When it’s time to transcend tragedy, Emmy turns to Ellen
In the shock and sorrow of national tragedy, America has, coincidentally and unintentionally, turned to an unlikely healer – Ellen DeGeneres.
The first time she was asked to host the annual Emmy Awards show, it was just before 9/11. This year, it was before Hurricane Katrina.
“I’m going to think twice before I agree to host something again, I can tell you that,” she says wryly.
Over the last few weekends, in between working on her hit daytime talk show, DeGeneres has been drafting a monologue for tonight’s telecast (8 p.m., CBS) hoping to again strike the right note in a time of tragedy.
“I have to acknowledge it,” says DeGeneres, a New Orleans native whose “Ellen DeGeneres Show Hurricane Relief Fund” has raised more than $5 million. “At the same time, I have to make sure people are relaxed and want to laugh.”
She says even her own friends and family who are recovering from the effects of the flooding have managed to fit humor in among their stages of grief, acceptance or bewilderment.
“For me, it’s the only thing we can do,” she says. “You help people as much as you can. If you don’t have some break from it, some relief, it’s too much.”
Hosting the 2001 Emmys was a particularly delicate assignment, because the ceremony had been postponed twice after the terrorist attacks.
In her monologue, she told the audience that the terrorists “can’t take away our creativity, our striving for excellence, our joy. Only network executives can do that.”
She went on to say that she was an ideal host “because, think about it: What would bug the Taliban more than seeing a gay woman in a suit surrounded by Jews?”
While the moment was seen as bolstering the national mood, DeGeneres was at a personal low point. Two failed sitcoms, a backlash to her public coming out as a lesbian, and a high-profile breakup with actress Anne Heche had left her reeling and desperate for work.
She decided to try a daytime talk show: “This was not something like, ‘Oh, well, if this fails, I’ll do something else.’ I don’t think there was a whole lot left.”
Now entering its third season, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” is one of those rare programs that’s become both a critical favorite and mainstream hit. Her self-deprecating observations about everyday life, improvised dancing, and high-profile (though frequently self-promoting) celebrity guests have attracted 10 million viewers per week and won several daytime Emmys.
” ‘Ellen’ has found an audience. It’s crossed that line to where it’s a long-term franchise,” says Jim Paratori, president of Telepictures Productions, which produces the show. “It will be around as long as she wants to do it.”
The birthday bunch
Actor Jack Warden is 85. Singer Jimmie Rodgers is 72. Actor Robert Blake is 72. Actor Fred Willard is 66. Singer-actor Frankie Avalon is 65. Actor James Gandolfini (“The Sopranos”) is 44. Actress Holly Robinson Peete (“Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper”) is 41. Actress Jada Pinkett Smith is 34. Actor James Marsden (“The Notebook,” “Ally McBeal”) is 32. Actors Taylor and Brandon Porter (“Party of Five”) are 12.