Ellen DeGeneres 'is at the end of her rope' amid mean rumors

Ellen DeGeneres 'is at the end of her rope' amid mean rumors
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Rumors that Ellen DeGeneres are 'mean' have continued to circulate, and apparently the TV host has had enough, accordin...

Rumors that Ellen DeGeneres are 'mean' have continued to circulate, and apparently the TV host has had enough, according to one source.

'Ellen is at the end of her rope,' the unnamed source close to the 62-year-old told UsWeekly on Wednesday.

They also claim the multimillionaire is dismayed that the accusations of unpleasantness behind the scenes are 'not a passing thing'. 

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DeGeneres is also claimed to have initially believed the rumors were just a case of 'sour grapes' from 'a few haters', but that has increasingly appeared not to be the case as accusations keep rolling in. 

Just days ago a former Ellen DeGeneres show staffer claimed the presenter 'isn't always nice' as rumours continue to swirl over the star's alleged behind-the-scenes bad behaviour.

On Sunday, the New York Post kept the rumor mill churning by quoting the 'former show staffer' who claimed: 'The stories are all true!' 

They said: 'Is she always nice? No. It irritates me that people think she's all sweetness and light and she gets away with it.' 

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The stories about the comedienne started circulating after comic Kevin T. Porter sent out a tweet in March urging people to message him 'the most insane stories [they've] heard' about Ellen in an effort to raise money for the Los Angeles Food Bank.

Porter was flooded with written accounts by various Twitter users who claimed to have had less than savory interactions with Ellen - who he labeled as 'notoriously one of the meanest people alive' - over the years.

Then in early April, Ellen was slammed on social media for being tone deaf after cracking a joke on her daytime chat show that being home all the time during the COVID-19 pandemic was akin to being behind bars. 

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>>>See more: Ellen DeGeneres Wishes She Had Kids To Keep Her Company

She started doing her show from her mansion in Santa Barbara, California, north of Los Angeles after the coronavirus crisis prompted a statewide lockdown and shut down many Hollywood productions.

'This is like being in jail,' Ellen told her fans during her April 7 show as she sat in a spacious living room with windows opening onto a large plant-filled yard.

'Mostly because I've been wearing the same clothes for 10 days and everyone in here is gay,' she quipped.

The response was swift on Twitter.

'Ellen you quarantining in your mansion in designer sweats is nothing like prison,' one Twitter user posted. 

Another tweeted: 'What a great look for Ellen as thousands of people sit in actual jail cells just hoping for the best without soap and basic protections.'

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A week later, Variety reported that the main stage crew for her show - roughly 20 people - received 'no communication' about issues like pay and working hours for over a month.

The show's crew slammed the decision to hire a non-union tech company to help DeGeneres broadcast from home, while allegedly reducing the salaries of the show's usual union team by 60 percent amid the coronavirus lockdown.

Two sources at Ellen's show, speaking to Variety under conditions of anonymity, said that 'higher-ups in production would occasionally answer phone calls but reveal little' about their status.

Crew members claim they finally heard from production executives last month, when they were told to expect a 60per cent pay decrease, even while the show continues airing.

Meanwhile, Ellen herself is said to have a $77million per year contract for her talk show. Her total net worth is estimated to be a whopping $330million.

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Sources added that only four of the core crew members are currently working on the remote version of Ellen, according to Variety.

A spokesperson for Warner Bros. Television made it clear the crew is still getting paid, though they confirmed their hours are reduced.

'Our executive producers and Telepictures are committed to taking care of our staff and crew and have made decisions first and foremost with them in mind.'

Still, insiders speaking to the industry publication claim that for over two weeks, from late March until April 9, the crew were never told how much they would be paid.

During this communication 'blackout,' Ellen expanded her at-home broadcasts, going from hosting four shows a week to five, all which were shot over a two-day period at her home.

The show typically films four 10-hour work days per week, but the crew was told on April 10 that they should expect to be paid for just two eight-hour days a week.

At the same time, Ellen hired Key Code Media to produce 'technical elements' of the show's new remote production while her crew members with the same skill set were not working, Variety reports.

A rep for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees union said they were of the crew would continue to be paid, but crew members were told to 'watch closely' for developments.

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Then on May 1, Tom Majercak who was hired to provide security for Ellen when she hosted the 2014 Academy Awards, have a damaging interview to fox News in which he said the 'cold' star avoided eye contact with him and treated him in a 'demeaning' manner.

'Ellen is the one person that I've been assigned to - and I've been assigned to quite a few celebrities - that has never taken the time to say hi to me,' Majercak claimed to Fox.

'You start hearing these stories and I was like, 'Man, there's got to be more to this.' She's not the person she portrays to be that she's playing off of society. That's my opinion.'   

However, the former security official - who left his security company last year - claimed he spent 'a lot of time' with Ellen's wife Portia De Rossi, who was 'very pleasant and carried on a conversation.'

'It started going negatively when she introduced me to Ellen and Ellen pretty much just gave me a side glance out of her eye and didn't even say 'hello,' or 'thank you for protecting my mother, my wife and me,'' Majercak added.  

'It was very cold and it was very sly and it was actually kind of demeaning in the way that she treats people other than those who are in her circle.'

The Fox report says that representatives for DeGeneres did not respond to their request for comment.

Majercak says he felt compelled to speak out about DeGeneres after seeing recent reports of her behaviour, particularly from transgender YouTube star NikkieTutorials, who also described the host as 'cold.'

The 25-year-old Dutch beauty influencer, whose real name is Nikkie de Jager, opened up about a January interview in a new piece for local magazine &C, in which she compared The Ellen Show to 'Teletubbies after dark'.

Nikkie, who first voiced her upset over the interview during an appearance on Dutch show De Wereld Draait Door in February, added that she was disappointed by her treatment in the studio - where she was greeted by an 'angry, overworked intern'.

'Maybe I'm being naive, but I expected them to welcome me with confetti: 'Welcome to The Ellen DeGeneres Show!'' she said in an interview.  

'But instead I got greeted by an angry intern, who was a bit overworked. I expected a Disney show, but I got a Teletubbies after dark.'

During her appearance with De Wereld Draait Door, Nikkie also alleged that Ellen didn't even say hello to her when she arrived, telling host Matthijs van Nieuwkerk: 'It's really nice that you came over and said hello to me... She didn't.' 

'Every guest at Ellen had a private toilet, but I didn't,' she claimed. 'I couldn't even use the closest toilet to me because it was reserved for the Jonas Brothers... They were allowed, I wasn't, I thought.'

In fact, her experience was so unpleasant that Nikkie suggested she actually regrets doing the show at all, telling the Dutch publication that she wishes she had done a sit-down with Dutch-American TV host Eva Jinek instead.

'For people who don't know me, [the Ellen interview] was a good summary of my story,' she explained. 'But the people who did know me expected more. "I should've just went on Eva Jinek," I thought to myself.'

What hurt Nikkie the most about her experience was that she had considered Ellen one of her 'idols', and she has since grown fearful of meeting any other people she admired in case she faces the same disappointment.

'After being on Ellen I thought to myself, "Don't meet your idols,"' she said while revealing that a meeting with popstar Adele has always been at the top of her bucket list.

Nikkie's new magazine interview comes just a few weeks after a clip of her appearance on Dutch show De Wereld Draait Door resurfaced and went viral thanks to the YouTuber's candid description of her 'cold and distant' Ellen experience.

When asked for more details, the YouTuber simply said that Ellen's show was like 'a whole different world'.

'What I’ve experienced here and in other countries [is] that it's really a whole different world. It’s more distant,' she said, according to Buzzfeed, before adding that it was nonetheless 'an honor' to have been offered the opportunity to appear on the show.

Ellen, who came out as gay in an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 1997, launched her daytime chat show in September 2003 after a successful TV, film and stand-up comedy career.

She is believed to have a net worth of around $330 million and in 2018 was the 15th highest-paid entertainer in the world, according to Forbes.

Ellen has an extensive portfolio of multi-million dollar properties in exclusive upscale communities in the greater Los Angeles and Santa Barbara areas and she and wife Portia de Rossi like to purchase properties, remodel them and sell them on.

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