Is 'racist' Roseane finally facing ruin? Comedian has long history of offensive behaviour
GETTY Roseanne Barr's career may have crashed
Controversial comedian Roseanne Barr was last night fighting to save her career following uproar over her vile racist tweet. Barr went into apology mode after comparing Barack Obama's former aide Valerie Jarrett to a love child of the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet Of The Apes but blamed it on having taken a sedative. After her resurrected Roseanne show was dumped by US network ABC she said: "It was Ambien tweeting," referring to the drug commonly taken as a sleeping pill which can have blackout side-effects. Barr then said she "honestly thought" Jarrett "was Jewish and Persian" and "mistakenly thought she was white". But though Jarrett was born in Iran, her parents are African-American. Finally Barr issued a lengthy statement in which she apologised "for making a thoughtless joke that does not reflect my values - I love all people and am very sorry. "Today my words caused hundreds of hard-working people to lose their jobs. "I also sincerely apologise to the audience that has embraced my work for decades. I apologise from the bottom of my heart and hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive me."
I apologise from the bottom of my heart and hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive me Roseanne Barr
But yesterday she was under fire from all sides. In a statement on Tuesday, Channing Dungey, the first African-American president of ABC, said: "Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values and we have decided to cancel her show." Her statement was supported by Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, which owns ABC. Co-star Sara Gilbert, who has played daughter Darlene since the series originally began in 1988 and was an executive producer of the revived sitcom, also condemned Barr's outburst, saying: "Roseanne's recent comments about Valerie Jarrett, and so much more, are abhorrent and do not reflect the beliefs of our cast and crew or anyone associated with our show. "I am disappointed in her actions. This is incredibly sad and difficult for all of us as we've created a show that we believe in, are proud of and that audiences love - one that is separate and apart from the opinions and words of one cast member."
GETTY Valerie Jarrett is the former of aide of Barack Obama and the subject of Barr's vile tweet
John Goodman, who has starred as Roseanne's husband Dan - again since the beginning - has yet to comment on the tweet or the show's axing but was spotted looking very glum as he walked his dog in New Orleans. Barr has also been dropped by her publicity agency ICM Partners, who said: "We are all greatly distressed by the disgraceful and unacceptable tweet from Roseanne Barr. What she wrote is antithetical to our core values, both as individuals and as an agency." And yesterday the makers of Ambien commented: "Racism is not a known sideeffect," of the drug. When the sitcom Roseanne returned to TV screens this March it represented one of the most remarkable resurrections in television history. Nearly 19 million viewers in the US tuned in to the rebooted 1980s hit, starring Barr as the loudmouthed matriarch of an American working class family - now a Trump supporter.
MEGA John Goodman starred as Roseanne's husband looked glum after the show's axing
Its success prompted a congratulatory phone call from the President himself and a rapid commission for another season from network ABC. Indeed five days ago the Hollywood Reporter declared Barr to be the most popular comedian on Twitter. But many now believe her racist tweet is a step too far even for someone who for decades has appeared to revel in controversy. Born into a working-class Jewish family in Salt Lake City in 1952 she had a baby at 16 - which she put up for adoption - and moved out of her parents' house aged 18, telling them she was going to visit a friend in Colorado. She never returned. For nearly a decade she built a reputation as a stand-up comedian before getting her big break in 1986 with a slot on the David Letterman Show. In 1988 she was given her own sitcom - and Roseanne made her a star. The show ran for nine years and 222 episodes, winning her an Emmy, a Golden Globe and three American Comedy Awards along the way. In 1989-90 it was the mostwatched TV show in America and for its final two seasons Barr earned $40million, making her the second-highest-paid woman in showbusiness at that time, after Oprah Winfrey.
GETTY Roseanne Barr's TV show was cancelled by ABC
But almost from the very beginning the lines between the frequently outrageous character and the woman who played her grew increasingly blurred. She threatened to quit Roseanne during its first season after a dispute with one of the writers (whom she had removed from the show). Three years later she installed husband Tom Arnold as producer and cowriter. She had married him in 1990 just four days after divorcing Bill Pentland, her husband of 16 years and father of her children Jessica, Jennifer and Jake. Their tempestuous four-year marriage was to ensure she was frequently making headlines. At their wedding reception Arnold declared: "We're America's worst nightmare - white trash with money." But while they seemed outwardly to revel in that status - most memorably in a Vanity Fair article littered with obscenity and featuring the couple on the cover in a pose the magazine later described as "a squirm-inducing portrait in which the two are rolling around in mud amid what can only be imagined as a pig trough for humans" - behind the scenes there were furious rows and allegations of abuse.
GETTY Roseanne Barr with costars John Goodman, Tom Arnold, Sandra Bernhard and Tom Arnold
In her divorce petition Barr declared: "I now realise that I have been a classic battered and abused wife. Throughout our marriage the respondent hit me, struck me, has thrown objects at me, pinched me and verbally abused me." During this time Arnold had also encouraged her to fire her sister Geraldine, who had been her manager. Geraldine promptly sued for $70.3million, claiming Barr had promised her half the earnings of the Roseanne show for helping devise the character a decade before, as well as acting as "writer, organiser, accountant, bookkeeper and confidante". The case was thrown out and the pair didn't speak for 12 years. In 1990 Barr somehow managed the feat of having the most popular show in America and being the most hated woman in America. Her rendition of The Star Spangled Banner before a televised baseball game between the San Diego Padres and the Cincinnati Reds - in which she screeched her way through the national anthem before grabbing her crotch and spitting - horrified viewers, and even prompted President George Bush to describe it as "disgraceful". After the end of Roseanne in 1997 she retreated a little from the spotlight, briefly hosting a chat show and appearing in a cookery programme, before returning to standup and controversy.
TWITTER Roseanne BARR took to Twitter to apologise for the tweet
In 2009 she posed for a photoshoot for the satirical Jewish magazine Heeb, dressed as Adolf Hitler, with swastika armband and holding a tray of burnt gingerbread man biscuits which the article referred to as "burnt Jew cookies". Although she insisted she was "making fun of Hitler, not his victims", the pictures were roundly condemned. With Twitter, however, has come a whole new means of courting public outrage. In 2014 she was served with a lawsuit by the parents of George Zimmerman, who had been acquitted of second degree murder and manslaughter over the 2012 fatal shooting of unarmed black man Trayvon Martin. They alleged that she had tweeted their home address and phone number, adding: "If Zimmerman isn't arrested I'll rt [retweet] his address again - maybe go to his house myself."
GETTY The Roseanne cast back in 1989