Rosie O’Donnell rips on Leno: “It’s worse than ‘All About Eve’ because he is not an up-and-coming guy”

Rosie O’Donnell’s HBO special A Family is a Family is a Family began airing last night and she talked to the Los Angeles Times about the special and about her own family.

Last month at the TV Critics Association Tour, I asked Rosie if she had talked to Conan O’Brien since he got his walking papers from NBC and was surprised when she  went off on Jay Leno. Rosie, as always, was just speaking her mind and I was pleasantly surprised to see that she isn’t backing off one iota.

One thing you’ve been talking a lot about is how unhappy you are, to put it mildly, about the Jay Leno situation at NBC. What do you think Jay could or should have done?

Listen, Joe Namath had to be told at some point, “We are going to go with another quarterback.” Jay had five years to make other plans. Conan gave 17 years of his life to NBC. I just think it is bad sportsmanship. Jay’s a guy who is not willing to let go.

And I think it is going to backfire on him and bite him. He’s pretending like he had nothing to do with it: “I don’t know what NBC is doing. I don’t know.” What? No. You know. And you are a coward, and if you really think that you still got the goods at 60 years old, if you really think that you are cutting-edge and poignant and that your interview style is so exemplary, then you know what you should do? Go to Fox and compete against Conan. But to have Conan have that . . . [weak] lead-in of him?

It’s like he did everything he could to sabotage him. It’s like worse than “All About Eve,” because he is not an up-and-coming guy. It’s like a guy who fell water-skiing and then refuses to let go of the tow rope. You know, I think it is going to drown him. Frankly, I think if he had any dignity, he would say, “You know what? I am done.”