Ellen DeGeneres was accused of creating a toxic workplace culture on The Ellen Show, resulting in the talk show coming to a close in May 2022 after a 19-year run.
Speaking to BuzzFeed news at the time, one former employee alleged: “That ‘be kind’ bullsh** only happens when the cameras are on. It’s all for show.” More claimed they were fired after taking medical leave or bereavement days to attend funerals.
Employees claimed they suffered racist comments and were told “not to speak” to Ellen if they saw her around the set or offices. One told the publication: “If she wants to have her own show and have her name on the show title, she needs to be more involved to see what’s going on.
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“I think the executive producers surround her and tell her, ‘Things are going great, everybody’s happy,’ and she just believes that, but it’s her responsibility to go beyond that.”
Ellen herself has been mired in drama from the start, from revealing Mariah Carey’s pregnancy to an awkward row with Dakota Johnson.
Pregnancy reveal
(Image: The Ellen Show)
In 2008, Ellen essentially forced Mariah Carey to confess that she was pregnant to a national audience – without her prior consent. Ellen tried to make Mariah drink a glass of champagne on the show, suspecting she was pregnant and wouldn’t consume alcohol.
Mariah begged: “Don’t discuss that,” when Ellen first brought up the rumours, asking if Mariah was expecting a baby. She eventually declared: “You’re pregnant!” when she refused to drink, with Carey saying on the show: “I can’t believe you did this to me, Ellen.
“This is peer pressure. What Ellen is doing, this is peer pressure.” Unwilling to discuss the subject further, the All I Want For Christmas hitmaker would only insist she “didn’t say” she was pregnant. In 2020, Mariah confessed: “I was extremely uncomfortable with that moment is all I can say.
“And I really have had a hard time grappling with the aftermath. I wasn’t ready to tell anyone because I had had a miscarriage. [There’s] an empathy that can be applied to those moments that I would have liked to have been implemented. But what am I supposed to do?”
‘B**ch’ row
In one majorly awkward moment, Believe hitmaker Cher branded Ellen a “b**ch” after the host teased her about things that turn her on. The pair were playing a quick fire game of questions, with Ellen forced to name three things that turn her on in five seconds.
She listed “music, sweetness and chocolate”, before clarifying that she’d lied about the candy “so she’d win”. Ellen then asked: “Does chocolate turn anybody on?”
Cher said: “I love it. I don’t get it much, but I love chocolate and cake.” Ellen then wondered: “You eat chocolate, and you’re like, in the mood?”
The songstress was forced to clarify: “No, no! It’s like, I don’t get to have chocolate. I’m working on my body. No, it doesn’t turn me on. I didn’t mean it that way! B**ch!”
Uninvited guest
50 Shades of Gray star Dakota Johnson wasn’t taking any of Ellen’s garbage when the chat show host insisted Dakota had failed to invite her to her 30th birthday party. Dakota soon put her in her place, though, as Ellen began: “How was the party? I wasn’t invited.”
Dakota said: “Actually no, that’s not the truth Ellen. Ask everybody. Ask Jonathan, your producer.” Ellen finally admitted defeat, wondering: “Why didn’t I go? Oh yeah, I had that thing. [The party] was probably in Malibu, that’s too far for me to go.”
A member of the crew confirmed Ellen was out of town and couldn’t be there. But it wasn’t the only awkward moment with Dakota, as Ellen shamed her for wearing a short skirt on the programme.
She asked: “Did you try that on before? Do you want a blanket or anything? That is a mighty tight outfit for someone who’s pregnant,” going right into the pregnancy rumours Dakota was forced to deny.
She said: “They don’t even know what you’re talking about. The only thing I’m pregnant with is good ideas. Not any babies.”
‘Do you have a problem?’
When My Heart Will Go On songstress Celine Dion was interviewed by Ellen, the host had a problem with the length of her son’s hair, of all things. She told Celine: “It seems like you’re busy because you’re forgetting to cut your son’s hair. He’s beautiful, but look at his hair. When are you going to cut that hair?”
Celine fumed: “Do you have a problem with that? You shave your kids hair and people say, ‘Isn’t that terrible?’ I don’t even cut my son’s hair and they say, ‘Oh my God, when is she going to cut her son’s hair?’ Whatever I do, I won’t please everyone.”
‘Feel so bad about myself’
(Image: YOUTUBE)
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Taylor Swift was not impressed with Ellen’s constant jokes about her dating life – confessing that it “makes her feel so bad about herself” in a candid interview. Ellen constantly joked Taylor was dating High School Musical star Zak Efron.
She even played a slideshow of men and asked the Love Story songstress to confirm which of them she’d dated in the past. Taylor eventually told a live audience: “This makes me feel so bad about myself. Every time I come here, you put a different guy on the screen and it really makes me question what I stand for as a human being.”
Instructing Taylor to ring a bell when the right guy appeared, Taylor awkwardly said: “I don’t know if I’m going to do this. This is the one thing that I have, it’s like the one shred of dignity that I have… People go and make guesses about it and the only thing that I have is like that one card.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
