Ellen DeGeneres is like the Big Easy. She’s all about fun. After Hurricane Katrina, add big heart.
Ellen, a native of New Orleans, has raised over $10 million dollars for Katrina relief. In Fat Tuesday’s episode of the Ellen DeGeneres Show, she focused again on Katrina relief efforts. Former President George H.W. Bush sent a videotaped message thanking her for her fundraising.
In the same show, Ellen gave a new GM Acadia to a single mother who lost her home in the hurricane and works 20 hours a day so she could rebuild. She continues to ask her viewers to support Brad Pitt’s Make It Right, a group that hopes to build 150 environmentally friendly homes in the Lower 9th Ward. She has raised over $800,000 for Pitt.
Hint: Doubleclick on boxes with plus signs to expand, or click the tool bar at left for more options.
How can you not like the gal? She’s squeaky clean funny and silly, but also edgy in her own way. She’s like Jerry Seinfeld, who can look at a roll of toilet paper, make a droll observation and everybody erupts in fits of laughter. Everybody loves Ellen. She appeals to men, women, children, and yes, the gay community.
Her career took a precarious turn in 1997 when her character in another show (titled Ellen) became the first lead actor to openly admit being gay. The Rev. Jerry Falwell called her Ellen DeGenerate to which she replied, “I’ve been getting that since the fourth grade.”
Ellen confronted her sexuality in a Time magazine cover story headlined “Yep, I’m Gay.”
The issue seems to have died down, as reflected in the success of her daytime show, now in its fifth season and for which she makes $15 million a year. She’s incredibly popular and loved for her quick wit and repartee. She never resorts to cruel or crude jokes and has hosted the 2007 Academy Awards, American Idol’s “America Gives Back” and the Primetime Emmy Awards.
Ellen and her shows, including stand-up comedy acts, have won critical acclaim and numerous awards. She was voted number one in Oxygen’s “50 Funniest Woman Alive,” along with Carol Burnett and Lily Tomlin. Children recognize her voice as Dory, the amnesia-suffering Regal Tang in Finding Nemo.
American Greetings has partnered with Ellen in “the ellen collection,” a 32-card line that features Ellen in her trademark slacks, argyle sweaters, button-down shirts and sneakers. It also reflects her love for animals and features Pig, her famous white French bulldog. One birthday card shows Ellen dancing while Pig looks on. The message on the front says, “Your birthday makes me wanna dance!” while the inside explains, “…which is weird because I’m in line at the DMV and now everyone’s staring at me. Enjoy your day.”
She also partnered with American Express in its Members Project, which brings together Ellen, tennis great Andre Agassi, singers Sheryl Crow and Alicia Keys and snowboarder/skateboarder Shaun White. The group, in a commercial directed by Martin Scorsese, encouraged American Express members to nominate a worthy cause that the company can fund. The winner, awarded $2 million, is the Children’s Safe Drinking Water project.
Ellen also appears in another commercial for American Express that reflects another issue dear to her. “My Life Goal: to Work with Animals” features her with a tortoise, a giraffe and penguins. The ad won a Primetime Emmy.
In her shows, there are no chair-throwing incidents or flying punches. Ellen doesn’t engage in feuds like the Rosie-Donald Trump brouhaha on The View.
“I try to keep every single thing positive,” Ellen told The New York Times. “It’s so expected now that every joke has to be mean-spirited. Everything has to be against somebody. I don’t think it’s healthy.”
Click here to sign up for the Muckety Newsletter
0 Comments
There are no comments yet, be the first by filling in the form below.
Leave a Comment