Rosie O’Donnell says she just doesn’t want Lindsay Lohan to end up like Whitney Houston

With The Today Show losing the weekly ratings race to Good Morning America for the first time in ages recently, bringing on a lightning rod like Rosie O’Donnell certainly can spark up interest.

All kinds of attention has been given to Rosie’s comments earlier this week that Lindsay Lohan not only is miscast as Elizabeth Taylor in an upcoming Lifetime movie, but that Lohan should leave the spotlight altogether and get herself together.

Rosie returned to The Today Show Thursday and elaborated on why she said what she did: ‘I (was) watching Whitney Houston’s funeral, and I remember thinking why didn’t more people say what they knew?’ O’Donnell told hosts Matt Lauer and Ann Curry. ‘We all knew, when she would not show up to do this show, not show up to do my show, we watched Being Bobby Brown and it was like watching Sid and Nancy, they were people who were in the throes of addiction. But all that anyone cared about was that the show was getting ratings, not that this woman, this talented individual, this human being, this mother, this daughter, was worth saving… To look at Lindsay Lohan you can’t help but feel for her. I don’t think she’s untalented, I think she’s quite talented.’

Access Hollywood caught up with Lohan this week to get her take n Rosie’s remarks:

It’s funny that someone you don’t know at all can say something so intrusive and so knowing,’

She believes she is a good choice to play Taylor: ‘I know that I’m great. I know that I know Liz Taylor very well, and I share the same makeup artist and the same hair stylist. We’ve worked with a lot of the same people.’

But one thing Lohan doesn’t know, apparently, is that Miss Taylor hated being called Liz.

It was always, Elizabeth.