Did you think Rosie Perez’s apology to Kelly Osbourne last week seemed a bit…forced?
According to reports, Rosie’s apology WAS forced by network executives to help ease tensions between Kelly and their viewing audience after Kelly’s racially insensitive remark about Latinos.
And now, Rosie has reportedly QUIT the show because of it.
via Daily Mail:
Rosie Perez canceled her last appearances on The View after being forced to apologize to Kelly Osbourne for her anger at her co-star’s racist remark about Latinos, Daily Mail Online can reveal exclusively today.
Rosie refused to turn up for her two, final live shows last week and skipped several, pre-taped appearances after having an intense blow-up with ABC executives over Kelly’s on-air comment.
Kelly, 30, caused outrage after asking: ‘If you kick every Latino out of this country, then who is going to be cleaning your toilet, Donald Trump?’ during a Hot Topics segment about Donald Trump’s poll numbers within the community last Tuesday.
A silence fell over the studio audience as other co-hosts were clearly taken aback. After a pause, Rosie, who has Puerto Rican heritage, mumbled: ‘Oh, that’s not… oh, no!’ and shook her head in disbelief.
The View’s Raven-Symone then told Kelly: ‘There’s more jobs than that he can use them for.’
Sensing things were tense, The Fashion Police host attempted to clarify: ‘In a sense, you know what I mean? In L.A. they always…’ But before she could finish, Rosie had calmed enough to finally check her.
‘Latinos are not the only people doing that,’ explained Rosie, looking straight at Kelly.
Kelly backtracked and tried to elaborate. ‘I didn’t mean it like that! Come on, I would never mean it like that. I’m not part of this argument,” she contested.
As the tension built, moderator Whoopi Goldberg stepped back in and tried to take control of the segment, before ultimately going to commercial break.
When the cameras cut away, the daughter of rock legend Ozzy Osbourne and The Talk co-host Sharon Osbourne burst into tears. ‘Everyone is going to think I’m racist. I can’t believe this,’ she cried, as producers of the show and her personal handlers ran to her side.
At the time, ABC execs cornered Rosie during the break and demanded she apologize to Kelly in the last segment of the live broadcast, a source told Daily Mail Online.
The show resumed and the topic wasn’t addressed again until the end of the show. During the last segment, Rosie started with: ‘I want to apologize to this young woman once again for being very sensitive.’
Kelly asked: ‘Why? You had every right.’
Rosie continued: ‘Kelly Osbourne is on our side and I was sensitive and my disdain should go to only Donald Trump. Sorry darling.’
Kelly hugged her and said: ‘No need to apologize to me, I love you Rosie!’
At the end of the show, Rosie, 50, bolted to her dressing room and had no further interaction with Kelly, who broke down.
Daily Mail Online has learned that ABC executives then gathered in Rosie’s room and demanded that she tweet an apology to her co-star.
She told them: ‘I’ve already done more than enough by apologizing on air,’ before a loud argument took place.
The source added: ‘She and the ABC executives had it out. She was yelling at them at the top of her lungs that their demands were disrespectful.
‘They were telling her that she better do exactly as they said. It was an ugly scene and Rosie was crying uncontrollably and outraged.’
Rosie posted a tweet on her official account, which read: ‘My apologies @KellyOsbourne, I took your point wrong-#Trump #Latinos. My bad. Your heart is so pure & righteous. I adore you. @TheView.’
After the Twitter post, Rosie then declared that she was ‘done with this f****** show’ and told the executives ‘to kiss her a**’ before storming out of the building and vowing never to return to ‘this s***hole of a place!’
Perez had announced last month that she was leaving the show.
But by bowing to ABC’s demands and apologizing to Kelly last week, the presenter appeared to infuriate the Latino community.
Her Twitter account was flooded with backlash after she backtracked on her on-air stance as many followers asked The View star, ‘why are you apologizing?’
If we were Rosie, we wouldn’t have apologized at all. We certainly don’t blame her for taking a stand for what she believes.
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