Web site FUNNYORDIE.COM posted a video yesterday called “Sanjaya: The Hoax Revealed,” in which Malakar explains that the whole thing was a joke thought up by one of the Web site’s founders, Will Ferrell! “We were kidding,” says Sanjaya in the video. “FunnyOrDie.com and Will Ferrell made me do that message. Don’t worry — I’m really Sanjaya. Though I’m pretty sure Simon [Cowell] is actually a 75 year-old Asian woman.”

BOOTS BOSS BEGS PARDON: Dr. Martens shoe company CEO David Suddens has publicly apologized to Courtney Love over the use of an image of Love’s late husband, Kurt Cobain, in a British ad for Dr. Martens boots. As reported Wednesday by PEOPLE, Love was upset about the ad (which she reportedly did not know about beforehand), which shows Cobain wearing black Dr. Martens boots, draped in an angelic robe and sitting on a cloud. Suddens reportedly issued the following statement to PEOPLE yesterday: “We are really, really, really sorry. We do think that it is offensive. We made a mistake. My message to Courtney Love is: This is something we shouldn’t have been doing.” Suddens reportedly tells PEOPLE that the ad was intended for one-time use only, and adds, “I wasn’t even aware of it. I was still unaware until [Wednesday]. When I found out what happened, I fired [the agency].”

The ad agency that created the effort, Saatchi & Saatchi London, released a statement Thursday posted on the Web site THE DAILY SWARM. “We believe the ads are edgy but not offensive,” executive creative director Kate Stanners says in the statement. “We regret that the controversy has led Dr. Martens to terminate the contract with Saatchi & Saatchi.” There has been no reported response to either of these statements from Courtney Love at this time.

A ‘LOST’ LIFE: “Lost” fans are surely saddened to have witnessed the apparent death of a lead character in Wednesday’s shocking season finale. But Dominic Monaghan, the actor who plays the dearly departed Charlie, is fine with his departure, reports TV GUIDE. “Obviously, there are huge positives to being involved in a show like ‘Lost,’” Monaghan reportedly says. “We film in Hawaii, and the lifestyle there is a really fantastic thing. But, to be honest, as an actor I’ve been kind of frustrated for a while. I’ve wanted to do a little bit more. The difference between how much the audience got to see Charlie in Season 1 as opposed to how much they got to see Charlie in Seasons 2 and 3 was significant. It’s been kind of frustrating for me for a while. So I think it’s time for me to move on, you know.” Monaghan assures TV GUIDE that his departure from the show was an amicable (and planned) one, and that he hopes to re-focus on film work (and possibly develop nature programs for TV) in the future.

SANDRA’S ‘PROPOSAL’: And finally, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER announces that Sandra Bullock has signed on to star in a new romantic comedy from Touchstone Pictures entitled “The Proposal.” The story reportedly follows a demanding female boss (Bullock) who suddenly faces deportation to Canada, so she makes a deal with her young male assistant to agree to a sham engagement and marriage. A director and co-star have yet to be named, and there is no report of an expected release date at this time.