It all started with a delicate interview.
American actress Dakota Johnson of Fifty shades of Grey the glory, sitting with Ellen DeGeneres on her talk show, The Ellen Show, for a cat in December of last year.
Things started off freezing when DeGeneres mentioned Johnson’s recent 30th birthday.
“Happy late birthday,” said DeGeneres. “How was the party? I was not invited.”
As the audience laughed, Johnson replied sternly, “Actually, no, it’s not the truth, Ellen. You have been invited. “
Johnson told DeGeneres that she made sure to invite him to her party this year because she had given him “a lot of shit” last year when she hadn’t received an invitation at his party.
“I invited you and you didn’t come,” said Johnson.
DeGeneres was skeptical at first: “This time, did you invite me? Are you sure? I do not think so. “
“Ask everyone,” said Johnson. “Ask Jonathan, your producer.”
DeGeneres looked off the camera at his producer who confirmed that Johnson had invited her to the birthday party.
“Why didn’t I leave?” she asked out loud. “It was probably in Malibu, it’s too far for me.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWYe5MwIS-A
After the interview with Johnson, it quickly became clear why DeGeneres had missed the party.
The 62-year-old was actually in Texas where she sat controversially next to former US President George W. Bush during an NFL game.
The NFL game was a public relations nightmare for DeGeneres, who was criticized for sitting next to Mr. Bush, with numerous attackers from the talk show host – a prominent gay, liberal LGBT activist and outspoken – for servicing the former Republican president, who once approved a constitutional amendment against gay marriage.
Bush also entered the United States in a war with Iraq and Afghanistan on the belief later denied that they possessed weapons of mass destruction.
Actor John Cusack has gone so far as to accuse DeGeneres of “normalizing mass murderers” by associating with Mr. Bush.
DeGeneres then addressed the couple’s unlikely friendship and the critics around them in their talk show.
“People were upset. They thought, “Why is a gay Hollywood liberal sitting next to a conservative Republican president?” She said.
“I am friends with George Bush. In fact, I am friends with many people who do not share the same beliefs as I do. We are all different, and I think we have forgotten that it is OK that we are all different.
“Just because I don’t agree with someone about everything doesn’t mean I’m not going to be friends with them.” When I say being nice to each other, I don’t just mean people who think the same way you do. I mean be nice to everyone. “
Actor Mark Ruffalo did not buy it. “Until George W. Bush is brought to justice for the crimes of the Iraq war, (including American-led torture (sic), the deaths and displacements in Iraq, and the deep scars – emotional and others) inflicted on our soldiers who served his madness), we cannot even begin to speak of kindness, “he tweeted after the rage.
Since then, it seems that DeGeneres – a television icon for almost two decades and a globally respected human being – has repeatedly mastered public anger; become the target of fans again this week after making an “unpleasant” quarantine joke.
By hosting her show in the comfort of her living room, DeGeneres, who has a net worth of $ 490 million, made a joke in her opening monologue that quarantining with his wife Portia de Rossi was similar to incarceration, which shocked many of his viewers.
“It’s like being in prison, that’s what it is,” joked DeGeneres. “Mainly because I’ve been wearing the same clothes for 10 days and everyone here is gay!”
Several fans turned to Twitter to criticize the humorist for his privilege, calling him for having compared the isolation conditions of his mansion to those of prisoners, even jokingly.
“My 19-year-old daughter is considered an“ essential employee ”. She is a fast food worker. It is on display EVERY DAY. No GAF on Ellen’s privilege pampers a $$ stuck in his mansion. Show me @ellen working the lines @ the grocery store. NO mask, NO gloves. Then I could care, ”wrote an angry user.
“Petition to put her in a real prison after the quarantine is lifted. Just for about a month, so maybe she can learn something, ”joked someone else.
“Hey, Ellen, go volunteer at a grocery store or a food bank. Be on the front line if being sequestered in your mansion is just too difficult. Incredible, ”noted a third user.
It comes weeks after she was the subject of a viral Twitter feed focused on the subject, DeGeneres was the “meanest person alive”, encouraging people to share their personal stories to validate the theory.
Comedian Kevin T. Porter tweeted, “Right now, we all need a little bit of kindness. You know, as Ellen DeGeneres always talks about!
“She is also notoriously one of the nastiest people in the world. Answer that with the wildest stories you’ve heard of Ellen being mean and I’ll match each with $ 2 to @LAFoodBank. “
There were over 1,000 responses to Porter’s tweet, with people detailing their not-so-nice experiences with Ellen.
Television writer Benjamin Siemon replied to Porter’s tweet with: “She has a” sensitive nose “so everyone has to chew gum in a bowl in front of her desk before talking to her and if she thinks you smell it day you have to go home and take a shower. “
He also tweeted, “A new staff member has been advised:” Every day, she chooses someone different to really hate. It’s not your fault, drop her for the day and she’ll be mean to someone else the next day. They didn’t believe it, but it ended up being absolutely true.
Chris Farah tweeted, “I worked @RealFoodDaily, I served it … at brunch. She wrote a letter to the owner and complained about my chipped nail polish (not that it was on her plate but just that it was on my hand). I had worked until the day before closed and it was the next morning, I almost got fired. “
Author Allison Freer wrote, “I was working on a @ WB show that was next to her stage. It was the 50th anniversary of our showrunner. Caterer grilling steaks outside for a special lunch. Ellen sent someone to ask her to stop because she doesn’t eat meat. She is the worst. “
She also tweeted: “I have another one: she monitors her crew’s lunch orders, nobody is allowed to eat fish, etc. They came to hide on our stage to eat what they wanted away from her. “
Standing comedian Josh Levesque replied, “Another friend of mine was a PA on his show and when Russell Brand came into the employee break area to chat with the team and get out, Ellen came in and got angry against him – saying that he did not have to interact with these people, that is why the clients have their own space behind the scenes. “
The singer Detox tweeted, “An old friend worked on her lot and smiled and said” good afternoon “one day and she became confused. ‘Who do you think you are? You are not looking at me ”, yada yada. She said that Portia was with her and seemed embarrassed and tried to calm her down. Forever changed my opinion on her. “
After being inundated with responses, Porter tweeted, “Well, it got out of hand!” Now it’s hard to tell which stories are true or not, so I rounded up to 300 and donated $ 600! “
DeGeneres never responded to complaints, but it was certainly a bumpy few months for one of the most beloved characters on daytime television.