Rosie O'Donnell Premieres "America"

Tuesday, February 24, 2009
7:00 pm PT
Los Angeles

Rosie O’Donnell made her first-ever appearance at the Paley Center in LA to premiere her powerful new Lifetime/Sony Pictures Television project, America. The film chronicles the sometimes heartbreaking story of one child’s journey through the foster care system.
 
A true passion project for O’Donnell, the film represents not only her return to acting, but her first credit as a screenwriter. O’Donnell was joined by executive producer Larry Sanitsky and her young costar, Philip Johnson, who makes his film debut in the project. During the lively panel following the screening, the audience, which included Angelica Huston, Marilu Henner, and Atallah Shabazz (the daughter of Malcolm X), was treated to O’Donnell’s recollections of how the young actor was cast in the role.
 
Location shooting had begun in Detroit and despite auditioning countless actors, O’Donnell hadn’t yet found her lead. “And then Rosie got hungry,” Sanitsky noted. “You’re starting with a fat joke,” O’Donnell teased back before she recalled grabbing a quick bite with Sanitsky in a Detroit diner and spotting Philip across the room dining with his family. Drawn to the young man with no previous acting experience, O’Donnell approached the family’s table. Johnson’s father asked, “You’re Roseanne Barr aren’t you?” to which Rosie replied “close enough” before asking Johnson if he’d like to try and audition for the part.  Serendipitously the neophyte actor nailed the audition and Rosie had found her lead.
 
Andrew Diamond, president & CEO of the Aviva Family and Children’s Services (a nonprofit, multiservice agency serving the greater Los Angeles community and providing care and treatment to abandoned, neglected, abused, and at-risk youth and their families), joined the dais to discuss the challenges facing a largely overburdened foster care system. Diamond noted there are over 500,000 children in the U.S. foster care system and roughly 100,000 foster care families; a staggering 25,000 children age-out of the system each year when they turn eighteen. With America, O’Donnell hopes to raise the level of awareness around foster care issues. “I want people to become educated,” she says. "Once you know about what's happening, maybe it'll become a national priority to help these kids."