Website of the Year2020 will be a year many are happy to forget, none more so than Ellen DeGeneres.
The comedian's career and reputation was dealt a damaging blow last year as Hollywood insiders accused her of being one of "the meanest people alive" and dozens of former Ellen Show staffers alleged widespread sexual misconduct among the top execs at the show.
Oh, and she also got COVID-19.
After firing three of her producers, Ellen returned to her talk show in September and delivered a heartfelt apology, saying: "I learned that things happened here (on The Ellen Show) that never should've happened. I take that very seriously, and I want to say I'm so sorry to the people who were affected."
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Advertise with NZME.Twelve months of disastrous headlines would have ended most people's careers, but Ellen managed to survive. The question is, how?
According to celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, Ellen was helped by a chaotic year of international news events.
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"Living here in LA, we've all been wrapped up in the election and our COVID situation is out of control, so that's dwarfed everything," he told news.com.au.
"I think her scandal story is done and over. Here in LA everybody has moved on from it.
"I haven't heard any new reports about anything bad going on on the set of Ellen, so it seems like they've remedied the situation and it's like last year's news."
Perez suggested that if Ellen's toxic workplace scandal had happened in 2018 or 2019 rather than 2020, it's likely her career would not have survived.
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"Two years ago she hadn't announced yet whether she was going to renew her contract," he told news.com.au. "She probably would not have wanted to renew it, I would imagine, if this would have been an even bigger story that dragged on even longer."
And the fact that Ellen's career survived isn't a bad thing, Perez told news.com.au.
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Advertise with NZME."It goes back to this: I would rather celebrities be fake and do good than celebrities be real and not do good," he said.
"Ellen has does a lot of good for a lot of people. She's donated millions of dollars to charity, given away money and homes and cars to people on her show, she's made people really happy every day.
"I'm willing to overlook a lot," he laughed.
Perez offered up another example, saying: "Madonna is my favourite artist of all time and many people who know her have said that she's … a b**ch. And I don't care! She's still my favourite artist of all time."
PEREZ WANTS TO RETURN TO AUSTRALIA
After appearing on I'm a Celeb in January 2020, Perez told news.com.au he's keen to star on more Australian TV shows.
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Advertise with NZME."I definitely would love to do more television. Dancing With The Stars? The Masked Singer? A dating show? Maybe they'll end up bringing back Celebrity Big Brother, that would be a nice vacation."
He'd also be keen to appear on Australian Idol which will air on Channel 7 in 2022.
"I could see myself doing that because I have definitely helped a lot of musicians throughout their careers, not just by talking about them on my website but by mentoring them and giving a lot of advice," he told news.com.au. "I would love that.
"Australia knows how to reach me, I'm very easily reached!" he laughed.
