Rosie O'Donnell fans hoping she would play President Trump adviser Steve Bannon on Saturday Night Live can put their hopes aside. According to showrunner Lorne Michaels, Trump's longtime rival is just too hateful for satire.
According to SNL cast member Leslie Jones, Michaels reportedly said behind the scenes that Rosie could not play Bannon like comedienne Melissa McCarthy plays press secretary Sean Spicer because she would dictate her comedy "from hate" and not "from funny."
“When you’re playing a character, you can’t play it from hate,” Jones said Michaels had told her. “You have to play it from funny, because when you play it from hate, it looks like you’re just being mean.”
O'Donnell has been gunning to play Bannon since February when fans called for it on social media, with one even photoshopping her face onto Bannon's, which Rosie loved. She's been wanting it ever since.
“I am here to serve,” O’Donnell wrote. “Alec has trump – melissa has spice – i would need a few days to prepare – so if called – i will be ready.”
“THANK U FOR MAKING THAT AMAZING ROSIE OBANNON PHOTOSHOP – I LOVE IT,” O’Donnell later wrote.
Jones also agrees with Michaels that Rosie should not play Bannon. “I love Rosie to death, but he might have been right on that one,” she said.
Rosie will have to learn the difference between comedy and spite to find her 90's mojo again. Her most sophisticated joke, and that's putting it charitably, since the rise of Trump has been to call him an "orange piece of sh–t" and a "sh–t stain with a tinge of orange." Shoot for funny next time, Rosie, instead of hate.
