11 October 2019 - Hollywood split over Ellen DeGeneres's defense of George W. Bush
Celebrities split over Ellen DeGeneres's remarks about George W. Bush
Aris Folley (The Hill, 09/10/2019)
A number of celebrities are split over Ellen DeGeneres’s defense of her friendship with former President George W. Bush, days after a photo of the two seated next to each other at an NFL game this past weekend went viral.
DeGeneres and Bush stoked controversy on Twitter over the weekend after footage emerged of the pair and their spouses seated together at the Dallas Cowboys' matchup against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.
After getting some heat over the sighting, the "Ellen" host dedicated her opening monologue on her show Tuesday to address the matter.
'We’re all different. And I think that we’ve forgotten that that’s OK’: Ellen DeGeneres says she’s ‘friends’ with George W. Bush
Mike Brest (Washington Examiner, 08/10/2019)
Ellen DeGeneres defended her friendship with former President George W. Bush on Monday after facing criticism for going to Sunday's Dallas Cowboys game with him.
DeGeneres and Bush attended the game with their spouses and sat with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. In her explanation of the situation, she revealed that they were invited by Jones's daughter Charlotte. The controversy began when Bush and DeGeneres were shown on the television broadcast and people expressed their displeasure on social media.
Mark Ruffalo breaks Hollywood ranks over Ellen's George W Bush friendship
(BBC News, 10/10/2019)
Avengers star Mark Ruffalo has disagreed with Ellen DeGeneres' defence of her friendship with ex-US President George W Bush.
After being pictured with Mr Bush, the TV host said she was friends with many people who don't share her views, adding we should "be kind to everyone".
But Hulk actor Ruffalo said Mr Bush should be "brought to justice for the crimes of the Iraq War".
Ellen DeGeneres, George W. Bush, and the death of uncritical niceness
Constance Grady (Vox, 09/10/2019)
On Sunday, Ellen DeGeneres spent her afternoon in a luxury box at a football game in Texas, watching the Dallas Cowboys play the Green Bay Packers and laughing cheerfully next to former president George W. Bush. The TV cameras panned over the pair sitting together, apparently in the midst of a friendly exchange, and on social media, people erupted into outrage.
Ellen is a trailblazer who taught middle America not to be afraid of lesbians. Most famously, she came out of the closet in 1997 while still the star of a primetime network sitcom, and weathered both the ensuing controversy and her show’s cancellation to survive and thrive in Hollywood.
Ellen DeGeneres, George W. Bush, and the Limits of Unconditional Kindness
Laura Bradley (Vanity Fair, 08/10/2019)
In her latest stand-up special, Relatable, Ellen DeGeneres spends around an hour telling her audience just how different her life is from theirs. The bathrooms she visits have attendants, she says; while telling a joke about emotional-support animals, she quips, “10B; does the plane go back that far? I‘ve never been back there.” But fame, she admits, comes with drawbacks too: “When you do something stupid, you’re just a person someone saw doing something stupid,” she says. “When I do something stupid, it’s a story.”
That joke has come to mind for me twice this year. The first time: when DeGeneres groused with Kevin Hart over the firestorm that erupted when he refused to apologize for his past homophobic humor and eventually relinquished the job of Oscar host. “There are so many haters out there,” DeGeneres told Hart in January. “Whatever’s going on on the internet, don’t pay attention to them; that’s a small group of people being very, very loud. We are a huge group of people who love you and want to see you host the Oscars.”