Rolling Stone did a profile of Ellen DeGeneres back in April, tracking her first stand up show in two years, which was also the first since hosting her talk show. The Ellen DeGeneres Show ended in May 2022 in subdued fashion rather than dance party energy, as it came after years of revelations of the show having a toxic work environment. Rolling Stone’s account of her new stand up portrayed Ellen as still very much processing the fallout, just now publicly through her comedy after a couple quiet years. It seemed like the stand up tour — one night of which will be filmed for a Netflix special — could be an opportunity for Ellen, if she rises to it, to be funny and honest, hopefully leading to real accountability. Now Page Six has spoken to some “friends” of Ellen’s, who are sharing more light on the comeback she’s staging:
A comedy comeback: Ellen DeGeneres dubbed herself “the most hated person in America” and has deliberately spent the past two years out of the spotlight. But she’s now making a comeback with what she claims will be one final Netflix special and a comedy tour called “Ellen’s Last Stand… Up.” After battling toxic workplace allegations related to “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” the star — who has a reported net worth of $450 million — is ready to talk in detail about the downfall of her Emmy-winning daytime series. “She needed some time to recover,” a longtime DeGeneres friend told Page Six. “But she’s an artist, she wants to entertain — she can’t just sit at home.”
Be kind, rewind: Back in 2020, DeGeneres, 66 — whose catchphrase is “Be Kind — became embroiled in a scandal that hit at the very heart of her longtime show. Staffers accused the comedian of fostering a culture of racism, fear and intimidation — and of demanding that no one on set make eye contact with her. Guests were allegedly told to compliment her on air. DeGeneres replied to this by telling employees, “I don’t know where it started. Please talk to me. Look me in the eye.”
The peccadillo defense: Since the show ended in May 2022, DeGeneres has spent her time flipping very expensive houses in Santa Barbara, looking after her rescue chickens gardening and focusing on the gorilla conservation campus that was founded in her honor in Rwanda. … However, when asked about the return to stand up, another old friend told us, “Ellen is a comedian. They all have their peccadillos, but this is her life and she wants to talk about everything she went through and where she is now in her life, sharing who she is. Look at Jerry Seinfeld, he does stand-up all the time. Why shouldn’t she get back on stage?”
You gotta have friends: She will film her Netflix special in Minneapolis in August. It will be produced by Ben Winston, the Emmy-winning business partner of James Corden, who also made the “Friends” reunion special. It will be DeGeneres’ first comedy special since 2018’s “Relatable.” She also had celebrity pals including Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, Khloe Kardashian and Kris Jenner support her at another show at Largo last week.
‘Let’s see how this goes’: “Ellen has spent a lot of time writing and working on something very funny,” said the old friend. “The bottom line is that for her own soul she needs to work and to entertain people.” … “I used to say that I didn’t care what other people thought of me and I realized … I said that at the height of my popularity,” DeGeneres said, prompting laughter at a gig in April. “Right now I’m hoping you’re thinking, ‘This is marvelous, I’m so happy to be here.’ But you could be thinking, ‘Let’s see how this goes.’”
I’m sorry, fostering a constant atmosphere of casual cruelty is substantially more than having a few “picadillos.” And then that “friend” goes on to compare Ellen’s comeback to Jerry Seinfeld?! Hilarious for us, but that’s definitely not the flex this person thinks it is. As I said above, I think the ball is in Ellen’s court now, in terms of the level of candor she allows for in the material. Some of what we heard back in April was not quite there yet, in my opinion. But stand up is a live medium, and she should have ample time to shape her set into a good special for Netflix. And I actually think “Let’s see how this goes” is a promising way to start.
Before leaving, can please we take a moment to appreciate the delicious absurdity of this sentence: “Since the show ended in May 2022, DeGeneres has spent her time flipping very expensive houses in Santa Barbara, looking after her rescue chickens, gardening and focusing on the gorilla conservation campus that was founded in her honor in Rwanda.” As one does, lol. It’s like a bio by Mad Libs.
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