NBC Executive Will Do Anything to Get Rosie O'Donnell

Rosie O'Donnell had left ABC's The View not long ago, and already there is another network executive with his eye on nabbing her for either a daytime spot or even as a prime time game show host, according to Foxnews.com.

NBC's new programming chief Ben Silverman has spoken to friends, and they say that he has said he'll do anything to get Rosie O'Donnell, who had left ABC's The View with such high ratings that the viewership of the show had skyrocketed and was at its peak of success. Barbara Walters is working this summer trying to find a replacement for Rosie.

Rosie O'Donnell left The View three weeks before her contract was up back in May of 2007, merely a couple of days after a heated argument after co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck about the war in Iraq. Rosie was upset and offended that Hasselbeck did not defend her to the media when they said that Rosie had said that U.S. troops were "terrorists." She said Hasselbeck was "cowardly" for not standing up to them and for not defending her, according to Fox News.

The original comment the week prior by O'Donnell was, "655,000 Iraqi civilians have died. Who are the terrorists?"

O'Donnell said to Hasselbeck, "What you did was not defend me. ... I asked you if you believed what the Republican pundits were saying - you said nothing, and that's cowardly."

Hasselbeck replied, "Do not call me a coward, because No. 1, I sit here every single day, open my heart and tell people what I believe."

The other co-hosts continued to try to cut to commercial to no avail. Thursday of that week Rosie asked for the day off for her partner's birthday and that Friday the show aired a rerun of that show. O'Donnell then left the show.

Since the end of her time on The View, Rosie has not been idle. She has been working on a new arts center on West 45^th Street named for the teacher who had inspired her love of Broadway. On Monday, she will be offering to friends a private look at the facility. The building was purchased for O'Donnell's For All Kids and Rosie's Broadway Kids foundations, and it is projected to open this Fall of 2007, per Foxnews.com.