Rosie O’donnell Hits Back At Tv Producer Lawsuit

Rosie O’Donnell is a total bully who intimidated staff when she was co-host of ABC’s “The View” – and even got a producer fired for suspected media leaks, a new lawsuit charges.

For instance, Shepard-Brookman says O’Donnell thought she conspired to shift the coverage of the beheading of journalist James Foley by ISIS from O’Donnell to Goldberg.

Former senior producer Jennifer Shepard-Brookman lost her job after being “profoundly and publicly disrespectful” to the co-host back in February, Page Six reported.

As Page Six reported then, senior producer Shepard-Brookman, who had worked for the show for 15 years, was initially suspended after her outburst towards O’Donnell, then fired.

“Ms. Brookman brings this claim to hold Ms. O’Donnell accountable for her malicious conduct in making false and defamatory statements of fact about Ms. Brookman to others in their workplace, which caused Ms. Brookman to suffer intense emotional distress, anxiety, and lack of sleep, destroyed her professional reputation, and led to her termination of employment”, said the ex-producer’s lawyer Brian Kennedy in the complaint (read it here), filed Thursday.

One show insider said: “During a production meeting, Jennifer began mumbling behind Rosie, who told her, ‘If you have something to say, say it to my face!’ So Jennifer did – she laced into Rosie, and there was a shouting match”.

“The allegations that have been made by Jennifer Brookman against Rosie O’Donnell are baseless and Ms. O’Donnell will defend herself vigorously in court”, O’Donnell’s attorney Nicolle Jacoby tells The Hollywood Reporter.

But when Shepard-Brookman left the show earlier this year, there were reports of another spat between the two.

Shepard-Brookman claims O’Donnell “accused Ms. Brookman of teaming with Ms. Goldberg to undermine Ms. O’Donnell”.

The suit, filed this week in New York, seeks unspecified damages and denies being the source of any leaks to the media.

O’Donnell announced she is leaving The View for a second time not long afterwards. Shortly before that, her teenage daughter Chelsea ran away from home and O’Donnell sought the public’s help in finding her.