A Westport cancer survivor burst into tears in a New York courtroom today when she testified that Rosie O’Donnell had suggested she was lying about goings-on at her now-defunct magazine and told her that liars get cancer.
Cindy Spengler, a Hillspoint Road resident who was head of marketing at the glossy monthly, said O’Donnell made the remark after a meeting to discuss the magazine’s problems, according to an AP report.
Spengler said O’Donnell called and told her that her silence in the meeting was tantamount to lying.
“You know what happens to people who lie,” the witness quoted O’Donnell as saying. “They get sick and they get cancer. If they keep lying, they get it again.”
Spengler testified in Manhattan’s State Supreme Court, where O’Donnell and “Rosie” publisher Gruner+Jahr USA are suing each other for breach of contract.
She told O’Donnell, “Your mother died of breast cancer. Was she lying?”
“Yes,” Spengler quoted the entertainer as replying.
O’Donnell said her mother had lied about a “childhood incident” involving the entertainer, according to the testimony.
O’Donnell’s publicist, Cindi Berger, said Spengler was talking about lies the actress’ mother told about O’Donnell being molested by a male relative as a child. She refused to give details, but said the incident is in “Find Me,” her autobiography.
Berger said O’Donnell later apologized for the remark to Spengler, who testified that she herself had survived breast cancer. Spengler is now a G+J marketing vice president.
