CHICAGO – ‘I could truly imagine having my whole family move here and live here,’ Rosie O’Donnell said during a conference call with reporters last week from Harpo Studios,

just a few days before the debut today of her new talk show, The Rosie Show, on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

A visit with the 49-year-old mother of four at her office confirmed that she has no qualms about rearranging her life for the new venture.

O’Donnell plans to fly to Chicago for four days every week from her home in Nyack, a northern suburb of New York.

She recently bought a home, reportedly for $2.5 million, in the Wrigleyville neighborhood from Harpo President Erik Logan, who has made a move to Los Angeles.

“I went and looked at it,” she said, “and I called him up and said, ‘If you will leave it furnished, like down to the toilet paper and some of the nightshirts, I think we have a deal.’??”

O’Donnell, who is raising her children with ex-

partner Kelli Carpenter, said her 14-year-old daughter, Chelsea, will be in Chicago with her during the week, and she expects her two youngest children – 11-year-old Blake and 8-year-old Vivi – to make frequent trips as well.

(O’Donnell’s oldest, 16-year-old Parker, is at a military school in Pennsylvania.)

Although O’Donnell is stepping into the house that Oprah built, she hasn’t been afraid to make changes.

“These were all cubicles here,” said O’Donnell, gesturing beyond the glass window wall of her new office. “I went out to dinner with Oprah, and she said, ‘Do you have any issues?’

and I said, ‘It’s kind of silly, and I feel bad because it’s going to cost money and I don’t want you to think I’m ungrateful – but I would like to blow out all the cubicles on the bottom floor and move my office down there and have a common area where people can come and sit and bring their kids and their dogs.’

“And she was like ‘Seriously?’ And I was like ‘Yeah. I need to feel everyone’s heartbeat, and I need to look at their faces.’ And she said, ‘Whatever you need.’ And, true to her word, five days later it was done.”

All was calm – but busy – in the Harpo offices (across the street from the studio). More than once, a head poked into her office to remind her of yet another obligation.

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