NEW YORK O'Donnell, publisher to begin battle in court

The magazine folded quickly when its namesake pulled out of the venture.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Rosie O'Donnell and a publishing company are squaring off in a multimillion-dollar trial over who's to blame for the failure of her celebrated magazine, Rosie, a year ago.
O'Donnell contends she left the magazine because Gruner + Jahr USA was denying her the editorial control she had been promised. G+J claims O'Donnell was a volatile, unprofessional manager who broke her contract.
The magazine, launched in 2001, folded quickly after O'Donnell resigned in September 2002.
G+J is seeking $100 million from O'Donnell. She wants $125 million in a countersuit. The trial was to open today in state Supreme Court before Justice Ira Gammerman, whose past trials have involved Woody Allen and Stephen Sondheim.
The trial is expected to feature differing accounts of O'Donnell's style as the editorial inspiration for Rosie, launched by publisher Gruner + Jahr USA in 2001 as a way to rescue the failing publication McCall's.
In the public eye
The dispute has been public from day one.
O'Donnell held a press conference to announce she was abandoning the venture, declaring that "I cannot have my name on a magazine if I cannot be assured that it will represent my vision and ideas."
For its part, the publisher said it refused to try the case in the press -- then issued a statement anyway accusing O'Donnell and her lawyers of distorting the facts surrounding the magazine's flop.
"The evidence will show, in contrast, that O'Donnell breached the joint venture agreement when she decided to walk away from the magazine without legal justification, resulting in the loss of more than 100 jobs," G+J said.
O'Donnell is expected to take the witness stand to defend herself.
The trial comes as O'Donnell prepares to launch "Taboo," a boisterous musical about Boy George -- and starring Boy George in a different role -- that O'Donnell has confidently predicted will win a Tony Award next summer. She is the $10 million show's producer and single investor.
"The Rosie O'Donnell Show," the talk show so popular one magazine dubbed O'Donnell the Queen of Nice, ended its run in May 2002. About the same time, O'Donnell published a book in which she said she was a lesbian.
A key prong of the dispute between O'Donnell and the publisher is how the magazine reports its circulation numbers.
Lawyers for O'Donnell are expected to contend that G+J deliberately overstated its subscriber base to make the magazine appear more financially healthy than it was. O'Donnell's contract allowed her to walk away from the magazine if it posted particularly high losses.