In the beginning, critics and audiences were so charmed by
Rosie's honest enthusiasm that they overlooked a basic fact: She celebrates crap. She has an incredibly narrow view of the universe: popular television, Broadway schlock, mainstream movies, sappy pop balladeers. The acme of Culture, in Rosie's world, would be a Ricky Martin/Barbra Streisand duet of "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" at Radio City Music Hall for the Celine Dion NBC Christmas special.