SHOWTIME O'Donnell gets role on 'Queer as'

The former talk show host told the producers she wanted to do a guest shot.
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Rosie O'Donnell will play it straight on a gay drama.
The former talk-show host, who came out as a lesbian in 2002, will do a three-episode arc on Showtime's "Queer as Folk" as an abused wife who flees to Pittsburgh to start a new life, says co-executive producer Ron Cowen.
O'Donnell's character gets a waitress job, working with Debbie Novotny (series regular Sharon Gless) in the festive diner where the gay boys and girls of "QAF" hang.
Showtime's most popular original series, "QAF" launches its fifth season in the spring. Thirteen hourlong episodes are ordered.
She's a fan
O'Donnell, 42, called the producers several months ago and said she was a fan of the show and wanted to do a guest shot, says Cowen.
"When anyone whose work you respect says they love your show and would love to be on it, it's thrilling and flattering. We immediately began thinking up ideas for her."
All roads led to Gless' sassy Deb.
"We wanted Debbie to have a relationship with a woman her own age, and not just with our characters," says Cowen, whose life partner, Daniel Lipman, serves as co-executive producer.
Debbie, by the way, is heterosexual. O'Donnell's character develops a crush, but it goes nowhere. O'Donnell and the producers discussed extending her role, Cowen says, but scheduling was a problem.