O’Donnell says former Susan Boyle is gone

LOS ANGELES - Rosie O’Donnell had been taking a break from blogging on her official Web site, Rosie.com, but last month she made an exception, putting up a post about “Britain’s Got Talent” breakout star Susan Boyle.

The clip of the Scot, hitting the stage in a lacey dress, uncolored hair and a surprisingly beautiful voice, touched even O'Donnell, and the former “View” moderator hit her Web site to rave about the singing sensation. But in a new interview on the set of Lifetime’s “Drop Dead Diva,” which O'Donnell is appearing in as a guest star, she said the Boyle from the YouTube clip is gone.

“Here’s a woman who, at my age — 47, was perfectly content to live in a little village in Scotland and sing in a pub, and then she came and did this and two hundred million people saw her,” O'Donnell told Access Hollywood. “That’s like being hit by a tidal wave. We will never see the Susan Boyle that we saw that night again! That’s done. It’s been washed away.”

While O'Donnell previously wrote that she hoped Boyle would never get “a [makeover], her brows forever bushy, reminding the world, where beauty lives,” the actress said she understands why Susan has now colored her hair and had her eyebrows tweezed.

“Listen, you can’t really blame her in that, you know. This is what happens,” O'Donnell said.

Makeovers are a fitting topic for O'Donnell , whose July-due show, “Drop Dead Diva,” is a program about a model reborn into the body of a plus sized woman. And Access Hollywood’s own Shaun Robinson joined O'Donnell  and series star Brooke Elliott, on location in Atlanta recently.

“The average size woman in America is a size 16,” O'Donnell said. “The average size woman in America looks like Brooke and I would love to look like Brooke. I think when you’re on TV, the standards [are] skewed… And it’s going to be wonderful for women to tune into this show.”

Elliott said she’s enjoyed working with O'Donnell on the set.

“She has the most giving generous soul on the planet,” Brooke told Shaun.

So what does O'Donnell think of such compliments?

“I think when you’re on TV every day like I was for six years, people really know who you are, but when you’re off TV for eight years… people sort of forget, ”O'Donnell said, referring to her former daytime talk show, “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” which ran from 1996-2002. “It’s hard to fake who you are every day for an hour for six years and I think people know.”

“Drop Dead Diva” premiers on Lifetime on July 12.

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