RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 2 sourcesRosie O’Donnell ‘s ability to recite the Primatene Mist commercial from her childhood really made Bill Gates suspicious. At least that was the reason O’Donnell believes he kept pestering her about taking an autism test. Appearing on Amy Poehler’s podcast, Good Hang , O’Donnell says that Gates’ team would call her “every few months” during the first year of her show, saying, “‘We really would like to test you.'” At the time, Gates was funding a large study at the University of Seattle, and O’Donnell became the team’s white whale for potentially neurodivergent celebrities. “This is back when there wasn’t all that much research going on,” says O’Donnell. “And they would call, every few months.”
According to O’Donnell, this was mostly due to her ability to recite lyrics and commercials from her childhood, which is a symptom of neurodivergence. “You know the Primatene Mist commercial?” O’Donnell says. “Most people don’t know that because there’s no song, and it was on in the ’60s and ’70s, and ‘in the lungs Primatene helps open clogged breathing tubes, relaxes bronchial spasm, restores free breathing as fast as 15 seconds. Primatene Mist to help keep breathing freely for hours. Primatene tablets are the one most widely prescribed by doctors. There’s no reason that I have that stuck in my head.” O’Donnell is the mother of a child on the spectrum, so she does know a thing or two about the subject and she doesn’t seem offended by Gates’ request. Instead, she says, her child “taught me patience and introspection and to be more introspective about my own stuff going on.”
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