NEW YORK — The former editor of Rosie Magazine testified that Rosie O'Donnell was a combative, foul-mouthed tyrant who sought to sink the publication if she couldn't control it.

"My assistant told me, 'You're about to hear a Rosie you've never heard before,'" Susan Toepfer told the court, describing her first clash with the talk-show star in July 2002. Toepfer said O'Donnell "proceeded to scream and yell obscenities. It was a tirade."

Toepfer, who took the stand Monday in the high-stakes trial over the magazine's demise, played cleanup hitter for her employer, plaintiff Gruner + Jahr, following a series of lower-level employees who testified last week. 

The German magazine publisher filed a $100 million suit against O'Donnell in October 2002, claiming she "torpedoed" the magazine after the company thwarted her attempts to turn it into an edgy mouthpiece.

O'Donnell shot back with a $125 million countersuit, saying the publisher violated its contract by taking away her editorial control of the magazine, cooking the books to keep her from exercising an exit clause, and disparaging her in the press.

Whatever the cause of the nasty breakup, Toepfer's arrival was the beginning of the end of Rosie Magazine.

During her testimony, Toepfer, who was recruited to boost sales of the flagging glossy, told the court how O'Donnell clashed with her from the start, subverting her direction with a "Spy vs. Spy" campaign to seize control of the editorial staff.

"It was basically, 'You can't meet with my staff. You can't give them ideas,'" recalled Toepfer of a July 11, 2002, phone call from O'Donnell. "If I'm not the boss of this, I will bring it down. I will close the magazine down."

"Every story was a heated negotiation," Toepfer later commented.

The push-and-pull with O'Donnell for editorial control began during Toepfer's first week at the publication. O'Donnell, a reluctant figurehead, objected to her placement on a planned September 2002 cover flanked by two actresses from the HBO drama, "The Sopranos."

"As a lesbian, I'm not comfortable on the cover of a magazine holding another woman," Toepfer recalled O'Donnell saying.

Toepfer, an editor of People for 14 years, also recalled a July 2002 meeting in which O'Donnell said a terrible "childhood experience" had turned her against men, including Gruner + Jahr president and CEO Dan Brewster. 

"'No man will ever have power over me,'" she said, according to Toepfer. The editor added,  "It was this projection of him as some sort of ogre that just wasn't true."

Outside the courthouse Monday, O'Donnell told reporters that she didn't hold anything against Toepfer, who was still employed by Gruner + Jahr.

"She's a very talented editor. She's a nice woman. It's not about her," said O'Donnell.  "Frankly, it was just a coup. They tried to take over."

O'Donnell also denied having cited her sexuality as a reason for objecting to the "Sopranos" cover, joking, "Never in my life have I said the phrase, 'As a lesbian...' So, all during lunch, I was saying, 'As a lesbian, can you pass me the mayonaise?'"

This cover of Rosie Magazine never ran because O'Donnell disapproved. Her reasons, however, are in dispute.

O'Donnell's lawyers fired back at Toepfer during their cross-examination, portraying her as a careerist bent on making good in her first official "editor-in-chief" post.

Whereas previous editor Cathy Cavender might have sought a middle ground with the admittedly temperamental O'Donnell, Toepfer — who left People after being passed over for the top spot — refused to back down, charged O'Donnell's lawyers.

"In effect, by sticking to your position, you were causing a confrontation with Rosie O'Donnell during the first week," said attorney Lorna Schofield.

Toepfer, dressed neatly in a crisp, black suit coat and thick-framed glasses, and sporting short-cropped, highlighted hair, denied trying to cause arguments.

During her three-plus hours on the stand, Toepfer said she was also disturbed by some of O'Donnell's editorial decisions, which included a collage of photos of O'Donnell's then-pregnant domestic partner, Kelli Carpenter, potential cover photos of Cher, and the suggestion of running a cover photo of convicted rapist Mike Tyson and his newborn daughter.

Outside the courthouse, O'Donnell defended her Tyson cover concept.

"I don't support Mike Tyson. I don't support rapists," she said. "There he was with his infant daughter, begging for forgiveness. That's what moved me."

During her tenure as celebrity figurehead, editorial director, and 50 percent owner of Rosie Magazine, O'Donnell often sought to feature "issue"-based stories on subjects such as gun control, children who kill and drunk driving.

One theme she sought to mine was "redemption," and at one point expressed interest in Sharon Tate, a victim in the Charles Manson murders. These ideas and others unnerved senior Gruner + Jahr management, according to executive editor Jane Farrell, who completed her testimony Monday morning.

"Why can't we let people know she is trying to use the magazine as her personal journal?" Farrell wrote in an August 2002 e-mail to senior Gruner + Jahr executives.

Farrell admitted on cross-examination that she was the unnamed source who criticized O'Donnell in August 2002 articles in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today and Vanity Fair.

Farrell's admission is significant, and could speak directly to one of the main issues in the trial: Who disparaged whom first.

O'Donnell is expected to take the stand Thursday.  "We'll see who is standing at the end," she said. "I can't wait until Thursday."

Supreme Court Justice Ira Gammerman is presiding over this bench trial.