But this didn't stop the most recent issue of Time magazine including Rosie in the world's 100 most influential people (along with Justin Timberlake, it has to be said). It wasn't her recurring role on Nip/Tuck or the millions of dollars she has raised for her children's charity. Nor was it her leading role in the "Million Mom March" on Washington in 1999 for gun control. It was her year on The View.

In June 2006, Rosie seemed like an inspired piece of casting. The View is ABC's flagship mid-morning coffee klatch, derided and lauded in equal measure. In its 10th year, it was losing ratings, relevance and had been through some undignified mud-slinging between Walters and her egotistical former co-host Star Jones. But the Walters-Jones clash would turn out to be nothing compared to the headlines and celebrity feuds generated by Rosie.

Rosie, who already hosted her own successful chat show in the 1990s, was supposed to kick things up a notch. She did. A vocal critic of the war in Iraq, she had just produced an Emmy-nominated documentary, All Aboard! Rosie's Family Cruise, with her wife Kelli O'Donnell about the maiden voyage of their cruise for gay families. The film moved Walters to tearsf and led to an impromptu invitation for Rosie to join The View.

And so, Rosie joined the regal Barbara Walters, a friend of everyone from Henry Kissinger to the crowned heads of Europe;

down-to-earth Brooklyn-born comedienne Joy Behar; and, last but not least, the perky, blonde, likeable and articulate Elisabeth Hasselbeck, a former contestant on the reality show Survivor, who also happens to be the only Republican and constant defender of George W Bush on the four-woman panel.

On The View, Rosie took on the senior role of moderator, a role left empty by alumnus Meredith Viera, the classy soccer mom who had left the show under far more harmonious circumstances than Jones. Having hosted her own chat show, Rosie insisted that she was happy to be part of an ensemble, and after spending time raising her two adopted children and taking time out to manage a life-long battle with depression, Rosie was ready.

America, however, was not ready for Rosie. During her year on The View, she triggered a celebrity feud with Donald Trump, enraged Asian-Americans with a "ching-chong" impression of Chinese newscasters, alleged that Kelly Ripa, co-host of ABC's early morning show Regis & Kelly was homophobic and, most bizarrely, implied that 9/11 was an inside job, musing on-air that it's the first time she heard of fire melting steel.

But, actually, her feud with Trump generated more headlines than even her 9/11 conspiracy theory. Last December, The Donald . . . who owns the Miss USA franchise . . .held a press conference to decide the fate of the reigning Miss USA Tara Conner. Conner's drinking and alleged substance abuse risked tarnishing the wholesome Miss USA crown. Surprisingly, Trump demurred that:

"Everyone deserves a second chance."

Rosie was not impressed. Who was Trump to act so high and mighty? "Left the first wife, had an affair, left the second wife, had an affair. He had kids both times, but he's the moral compass for 20-year-olds in America?

Donald, sit and spin, my friend." She also affected a comb-over, did a Neanderthal impression of the billionaire property mogul, compared him to a snake-oil salesman and, finally, alleged he'd been bankrupt.

The audience loved it. But Trump . . . who was never bankrupt in a personal capacity . . . went ballistic, appearing on everything from CNN and NBC to Bill O'Reilly's show on the partisan, right-wing Fox News, which has never made a secret of its hatred of the left-wing, Bush-bashing Rosie O'Donnell.

"Rosie is a bully, " Trump said. "I hit her between the eyesf I guarantee I'll have a lot of Rosie's money right out of her big fat pocket."

Rosie said Donald was obsessed with her, but she too couldn't let go of the feud. It was as if the hit unleashed a deep-rooted anger.

All the more remarkable as this is a woman the supermarket tabloids once-upon-a-time had nicknamed "Queen of Nice". Walters read out a statement, clarifying Rosie's bankruptcy remarks, and tried to pour cold water on the situation, saying The Donald and Rosie were friends who were very opinionated.

But Trump got even more personal. "If you looked like Rosie you'd be critical of beauty pageants, believe me. Rosie is a very unattractive woman, both inside and out." He called her a "loser" and a "fat pig" but . . . and this is when it got really interesting . . . Trump alleged that Walters phoned him to apologise for Rosie's remarks, reportedly saying, "Donald, never get into the mud with pigsf Don't worry, she won't be here for long."

"I'm sorry there is friction between Donald and Rosie, " Walters responded. "That said, I do not regret for one moment my choice to hire Rosie O'Donnell as the moderator of The View." After that, things appeared to settle down. Walters went on holidays for two weeks and Rosie went back to work with Behar and Hasselbeck. But when Walters came back . . . according to the Page Six column of The New York Post . . .

Rosie was furious.

Despite putting on a united front as best gal pals, Page Six reported that make-up brushes flew on 8 January at 8.30am . . . yes, they did give the exact time . . . when Walters, back from her holiday, walked into the hair and make-up room and tried to hug Rosie, who recoiled from her (former) friend's grasp. Rosie erupted, "Are you looking me in the face and denying you didn't tell him you didn't say this? You're a [bleeping] liar!"

On-air was a different story. Rosie asked Walters, "Are you okay Barbara?" Walters replied, "I'm okay, darling, you okay?" Rosie asked, "What can you say about that guy?"

There was a long pause when Walters looked down at her desk to read what appeared to be a statement. She did so haltingly. "That.

Poor. Pathetic. Man." The audience cheered and Rosie and Walters high-fived across the table. The ladies were united once more.

Throughout the celebrity feud with Trump, Rosie's 9/11 remarks and on several other occasions when she reportedly reduced the Bush-backing Hasselback to tears backstage by shouting her down on-air for her views, The View's ratings had soared by 17% in February to 3.5 million viewers. It was must-see TV. Collectively, multiple YouTube clips of the most infamous episodes have been viewed . . . literally . . . millions of times.

The View is regarded as one of the top jobs in broadcasting. The invitation to join the ladies was a comeback for Rosie. As a stand-up and Hollywood actress in the 1980s and 1990s, she got herself bit parts in movies like A League of Their Own and Sleepless In Seattle as Meg Ryan's sardonic best friend.

While filming the latter, she became bezzie mates with Madonna who . . . like Rosie . . . lost her mother at an early age.

IN 1996, Rosie was given her own TV chat show. In 2000, she joined with the publishers of McCall's to produce Rosie's McCall's or, as it became known, Rosie. It was launched as competition to Oprah's glossy.

But, in 2002, she walked away from her chat show shortly after coming out as a lesbian and, in 2003, she walked away from her magazine. The ensuing legal action by McCall's slowly eroded her reputation as "Queen of Nice".

To understand the turbulent passion of Rosie O'Donnell one must go back to Queens, New York, where she was born on 21 March, 1962, the third of five children. Her mother died of breast cancer four days after her 11th birthday. In subsequent years, her father reportedly found reminders of her mother too painful to bear, so Rosie and her siblings would play Barbra Streisand records as they cleaned the house to keep her memory alive.

Her mother had loved Streisand, played her endlessly and, as a result, so did Rosie.

In 1999, after much pleading, she finally interviewed Streisand in a special edition of her chat show. She couldn't contain her emotion at meeting her idol. In one of the first signs that Rosie was more vulnerable than she had come across as the happy-golucky chat show host, she told Barbra moments after meeting her, "I always knew we'd be friends."

Fast-forward to April 2007: Rosie hosted the Matrix Awards in front of 2,000 of New York's most accomplished women in media at the Waldorf-Astoria Grand Ballroom. In front of luminaries like Hillary Clinton, Martha Stewart, Nora Ephron, Rupert Murdoch, Barbara Walters and 17 fresh-faced high school girls who'd won college scholarships, Rosie returned without provocation to her long-running feud with The Donald.

Rosie told the high-society crowd that she'd always wanted to date a bald, middleaged billionaire. She then used the f-word . . .

a no-no in polite American society and especially on camera . . . grabbed her crotch and, in a two-worded statement directed at Trump, hollered, "Eat me!" Walters buried her head in her hands. Rosie had done it again. Coincidence or not, three days later she announced on The View that she was leaving.

Rosie insisted that ABC and her agent couldn't come to terms on a new contract.

Walters looked suitably solemn and insisted that . . . although she co-owns the show . . . she had no say in the negotiations. "We have had, to say the least, an interesting year, " Walters added.

Trump claimed Rosie was fired. The New York Post alleged that Rosie had tried to wrestle control of The View from Walters, reportedly asking ABC to buy Walters out.

According to The Denver Post: "Rosie O'Donnell wasn't just a breath of fresh air for daytime TV, she was a kick in the head, a slap in the face, a hyper-caffeinated energy drink.

By dragging social and political issues into the usually controversial free zone of cooking demos, book promotions, and innocuous chitchat, she was fresh like a snout full of amyl nitrate." Rosie herself posted that particular review on her own blog, rosie. com.

It's true. She had many great, passionate moments, highlighting issues like gay parenting, depression and autism, and calling for the impeachment of George W Bush.

After Bush appeared on a charity edition of American Idol, Rosie said, "I would prefer the President to spend his time at the funeral of a dead soldier." She also held back tears talking about how, unlike Bush, young men from her neighbourhood actually went to Vietnam.

Everyone from CNN to The New York Times covered news of her departure. Fox News salivated over the announcement, replaying all her worst/best moments. But Rosie is now widely expected to get her own chat show.

Meanwhile, you can catch her best bits on abc. com or YouTube. "I don't really love to fight, " she told her co-hosts last week. "I think a woman's voice needed to be heard on network TV, so I came and said my piece."