Madonna backed her friend Rosie O’Donnell after Donald Trump insulted the TV personality during Monday’s U.S. presidential debate.
Donald and Rosie have a long-running feud dating back to December 2006, when the actress and comedienne called him a “snake-oil salesman” and criticized him for leaving his first two wives on U.S. talk show The View.
The Republican candidate, 70, doubled down on his previous description of Rosie as “fat”, “disgusting” and a “farm animal pig” after his opponent in November’s presidential election Hillary Clinton, 69, used the latter phrase as evidence of his misogyny during the televised debate.
The controversial billionaire used the exchange to insult the Now and Then star again, saying, “I said very tough things to her and I think everybody would agree that she deserves it and nobody feels sorry for her.”
After the debate at New York’s Hofstra University, Madonna, who starred with Rosie in the 1992 baseball movie A League of Their Own, defended her friend, writing on Twitter, “Mess with my girl Rosie and you’re messing with me!!! Cruelty never made anyone a winner.”
Rosie herself was typically robust in her response, posting a clip of her original comments on The View which she captioned, “the 5 mins orange anus (Donald) can’t seem to get over — tell the truth – shame the donald.”
A number of other stars leaped to the funny woman’s defence including comedian Arsenio Hall, Seth MacFarlane and Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones.
Most passionate of all in her declaration of solidarity was Lena Dunham, who wrote on Twitter, “DO NOT EFFING COME FOR ROSIE”.
Donald was widely judged to be the loser of Monday’s debate, with Democratic Party candidate Hillary leading polls asking viewers to name the winner.
The two politicians will do battle in two more debates before American voters go to the polls on 8 November.
