FEBRUARY 2007
BLACK HOLE CASE STUDY

If a more amusing yet pointless controversy has emerged over the past few months than the Rosie O’Donnell/Donald Trump feud, I haven’t heard of it. Birthed from a torrid and seedy scandal involving the current Miss USA, the manufactured conflict has taken on a life of its own, overblown and hyped by the press, garnering global attention and greater awareness among the American public than the genocide in Darfur.

When the story first broke, I ignored it, but as it developed, I became intrigued with its staying power. The controversy certainly has “legs,” and has extended now for more than three weeks, growing to encompass news icon Barbara Walters, O’Donnell’s co-host on ABC’s "The View." It seemed certain there must be a rather heavy galactic content to the events and participants, for it to have achieved the kind of notoriety it has.

The milieu from which this tempest in a teapot emerged was a scandal involving the current Miss USA, Tara Conner, whose drinking, wild conduct and alleged drug use at Manhattan clubs threatened her position. Speculation that she would be dethroned from her title was squashed on 19 December 2006 at a press conference attended by Trump, who with NBC, is co-owner of the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants. Stating that he has “always been a believer in second chances,” Trump announced that Conner would retain her title, but was entering an alcohol rehab center in Pennsylvania for treatment. On the following day O’Donnell referenced the press conference on "The View," calling it a “publicity stunt,” and made plain her objections to Trump: "Left the first wife, had an affair, left the second wife, had an affair. Had kids both times, but he's the moral compass for 20-year-olds in America.... Donald, sit and spin, my friend." She further fueled the personal acrimony by sweeping her hair brusquely over her forehead to imitate Trump’s trademark hairstyle.

Trump fired back in a variety of venues, from "Access Hollywood" to "The O’Reilly Factor," calling O’Donnell a “loser,” a “bully,” a “fat slob,” and “stupid,” and threatening to sue her. “Rosie is somebody out of control who really just doesn’t have it. ... Rosie attacks me personally? I know her fairly well because her show failed. She didn't retire. She didn't get the ratings! Her magazine called 'Rosie' was a total disaster.” He also brought O’Donnell’s View co-host Barbara Walters into the controversy for the first time, stating, “Ultimately, that show will fail because of Rosie. ... Barbara made a mistake. She cannot stand Rosie O'Donnell."

On the 21st, O’Donnell responded from "The View," “I just think he’s a hot bag of wind, frankly, with bad hair.” The feud simmered on the back burner during the holidays, but came roaring back after the New Year, with Trump’s January 5 appearance on "Late Night with David Letterman," where he called O’Donnell “degenerate” and reiterated Walters’ supposed antipathy, stating that she had termed O’Donnell a “pig” in a phone conversation with Trump, then opined that “she won’t be [at The View] for long.”

On January 8, Walters stated publicly on "The View" that the alleged statements she had made to Trump were false. On the 9th, Trump sent an open letter to O’Donnell, expanding upon Walters’ comments, which he said were made during a phone call while she was on vacation. “Working with her is like living in hell. ... Donald, never get into the mud with pigs,” Trump quoted Walters as saying. He further alleged having run into the ABC anchor at a restaurant several months previously, and inquiring how O’Donnell was doing on "The View," to which Walters reportedly rolled her eyes and responded, “Donald, do you have to ruin my meal?” Trump ended his letter with a post script calling O’Donnell “self destructive” and counseling her to get help with her issues.

On the 10th, Walters jumped back into the fray, without specifically mentioning Trump by name. “Well, he’s at it again,” O’Donnell said, referring to Trump’s letter, while Walters murmured, “That poor, pathetic man,” under her breath. “You know, he just can’t—he just can’t let go, but we’re moving on.” O’Donnell then averred that “The man is obsessed with me, and I’m happy to say his show tanked,” referring to an initial poor showing for the latest season of Trump’s NBC reality show, "The Apprentice."

Trump’s response? “Barbara Walters has taken the low road for the sake of her show rather than the sake of her morality. ... She refused to discuss my recent letter because she knows it’s true—and so does Rosie. They didn’t even have the courage to mention me by name. It was so sad to see Barbara read her statement off a cue card. Rosie pushed her out like a pathetic puppet. Barbara has become a sad figurehead dominated by a third-rate comedian.”

Obviously, this is a donnybrook of galactic proportions. And, not surprisingly, the four major participants and the date of the feud’s genesis all tie strongly to each other and to the cosmos.

Donald Trump (born 14 June 1946) is a phenomenon of our times. Despite some financial gymnastics on occasion to avoid bankruptcy, the real estate and gaming magnate currently has a net worth of several billion dollars, and has maintained a high public profile due to his outspoken demeanor, the volatility of his private life, and latterly, his popular reality TV show, "The Apprentice." Galactically, his success can be credited to the Quasar conjunctions with his Sun (23 Gemini, conjunct a Pulsar and the Quasar at 26 Gemini, and opposed the Galactic Center at 26 Sagittarius) and Mercury (9 Cancer, conjunct the Quasar at 8), which promote achievement and pervasive manifestation. Like a beacon on a hilltop, Quasar folks stand out, network well, and have the knack of getting things done. Neptune at 5 Libra also exactly conjoins a Quasar, perhaps the source of his television success: even before his series, Trump could be seen in walk-on roles playing himself. Pluto at 10 Leo closely conjoins the Black Hole at 9 Leo, indicating the potential for the acquisition of massive wealth, and a great deal of energy expended in accumulating it. Mars at 26 Leo opposes the Black Hole at 27 Aquarius, and Jupiter at 17 Libra both conjoins a Quasar at 15 and squares a Black Hole at 19 Capricorn; he’s prickly, dangerous when roused, unusually lucky, and larger than life.

Rosie O’Donnell (born 21 March 1962) has all the aggressive, energetic impatience of her 0 Aries Sun, which tightly opposes the largest supermassive Black Hole of which we are aware, at 1 Libra. Black Hole natives have the ability to project themselves strongly onto others’ psyches, as well as the talent of creating and recreating themselves, essentially from nothing; they thrive on attention. From an early start in stand-up comedy and as VJ on VH1, Rosie came up through the ranks, eventually hosting a successful, Emmy-winning daytime talk show and launching an eponymous women’s magazine. Her disclosure of her sexuality (O’Donnell is lesbian) eroded her popularity somewhat, and when her show ended in 2002 she largely retreated from the public eye until being picked up by "The View" in September 2006. Although known from her talk show days as “the Queen of Nice,” Rosie’s rather disruptive personality can have a bit of an edge to it. A Mercury/Mars conjunction at 9 and 7 Pisces opposes her Pluto and a pair of Black Holes at 6, 8 and 9 Virgo, and indicates that she can be grating, and when the verbal knife goes in, it goes deep. Venus at 13 Aries and Uranus at 27 Leo both exactly oppose Black Holes, while Neptune at 13 Scorpio is tightly squared another at 12 Aquarius.

Barbara Walters (born 25 September 1929) shares a Mercury/Mars conjunction with O’Donnell, which at 23 and 22 Libra is opposed the Black Hole at 24 Aries. Like O’Donnell, she has the reputation of being fair and generally pleasant, but is known to hold a grudge and is less charitable in her private comments than her public pronouncements. A television news icon for four decades, Walters was an early pioneer among female news anchors, and her annual pre-Oscar and year-end specials are still among TV’s top-rated shows. Her Sun at 2 Libra conjoins the supermassive Black Hole at 1 Libra, and thus opposes O’Donnell’s; the two see eye-to-eye with a clear view of each other, but are often on opposite sides of an issue. Uranus at 9 Aries conjoins a Quasar, while both Jupiter and Pluto oppose Black Holes, and Saturn at 24 Sagittarius conjoins a Pulsar and the Galactic Center, affording her an ease with modern media (Pulsar) and a high profile with global reach (Galactic Center).

Miss USA Tara Conner’s involvement with the incident is at once tangential and pivotal. Born 18 December 1985, her Sagittarian stellium clusters thickly about the events, which began with the press conference the day after her 21st birthday, and every planet in her nativity conjoins or squares a Black Hole, with her Sun exactly conjunct the Galactic Center.

The date of O’Donnell’s first fusillade at Trump, 20 December 2006, crackles with galactic activity, with a strong focus on the Galactic Center, which has much to say about the subsequent notoriety. Jupiter at 5 Sagittarius, Mars at 9 Sagittarius, and Mercury at 18 Sagittarius all exactly conjoin Black Holes, with Mercury and Mars close enough to reprise the fractious conjunctions present in both O’Donnell’s and Walters’ charts; Mars in fact squares O’Donnell’s natal pairing at 7 and 9 Virgo, stimulating her natural tendency toward harshness and abrupt, uncharitable comments. Both Pluto at 25 and the Sun at 28 conjoin the Galactic Center at 26 Sagittarius, the Sun also exactly conjoined a Pulsar, an information-related anomaly which often shows over-active media involvement. Additionally, Uranus at 11 Pisces opposes a Black Hole, while Venus at 11 Capricorn squares a Quasar and Neptune at 17 Aquarius squares a Black Hole.

So far, so good, but it is the patterns created from the interaspects which say so much about the feud’s volatility and longevity.

Quite possibly the chief culprit here is O’Donnell’s nodal axis, which at 17 Leo and Aquarius forms a Grand Cross with the Black Hole at 16 Taurus and the Pulsar at 15 Scorpio, and was being agitated by transit Neptune sitting on the South Node at the time O’Donnell made her provocative statements. There is a second Pulsar involved as well, at 16 Aquarius conjunct the South Node. The nodal axis confronted with both a Black Hole and two Pulsars implies a tendency toward sudden disruptive episodes (Black Hole) of a karmic or fated nature, which receive inordinate public attention due to the action of the Pulsars. Neptune’s connection with both television and gossip provide the venue and the topic, and O’Donnell’s natal tendency to rush in with uncontrolled, ill-considered outbursts where more level-headed, less impulsive individuals might fear to tread, provided the motivation and stimulus.

Into this mix we add Trump’s natal Uranus and Jupiter, which at 17 Gemini and Libra respectively are exactly tied to O’Donnell’s nodal axis, forming a Grand Trine with her South Node and transit Neptune. Jupiter acted to inflate the situation, and Uranus is often itching for a fight, with a raucous, discontented energy which delights in stirring up trouble. Mercury for the incident, which at 18 Sagittarius is also exactly conjunct a Black Hole, is a match for Tara Conner’s disruptive Uranus at the same degree, and together these tie to the pattern by sextile to O’Donnell’s South Node. But it is Conner’s natal Jupiter, at 15 Aquarius conjoined a Pulsar and O’Donnell’s South Node, which undoubtedly provided the critical mass, along with Trump’s, for inflation of the situation so early on, and its over-coverage by the press.

O’Donnell’s natal Mercury/Mars opposition to Pluto has been transited recently by Uranus, which at 11 Pisces is still within orb, giving the outspoken comedian a heavier-than-usual case of foot-in-mouth disease (in addition to the Trump incident, O’Donnell has been embroiled in at least three other controversies since joining "The View" in September, one involving Kelly Ripa and Clay Aiken, another wherein O’Donnell mocked the Chinese language, and most recently, a castigation of the critiquing methods of the "American Idol" review panel). As noted above, Mars for the initial incident squares this natal opposition, adding more fuel to the fire, and so does Jupiter at 5 Sagittarius, conjoined yet another Black Hole and bumping up the overblown rhetoric on all sides. Trump’s 9 Cancer Mercury ties to O’Donnell’s natal opposition by sextile and trine.

There is also a Galactic Kite pattern keyed on the Galactic Center, and formed from Trump’s Sun in opposition at 23 Gemini, with his Mars at 26 Leo conjoined O’Donnell’s Uranus at 27 Leo, both trine the GC and the Black Hole at 27 Aries. It is the Galactic Center involvement which gives the incident its pervasive, high profile quality. Walters’ Saturn at 24 Sagittarius also ties to this pattern with a conjunction to the GC. The conjunction of O’Donnell’s Uranus with Trump’s Mars says volumes about the unrelenting animosity and downright rudeness between them. Walters, who early on attempted to play referee between the feuding parties by suggesting Trump appear on "The View" to clear the air, can be seen as the senex/Saturn whose wise council was rejected.

How much of this is genuine dislike, and how much manufactured outrage? With so much Black Hole influence, with its propensity for reality distortion, it’s hard to say. It could be that an initial moment of pique was artificially prolonged in an effort to milk the incident for publicity; certainly ratings for "The View" rose dramatically during the height of the furor. But the depth of contempt displayed, especially by Trump, seems too raw and visceral to be contrived. In either event, the bizarre quarrel received a Black Hole-powered galactic booster shot which propelled it into the public’s awareness to an astonishing degree.

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