http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=VASI0MQTALEIICRBAELCFEY?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=5025958






LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - In her first major screen commitment since the end of her daytime talk show, Rosie O'Donnell will play a retarded woman in "Riding the Bus With My Sister," an original movie for CBS.
O'Donnell will also executive produce the project, which is based on a book by Rachel Simon, a writer and college professor. O'Donnell ran excerpts from it in her Rosie magazine and optioned it after it was published in 2002.
It chronicles Simon's relationship with her mentally retarded sister, an endearing, feisty and independent Pennsylvania woman who fills her days riding city buses.
Following the death of their father, Rachel is forced to spend time with her sister, and soon discovers that she has found a sense of family and friendship in her world of bus drivers and passengers that Rachel hadn't found in her more successful urban life.
"This is an amazing book, a beautiful story of the ties that bind," O'Donnell wrote for the book's cover. "Two sisters, as different as they come, find the magic in each other's lives. This book touched my soul."
"It's kind of like a female 'Rain Man,"' said Larry Sanitsky, who will also executive produce. "I think it's a very touching story which says a lot about sisterly relationships and what it's like as an adult and a child to have a developmentally disabled sibling in your family."
Joyce Eliason, who worked with CBS and Sanitsky on a number of longform projects, including "Blessings" and "Open House," adapted "Riding the Bus" to the small screen. As part of the research for the movie, Eliason, Sanitsky and Rachel Simon went to Pennsylvania and rode the buses with Beth.
O'Donnell won a total of 11 Daytime Emmy awards for her stint as host/executive producer of "The Rosie O'Donnell Show," which bowed out in 2002 after six years. She most recently produced the ill-fated Broadway musical "Taboo."

In other news, Robert Downy Jr. will be playing a drug addict in an upcoming movie.

Heheheh.

Quoted: Heheheh.

That's an insult to retards.

This is going to be great: I am setting my TiVo now!