Roseanne’s not one
to keep mum

By Rita Charleston
For the Times

Today, Roseanne Barr, the strong-willed, gutsy and original "domestic goddess," could surely qualify as one desperate housewife.
Her original material, when she started out in the ’70s, was about a husband who nagged her incessantly about a clean home and a non-existent sex life. Talk about desperate!
But then she hit the big time with her highly successful and long-running TV series Roseanne. Forget glamour and tender parenting. Barr and co-star John Goodman broke all the rules playing overweight, overworked and underpaid parents struggling every day just to stay afloat. The show consistently topped the ratings and won four Emmys by being an unabashedly blue-collar comedy that broke all the rules.
But during a recent telephone interview prior to her appearance this Saturday at the House of Blues in Atlantic City, Barr was unusually reserved, speaking her mind quietly in what, for her, were rather subdued tones.
But that didn’t mean she held back. For example, when it comes to The View, the ABC program for which she was supposedly being considered, Barr said the rumors were not true.
"People voted for me online but I was never seriously considered," she said. "I was interested but I kinda knew it wasn’t going to happen. I don’t think Barbara Walters likes a woman of opinion, as evidenced by what she did to Rosie O’Donnell. I think she doesn’t like anything that I think or anything that I have to say. She likes a narrow and elitist point of view. I think if Barbara had her way everybody would just be talking about, well, Barbara."
Indeed, seems that not everybody agrees with Barr’s tactics or inability to censor herself, like the time she joked about Bush, or 9/11, or grabbed her crotch while shrieking out the Star Spangled Banner at a baseball game.
Who cares? Barr likes Barr and concentrates on her daily blog, which allows her to express many of her opinions, pro and con.
"Today," she explained, "I enjoy writing on my blog and spending time with my family."
The Salt Lake City native, in her mid-50s, has five children and recently helped welcome her fourth grandson. After three marriages, she’s now single, but she revealed that she’s had a boyfriend for the past couple years, and may or may not have another marriage in her future.
"I also enjoy going out a few times a year doing my stand-up. I do about ten gigs a year," she said. "I think stand-up is a real creative art form, a free speech art form, probably the very last one. It’s just what I always wanted to do and what I love to do. However, looking back, it’s not that I actually chose to do it. Rather, it chose me."
And because she likes expressing her opinions, she’s glad it did, for now she has the opportunity not only to make people laugh, but also to make people think, often with politics high on the list. She describes herself as a "left-wing Jewish radical. My family was always like that, and I’m proud of it."
She also likes to tackle unpopular topics like politics, feminism and racism — all the kinds of topics audiences will hear during her Saturday appearance, and the kinds of things she likes to talk about on her blog as well. ••
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