Why Roseanne Barr faces an impossible task to resurrect her reputation after racist tweet

SHE’S never been far from scandal. But the racist tweet that has cost Roseanne Barr her top-rating show has destroyed her reputation once and for all.

Roseanne Barr’s career has been derailed by a racist tweet.

IT looks like the end for Roseanne.

Not just the show, which has been axed by the America’s ABC network, but for Barr herself who destroyed what little reputation she had left in Hollywood with a late-night racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett, the one-time adviser to Barack Obama.

Barr now claims her remark, in which she described Jarrett, an African-American who was born in Iran as looking as though “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby” was the result of too many sleeping pills.

Valerie Jarrett was the subject of a racist tweet by Roseanne Barr. Picture: Getty Images

“It was 2 in the morning and I was Ambien tweeting …” she explained in one of a series of apologetic tweets, to explain her comment.

People of all races, religions and nationalities work at Sanofi every day to improve the lives of people around the world. While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication.

— Sanofi US (@SanofiUS) May 30, 2018

It was too little too late for the comic. Her show had already been axed by ABC despite the fact that it was its top-rating sitcom reboot and had raked in $61 million with the promise of a further $80 million for its follow-up season.

A host of celebrities, some of whom worked on the show with Barr and have lost their jobs as a result of her actions have come out swinging against the star’s remarks.

The Roseanne reboot was a huge hit before its shock cancellation.

Sara Gilbert, who plays Barr’s daughter Darlene and was responsible for bringing the entire original cast back together for the reboot of the popular 1990s sitcom, tweeted: “Roseanne’s recent comments about Valerie Jarrett, and so much more, are abhorrent and do not reflect the beliefs of our cast and crew or anyone associated with our show. I am disappointed in her actions to say the least.”

Series writer Wanda Sykes said she had planned to quit the show anyway after seeing what Barr had written, while Barr’s long-time pal and co-star Sandra Bernhard said she had “kinda had it” with the controversial comedian.

John Goodman was seen walking his dog looking depressed just hours after ABC announced that they have decided to cancel the hit show Roseanne. Picture: Mega

Barr’s ex-husband, who worked on Roseanne while the couple were married, applauded the decision to axe the series, adding that he had tried to call out Barr for her racist tweets for years.

Oscar-winner Viola Davies, Ocean’s Eleven actor Don Cheadle, Charmed star Alyssa Milano and the voice of Olaf the snowman, Josh Gad all added their voices to the chorus of stars to decry Barr’s behaviour.

Jarrett herself has asked that Barr’s remarks be treated as a “teaching moment” about racism.

And Barr has urged her supporters who are trumpeting “freedom of speech” as an excuse for her remarks, to cease and desist.

“Guys I did something unforgivable so do not defend me,” she tweeted in an attempt to show remorse for her behaviour.

The original Roseanne cast — Roseanne Barr, Lecy Goranson, Sara Gilbert, Michael Fishman and John Goodman. Picture: Getty

As sorry as she now appears to be, it is hard to imagine how Barr can come back from this.

After all, it isn’t the first time Barr has erred.

She has been a lightning rod for controversy ever since her notorious off-key version of The Star Spangled Banner at a baseball game in 1990.

Then there was the time the practising Jew dressed up as Hitler for a supposedly satirical photoshoot. Wearing a moustache and donning the Fuhrer’s signature khaki and swastika armband, Barr was snapped pulling burned gingerbread men from an oven.

It’s not the first time she’s caused controversy on Twitter either.

Emma Kenney starred as Harris in Roseanne.

She once called then-US National Security Advisor Susanne Rice, another African-American woman, a “man with big swinging ape balls” and made light of Bill Cosby’s crimes by posting a picture of herself after a chemical peel, captioning it as being a shot of herself after a night with the convicted rapist.

Despite all this, the mother-of-five has held on to her career regularly appearing on a variety of reality shows and sitcoms before hitting the bigtime again with the much-hyped Roseanne reboot this year.

Sara Gilbert is devastated over the cancellation of Roseanne.

The reboot was largely the brainchild of Gilbert who was able to convince co-stars John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf to return to the series which had made their careers despite both of them having forged successful careers on the big screen since the demise of the original series back in 1997. Goodman starred in hits such as The Big Lebowski, O Brother Where Art Thou and Monsters Inc. Metcalf, meanwhile, was Oscar-nominated this year for her work on Ladybird.

None of these colleagues are rushing in to defend their former boss. In fact their silence is as deafening as the cheers from her many high profile detractors.

Kevin Spacey was dropped from House of Cards after a range of allegations.

Sure Hollywood is littered with stars that have struggled to reclaim their careers after bad behaviour — Charlie Sheen, Kevin Spacey, Jeffrey Tambor, Katherine Heigl — but none have ever been responsible for a whole show being cancelled.

There is some suggestion another network may yet revive the cancelled series. But it’s hard to imagine in this post-Weinstein era that anyone will be brave enough to do that.

Comedian Kathy Griffin gestures during a news conference to discuss the comedian's “motivation” behind a photo of her holding what appeared to be a prop depicting US President Donald Trump's bloodied, severed head. AFP PHOTO / Mark RALSTON

Barr has become such a pariah that even Channel 10 has booted the show from its line-up, while media company Viacom has canned any re-runs from its line-up.

It seems pretty safe to say that Barr is headed for the TV scrapheap alongside comedian Kathy Griffin whose career is in the toilet after an ill-judged tweet of a decapitated Donald Trump.