It certainly has not been a good week for talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, who has been slammed by both her crew and a guest for her alleged rude and obnoxious behavior.
DeGeneres has yet to respond to allegations that she left her crew in the dark for weeks about their pay and employment status amidst the coronavirus pandemic. She also has not responded to claims made by an online beauty blogger who said the host was rude to her when she appeared on her show earlier this year. Instead, DeGeneres seems to be trying to pretend that nothing is wrong, as all she has done is film a new intro to her talk show.
The light-hearted intro shows DeGeneres, 62, running around the manicured lawn of the California mansion she shares with her wife Portia de Rossi. The host throws a frisbee in the air with nobody at the other end, and she rushes to keep up with it. She can also be seen hitting a tennis ball in a solo match, and posing for the camera cheekily.
“My show is a little different, so I thought I should record a new intro video,” DeGeneres captioned the video on her show’s Instagram page.
This came after a source told Variety that the 30+ person crew of DeGeneres’ show received “no communication” about issues like pay and working hours for over a month after production shut down on her talk show in March because of the coronavirus pandemic. They were then “furious” when they learned DeGeneres hired a non-union tech company to help DeGeneres broadcast daily from her home.
Two sources with the talk show claimed that “higher-ups in production would occasionally answer phone calls but reveal little” about their status during the month the crew was ignored. When members of the crew were finally contacted last week, they were told to expect a 60 percent pay decrease, even when the show resumes normal production again.
Daily Mail reported that DeGeneres is believed to have a $77 million per year contract for her talk show as well as a net worth of $330million. This could be devastating to her brand, given the fact that DeGeneres is constantly telling her views to “be kind” to one another.
“The behavior that’s been revealed about Ellen is rat poison to the Ellen DeGeneres brand,” brand expert Eric Schiffer told Fox News. “When you have a brand like Ellen’s leak information that is 180 degrees different than this facade she’s been painting, it creates a dumpster fire on her image and it’s like watching the Hindenburg.”
COMMENTS POLICY: We have no tolerance for messages of violence, racism, vulgarity, obscenity or other such discourteous behavior. Thank you for contributing to a respectful and useful online dialogue.