The object of his obsession

New York – Rosie O’Donnell says Donald Trump is a man obsessed.

“It’s the way I look. He can’t resist. I love when people say you’re fat like you don’t know,” O’Donnell joked Monday on ABC’s “The View.” “… It’s always the first comment of someone who disagrees with you if you happen to be on the plus side.”

Trump has been hurling insults at O’Donnell since she criticized his news conference with Miss USA Tara Conner last month. Trump announced that Conner would be allowed to keep her title, which had been in jeopardy because of underage drinking.

“Boy, did I hit a nerve with that guy,” O’Donnell said Monday, calling Trump a “comb-over bunny” for his relentless attacks on her, which include saying that Barbara Walters, creator of “The View,” had told him she didn’t want the 44-year-old comedian on the show.

Walters said Monday that Trump’s remarks were “totally untrue” and expressed a wish that “we could rise above it.”

“It’s not we, it’s him,” O’Donnell said. “He’s doing every show in America. He’s on QVC talking …”

“The guy, he’s obsessed with me, obviously,” she said.

Trump’s other headache

Boston – Richard J. Hewett never heard “You’re fired!” – but he’s suing Donald Trump anyway.

The rejected applicant for NBC’s “The Apprentice” is suing the real estate mogul, claiming he was turned away because of age discrimination.

Hewett was 49 when he was rejected in July 2005, and claims in his lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court that only two of the finalists covering six seasons have been over 40. He alleges Trump and the show’s producers are in violation of the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

“People watching it get the impression that if you want to work for a big organization like the Trump Organization you have to be young,” Hewett told The Associated Press in a phone interview Monday. He’s seeking unspecified damages.

Trump, in statement released by his spokesman, disputed Hewett’s claims.

“We have had very few people over a certain age apply to be on the show,” said Trump, the show’s executive director. “If they did and we liked them, we would love to cast them on the show.”

Rock hall inductees named

Cleveland – Van Halen made a “jump” into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Monday, along with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five – the first rap act to be inducted into the hall – and R.E.M., the Ronettes and Patti Smith.

A panel of 600 industry figures selected the five acts to be inducted at the annual ceremony, to be conducted March 12 in New York. To be eligible, artists must have issued a first single or album at least 25 years before nomination.

Van Halen was the 1980s hard rock quartet led by guitarist Eddie Van Halen, outrageous lead vocalist David Lee Roth and later, rocker Sammy Hagar, that put out hits such as “Jump” and “Why Can’t This Be Love?.”

R.E.M. (Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe) was the quintessential indie rock band until breaking through to mass success in the early 1990s with songs like “Losing My Religion.”

Punk rock poet Smith, known as the Godmother of Punk, came out of lower Manhattan in the early 1970s to create a blend of cerebral, raggedly emotional music.

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (Kid Creole, Cowboy, Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, Mr. Ness, Raheim) led the most innovative act in hip-hop’s formative era in the late 1970s, and the song “The Message” was like a letter from urban America. Grandmaster Flash was considered a pioneer in many DJ techniques.

With beehive hairdos and dark eyeliner, the 1960s girl group the Ronettes (Estelle Bennett, Ronnie Spector, Nedra Talley) achieved their greatest success with producer Phil Spector and his “wall of sound” style. Spector, who is awaiting a March 5 murder trial in the 2003 shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson, co-wrote the trio’s biggest hit, “Be My Baby,” and was married to lead singer Ronnie Spector.