--- Begin Message ---
http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,9693,00.html
Rosie Refutes Cult Connection
by Josh Grossberg
Mar 21, 2002, 12:45 PM PT
Rosie O'Donnell wants you to know that she's not a member of any
cult--especially a racist homophobic one.
The recently out talk show host has demanded her name and voice be removed
from an Oscar-nominated documentary after learning the filmmakers behind the
project have ties to the Fourth Way School, a "personal development" group
that, according to reports, is a cult that bars African Americans and gays
from its ranks.
O'Donnell agreed to do the voiceover work on the documentary short Artists
and Orphans: A True Drama after being asked by director Lianne Klapper
McNally, a former producer for CBS News. The film has a theme near and dear
to Rosie's heart: children in need. It follows a troupe of American artists
as they traveled to the former Soviet republic of Georgia to attend a
theater festival and ended up helping young orphaned children in the
war-torn country.
The film, which has been playing the festival circuit, is one of three
nominees competing in the Best Documentary Short category at this Sunday's
Oscars. The other two are: Sing!, which follows the struggles of a
community-based youth chorus, and Thoth, about a street musician who
performs a one-man opera.
But little did the daytime diva know that McNally was a member of the Fourth
Way, or that the group's founder, actress-director Sharon Gans, also
launched the theater troupe that's documented in the movie.
Gans reportedly founded the Fourth Way in San Francisco in the late 1970s.
She preached something called "Higher Influence" and recruited members
through her theater troupe. Gans eventually relocated to New York and
decided to make the documentary.
The group's ties to Artists and Orphans came to light in an MSNBC report
last week. In a followup story in the New York Post Wednesday, one unnamed
former member is quoted saying, "On the whole, the group feels gays are not
capable of emotional or psychological growth...if they weren't lazy and
passive, they would work on themselves and be normal [heterosexual]." The
ex-member also said the Fourth Way does not accept blacks.
The connection has startled O'Donnell, who, as we all know by now, says that
being gay "is really no big deal" and calls herself the poster child for gay
parents. She is also a strong advocate for gay adoption and has three
adopted children.
"She was told that it was supposed to be a charitable organzation for
children. It's not, it's a cult," says Rosie's rep, Cindi Berger.
Indeed, on her talk show Wednesday, Rosie railed against the Fourth Way and
explained that she didn't know about the relationship between the group and
the documentary when she did the project. "What is my luck that of all the
theater groups in the world, the one I pick would be a cult?"
Although fans might think the outspoken O'Donnell would have nothing but
invective for McNally for misleading her into doing the documentary, it was
just the opposite.
"I'm so sickly codependent, I want to save that woman from the cult," Rosie
said on her show. "I am going to get every bit of information on the cult
and send it to her...I know you're watching me, I talked to you about your
kid. There is a God. Get out of the cult! Call me."
Meanwhile, an attorney for the filmmakers, David Goldstein, said that
allegations of the film being "the work of some kind of nefarious cult [are]
completely baseless."
Goldstein adds in the Post, "Furthermore, the inflammatory accusation that
certain people affiliated with the film are involved in an organization that
endangers the welfare of children or discriminates against...gays and
lesbians or families is without foundation."
There is no immediate word from the filmmakers on whether they will consent
to O'Donnell's demands to have her name and narration removed. Berger says
O'Donnell's lawyers are also looking into ways to force the issue.
--- End Message ---
