Of Course Ellen Was Nice to You, Celebrities. You’re Famous.

I am someone who loves celebrities—always have and always will, but boy oh boy is it hard in 2020. Celebrities continue to show their entire … well … a** by continuing to be silent during important movements in our history, or singing songs to help “inspire” people from their mansions when many are worried about being able to afford food. It’s been a mess, and I’m just constantly in awe of how obtuse human beings can be.

Now, celebrities are rallying behind Ellen because she was nice to them while on air, as her show faces allegations of being a hostile workplace. Someone had better get Dakota Johnson to spill the truth.

Ellen DeGeneres has not been doing so hot right now. We should have known. Her name is DeGeneres, not Ellen Generous. (I’m really proud of this joke.) It has become something of a reckoning for the talk show host. For years, there have been rumblings about what working for Ellen was really like. In fact, there is always some kind of rumor about writing for these shows, but Ellen was the one I was probably warned about most frequently

But now, that’s neither here nor there. The problem is a bunch of celebrities responding to these concerns by … tweeting about how Ellen was nice to them. Of course she was! You were directly connected to her making money.

First, here are some of the celebrities talking about how great Ellen is … to them:

It seems absolutely baffling for this to be what they stand up for, especially when Ellen’s former employee, DJ Tony Okungbowa, even posted about the toxicity of the environment:

And then there are other celebrities with … terrible takes.

Let’s think about this for a second: Why wouldn’t Ellen be nice to you when you have status and money and a platform you could use against her if she weren’t? If you’re a celebrity and you’re someone who could simply tweet out “Ellen was mean to me when I went on her show,” it would start to unravel her entire game.

So … of course she was nice to you, and maybe it isn’t that manipulative. Maybe Ellen is generally very nice to a lot of people, but the point of everything happening isn’t that Ellen is a monster to every single person she meets. It’s that the workplace toxicity on The Ellen DeGeneres Show needed to be addressed for the wellbeing of her employees, and it’s hardly unusual for people who do bad things to be nice otherwise—that’s how they get away with it.

So, celebrities rushing out to say they were treated in a certain way by Ellen is … beside the point. The point is that her employees were allegedly mistreated. But I’m glad you like the Ellen underwear she gave your rich ass!

Obviously, many took to Twitter to express why this way of thinking is not helpful.

So, I guess this is my general message to celebrities: If there are multiple accounts from employees and an investigation happening, maybe don’t sit and share your fun Ellen story just because you think the internet is being unfair.

(image: NBC)

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Rachel Leishman

Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at the Mary Sue. She's been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff's biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she's your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell's dog, Brisket. Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.

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