Recently engaged author and first daughter Jenna Bush is getting some flak from the Writer’s Guild for crossing picket lines to film a promotional appearance with Ellen DeGeneres. Bush Junior junior is still plugging her book “Ana’s Story: A Journey of Hope” about a young woman she met in Latin America who was born with HIV and got pregnant. Touching premise. **Cough cough ghostwriter cough cough** [JayBird looks around nervously]. Remember Jenna is the less-intelligent/harder-partying twin who couldn’t get into Yale even though her dad-the-current-president and her grandfather-the-former-president and twin sister all attended. I know Yale requires the absolute best of the best, but how bad must your grades be if they have to say, “I’m sorry Mr. President, we can only take one twin.” Alright I’m done with the Bush bashing. Jenna’s being called a scab for crossing the picket lines and going on “Ellen” yesterday (airing today). It was ironically pointed out that it’s the President’s job to prevent labor strife. Whoops.

Jenna actually filmed a pretty cute sounding interview. We, the naïve and trusting viewers, are meant to believe that Ellen talks Jenna into an unplanned phone call to her parents, live on the air. It comes off pretty well, which means there’s no way in hell W was surprised. That man can barely string three rudimentary words together with a Speak & Spell; there’s no way he could sound like a semi-normal human being when he’s “surprised” by his daughter calling from a TV show. But let’s play dumb and pretend to think it’s adorable.

Pleasantly prodding the First Daughter during a taping of her show… DeGeneres inquired if Bush could get her high-powered papa on the phone any time she wants. “I usually call him in the evening or in the morning, when I know they’ll both be at home,” said the 26-year-old. “Could you just pick up the phone like right now and call him?” wondered a wide-eyed Ellen. “Sure,” replies Bush. “He’s going to kill me, though.

DeGeneres, meanwhile, says that if Jenna’s parents don’t answer, she’ll get Jenna’s grandfather, former President George Herbert Walker Bush, on the phone, and observes: “We’re not barging in while they’re in their pajamas or something.” Once Bush gets through to First Lady Laura Bush, she says, “Hi, Mom.” Asking how the show is going, Mom says, “I’m not watching you because you’re taping right now.” She also tells her daughter, “I’m just sitting here with Daddy.”

Pipes up Ellen: “I wanted to say hi to Daddy.” And so, the President of the United States comes to the phone, and is told by his offspring, “This is the Ellen DeGeneres Show. Are You Mad?’

“Well, that’s great!” says the surprised Chief Executive, who asks DeGeneres, “How’s my little girl doing?” “Oh, she’s great,” answers the host. “She’s scared she’s going to get in trouble [and] not going to get any Christmas presents.” Pause. “Dad?” asks Jenna. “Yes, baby,” he replies. “Are you mad?” she inquires. “No, not at all,” says President Bush. “I’m excited to talk to you. I’m glad to talk to Ellen.”

[From People]

Yeah it made me feel annoyingly warm and fuzzy too. I’m hoping once it actually airs I’ll find that it’s trite, hackneyed, and cold. Or other negative adjectives. I feel like I’ve been duped, as to read it, it came off as mildly adorable. Now I feel cheap and used. Ahh, now that’s the feeling I’m used to from the Bushes.

A lot of famous actors have jumped behind the writers during their strike and refused to cross picket lines, or joined and picketed alongside the lesser-known (but most would argue just as important) workers. Several people have said they think the actors are just doing it to look good and get some good press, but I’m not going to damn them if they do and damn them if they don’t. Whatever their reason, it’s good they’re showing their support – if for no other point than it’s pretty clear that the writers aren’t going to give in, and that means shows won’t get made – so no one will get their money. The producers might as well give in a little on their stake in the massive profits.

Steve Carell effectively shut down production on “The Office” when he refused, and yesterday we mentioned that the cast of “Grey’s Anatomy” had joined the picketers. Eventually the cast of “Desperate Housewives” joined in, after Eva Longoria crossed the picket lines and became the subject of several (quasi-lame) rhymed protest chants. They shut down production soon after. Several producers/writers have refused to work as well, with CBS and FOX threatening legal action against them if they don’t.

It seems like there has been a lot of remarkably mature, principled behavior here, with one notable exception: Ellen DeGeneres. She chose to cross the lines and film her show anyway, because, as she put it, “It’s sweeps.” Yeah it’s sweeps for everyone, and certainly that affects a live show more than a pre-taped show. Still, I think it’s safe to assume that you could always find a couple excuses not to be supportive, and all those other people could too. The writers who aren’t working are generally going without their salaries, and a lot of the other cast and crew are as well. A few days of sweeps are not the end of the world – a lot of show’s numbers are going to be messed up.

Move over Iggy, Ellen DeGeneres is at the center of a brand new controversy. Unlike The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Show with David Letterman, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Ellen is continuing to film during the ongoing strike by the Writers Guild. DeGeneres opened her show Friday sans monologue, instead giving a nod to her writers who she “loves” and explaining the situation to her audience.

“It’s sweeps,” DeGeneres said, “Which is a very important time in television because that’s when you do your best shows, your funniest material. You pull it out and do everything you can because you want everybody watching. And now we’re in the middle of a strike – a writer’s strike.” She conceded, “This is a strange show for me to do … it’s a weird show,” and tried to fill the empty time with extra minutes of her signature dancing.

“I want to say I love my writers. I love them. In honor of them today, I’m not going to do a monologue,” she’s quoted as saying. “[But] people have traveled across the country. They’ve made plans. They’re here. I want to do everything I can to make your trip enjoyable and give you a show.”

[From People]

A lack of a monologue isn’t really a show of support to your writers. It’s the consequence of not having writers. Not crossing picket lines is a show of support to your writers.

In other writer’s strike news, here’s a list of some of the shows that will be affected in the next month or two.

RINGING IN THE NEW YEAR?:
- “House,” with six episodes left, will be fresh through November, with the last few airing in January – one of them following Fox’s broadcast of the Super Bowl.
- “Samantha Who?“, ABC’s new hit comedy, has eight episodes in the can.
- The “Crime Scene Investigation” trio, “NCIS,”"Criminal Minds,”"Without a Trace” and “Cold Case” each have three to six more episodes to run on CBS.

DRYING UP:
- CBS’ comedies (“How I Met Your Mother,”"The Big Bang Theory,”"Two And a Half Men,”"Rules of Engagement“) will run dry by month’s end.
- ABC’s “Ugly Betty,”"Pushing Daisies” and “Grey’s Anatomy” each have four new episodes to go.
- “Desperate Housewives” airs the last of its current stock of new episodes Dec. 2.
- The final new episode of NBC’s “Heroes” airs Dec. 3.

ON THE BRINK:
- “The Office” will head into rerun mode on NBC for the foreseeable future after next week’s episode. Among other things, shooting has stopped because star Steve Carell won’t cross picket lines.
- Despite a report that Fox’s “Family Guy” would air its final new episode this Sunday, the cartoon series will be new through November, the network said.

MIA:
- The planned January return of Fox’s “24” has been postponed indefinitely. Since only some of the series’ 24 episodes have been shot, Fox didn’t want to risk beginning a new season that might be interrupted.

[From the Associated Press]

I sense a lot more reality television in our futures. Fabulous.

Picture note by Jaybird: Here’s ‘Ugly Betty’ actors walking the picket lines today in support of writers. The cast of ‘Ugly Betty’ and other came out to join the striking writers on the picket line at Raleigh Studios. Images thanks to Splash Photos.

Star Magazine claims to have at least two “sources” that say that Portia De Rossi and Ellen Degeneres are having serious breakup-level problems at home. Their tenuous situation is said to have contributed to Ellen’s breakdown on TV over the seizure of the dog she re-gifted, Iggy:

According to multiple sources, [Ellen is] really in pain because her three-year romance with actress Portia de Rossi is all but over.

“Ellen would never have broken down like that on TV if things were right in her home life,” one source tells Star.

“Portia has been telling Ellen she’s very unhappy at home,” says a second source, who cites their 15-year age difference as one reason for Portia’s grief (Ellen is 49, while Portia is 34).

“When it comes down to it, she wants to be with someone younger and hotter,” says the source. “She wants out, but Ellen has been begging her to stay. Portia is really everything everything in this world to her…”

“She’s so terrified that she’s going to lose Portia, she just couldn’t go through with her everyday routine, especially doing the show,” says the second source. “The poor thing was so distraught, she could barely function.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, November 5, 2007]

Ellen and Portia are also said to be having problems in the bedroom like a lot of couples in long term relationships. Ellen is said to be too tired when she gets home from work.

While Portia wants their love life to be more more active, Ellen is often too tired to keep up. “Her interest in sex is not what it used to be.” And that, reveals the second source, “drives Portial crazy!”

To compensate, Ellen is buying Portia expensive presents like horses, and she’s coming across as needy, which could be driving Portia away.

A friend of mine suggested it’s also possible Ellen is going through menopause. It could explain why she was so over-emotional on television over the Iggy debacle.

While it sounds like it could be true that Ellen and Portia are having problems, it’s possible that everything is fine between them and that Star is just jumping to conclusions after Ellen became so publicly emotional at the loss of her dog.

Meanwhile there is more more evidence to support Howard Stern’s claim that Ellen gave away an incredible 9 dogs that she adopted before Iggy. There was a story last week that she gave away a dog named Stormy without bothering to tell the original owners, and The Enquirer says she gave away a dog named Lucy in 2004. In Touch has her re-gifting two kittens in 2004 after signing an agreement to keep them. Ellen is said to just want to make sure animals are saved from being euthanized, and to be giving them a safe home until she finds a permanent family among her friends and contacts.

Update: If Ellen and Portia are having problems, they’re not showing it. They were out together last night at an party at the MOCA in LA, and were seen embracing and smiling on the red carpet.

Ellen and Portia are shown below on 4/28/06 at the Daytime Emmy Awards, thanks to PR Photos. They are shown last night in the header image, thanks to Splash News.

When the news of the Iggy the Dog story first came out, everyone was feeling sorry for weeping Ellen and the two little girls whose newly adopted dog seemed to be so abruptly snatched from them by the owner of the rescue agency from which Ellen adopted the pup. The owner of the Mutts and Moms agency, Marina Baktis, made a visit to the family of Ellen’s hairdresser after they filled out an online application two weeks after Ellen broke her adoption contract by transferring the dog to them. Instead of working with the family to find a solution for how the dog could stay in his new home, Baktis snatched him up, clutching Iggy for over an hour before the cops came and checked his microchip, which still listed her as his owner. Baktis then absconded with the dog and turned him over to yet a different family after the scandal broke. People were outraged that a slavish attention to legalities and red tape could strip a rescued dog from a loving family who wanted him.

The tide gradually turned on Ellen when we all had more perspective on the situation and realized that she had broke the contract her partner Portia signed under which it was stated that they would return the dog to the agency if he didn’t work out. Some people criticized her for openly weeping on television and bringing the whole media in on the situation, saying that she was abusing her celebrity status over a personal legal issue. A story also came out about another dog that Ellen gave away without notifying the original owner after she adopted him, and Howard Stern made the claim on his show that Ellen had regifted an incredible 9 dogs before, although this was never proven.

Now The Smoking Gun has all the e-mails exchanged between Ellen’s partner Porti DiRossi, the agency owner, Marina Baktis, and Ellen’s hairdresser who received the dog, Cheryl Marks. Baktis sounds perfectly reasonable in telling DiRossi and Marks that the dog was given to a new home in violation of the contract. She seemed willing to work with the new family to ensure that their adoption followed protocol:

Hi Cheryl,
We just spoke with Ellen and Portia. Iggy has to be returned to us today. You are more than welcome to fill out our adoption application online or in the store when you bring Iggy back. If all is well, we can proceed with his adoption to you and you will sign the same contract Portia did that states all of our covenants.

Our address is…

To expedite things, please come with your entire family including your dog. We do not adopt dogs to people we have not met.

I understand that you like Iggy, he’s a great little pup but the way things were done was wrong. This is not your fault or mine. Portia signed a legal, binding contract that if she could not keep Iggy that he would be returned to rescue. She violated the contract she signed and broke our trust. We are more than willing to consider you as a home for Iggy but not without meeting you and not without our process being followed.

Sincerely,
Marina
Mutts and Moms

[E-mail from Marina Baktis to Cheryl Marks dated Sunday, October 14, from The Smoking Gun]

Baktis’ actions afterwards don’t jibe with her written willingness to work with the family. Ellen’s hairdresser told TMZ that when Baktis came over she immediately honed in on the dog and didn’t talk to them much at all. I remember reading that the agency required that there be no children in the home under 14, and this family had two pre-teen daughters. Maybe once they filled out the application Baktis realized that they didn’t meet her agency’s stringent requirements and decided to seize Iggy as soon as possible.

Neither party comes across particularly logical or “right” in this case, and although there was a contract and rules it doesn’t seem like a dog should be removed from a good home if someone gives him away like that. Maybe the best solution would have been to tell the family that Iggy was with them on a trial basis. Their daughters were younger than required, but they were 11 and 12, not toddler-aged children who might grab and abuse a pet. You can tell that both sides just want the best for the dog but neither went about it the right way.

You can read all the e-mails between Di Rossi, Marks and Baktis on The Smoking Gun. Thanks to USWeekly for the heads up.

I love Ellen DeGeneres: to me she can do no wrong. But it’s starting to look like Ellen has a bit of a history with quick dog turnovers. There’s a story in Page Six today that talks about another dog Ellen re-gifted a few years ago. Additionally, Howard Stern accused Ellen of giving away as many as nine dogs previously. A lot of articles are repeating this accusation, but I haven’t been able to find the transcripts, so I don’t know under what context Stern said this, and what his information is. The particular incident we do have some information about concerns a producer, Kerri Randles, who gave Ellen a mutt named Stormy a few years ago.

ELLEN DeGeneres’ latest doggy dealing wasn’t the first time she’d passed along a pup she’d adopted, says a Los Angeles producer who gave the talk-show queen a pooch she quickly got rid of. Kerri Randles says she gave DeGeneres a male mutt named Stormy two years ago, only to find out less than two months later that fickle Ellen had re-gifted him to a member of her staff. “She may have had it for much less time than that. I only say two months because that’s when I called to check on the dog and found out she no longer had it,” Randles said. “I was totally shocked. I thought she was out of her mind.”

DeGeneres may have passed along several other dogs over the years. Howard Stern said on his Sirius show that he’d heard she had done this nine times before. Viewers were shocked Tuesday when DeGeneres tearfully told her viewers that the Mutts & Moms agency had gone to her hairdresser’s house and confiscated the dog Ellen had adopted from the stylist. Mutts & Moms said she had signed a contract agreeing to return the dog only to the agency if she no longer wanted to care for it. Randles said DeGeneres seemed a perfect pet owner at first, but she quickly discovered the daytime TV hostess was “neurotic and crazy.”

When Randles took Stormy to NBC studios to meet DeGeneres, she was “drilled” for four hours by the star, her assistants and the crew. “Everyone on the show and in her entourage got themselves all involved,” Randles told Page Six’s Marianne Garvey. “They were all coming into the dressing room, playing with the dog as if it were a new extension of Ellen.” DeGeneres finally decided to keep the dog for a few nights to see if he’d fit into her home. She suggested that Randles take the dressing room next door to “tell the dog privately that she’d be going home with Ellen. I told her I’d already had a talk with the dog. She didn’t get my jokes,” said Randles. When she called to check on the pup a few days later, DeGeneres told her she’d decided to keep it. “She acted like she was keeping it for life,” Randles recalled.

[From the New York Post]

I’m probably not the most un-biased person to write this story; I freaking love Ellen. This is obviously only one side of the story. I don’t think it’s ever a good idea to give someone a pet as a present. That’s really something a person needs to make their own decision about. I would guess that someone like Ellen, who’s known for being an intense animal lover, would probably be given animals more than an average person. In terms of the “nine other dogs” she’s supposedly given away over the years, it is possible that people gave her animals as a present, which I’m sure was well-meaning but maybe not practical. Most people can only have so many pets. It would be one thing if Ellen were constantly adopting and discarding dogs on her own account. The story above sounds very weird, and I’m not totally inclined to believe the accuracy of Kerri Randles’s account. But as I said, I’m kind of biased. First off, it sounds like Randles’ gave the dog away in the first place. It doesn’t seem like she adopted the dog specifically for Ellen. So if Ellen did the same thing, who is she to call her out on it?

As someone who worked in a vet clinic and has owned many animals over the years, I can say that certain pets don’t always work out, and sometimes you have to find a new home for them. I’ve seen a lot of cases of a new pet being too aggressive towards an old pet, and have had owners spend hundreds of dollars on behaviorists to no avail. Then a new home is found, and for some reason it’s a better mix and the animal is fine. Sometimes the reasons have to do more with other pets than with the humans. There’s clearly a lot more to this story than just what’s written here. I can’t emphasize enough that I hope this doesn’t turn people off from adopting shelter pets. It’s a wonderful way to save a life and bring some happiness into your home.

Picture note by Jaybird: That’s not really a picture of the dog in question.

The Iggy the Dog scandal has reached critical mass, with news outlets all over the world reporting on the outrageous story of how a little pooch was snatched from a loving family after a minor bureaucratic snafu with the adoption agency. Ellen Degeneres, who gifted the dog to her hairdresser’s family after adopting it from the agency Mutts and Moms, has called for an end to the scandal, and asks us all to please move on.

People are so upset over how the dog was so heartlessly taken from the loving family Ellen transferred him to that they’ve been making death threats to the agency’s owner.

The woman from the agency, Marina Baktis, told the family she was coming over for a house check after they filled out an online application and then immediately grabbed the dog, holding him for two hours until the police came and checked its digital chip to verify that the agency, not the family with who Iggy had been living for two weeks, was the rightful owner.

At that point she fled with the little black dog, the theme song for the wicked witch of the west playing in everyone’s head.

TMZ has a video of the dog-napping and it’s quite damning. The woman is shown turning away from the concerned little girl several times while she clutches the dog. Baktis’ anger at how Ellen flouted rules by transferring ownership must have clouded her judgment and made her oblivious to all the bad PR that was about to be heaped onto her agency.

Baktis has already given the dog to another family, a fact that Ellen says she finds unbelievable and surreal. Still, Ellen says she doesn’t want any more hysteria over it and she’s not going to talk about it anymore unless there’s news that Iggy was returned to his last family. She says we all need to be aware of our rights when adopting pets and insist that they switch the microchips to the new owner’s names.

As JayBird mentioned yesterday, hopefully this won’t discourage people from adopting shelter pets who so badly need loving homes.

The Ellen DeGeneres story about her dog is incredibly heart breaking. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone melt down in such a raw, emotional way on television. It just made me ache for her, and anyone that would be so heartbroken. You can tell that she really is a good, honest, decent person to be so upset that she accidentally caused pain to children. I feel terribly for her. I also am pretty pissed off at the adoption agency she used. They sound disorganized, unethical, and incredibly vindictive. The lady who runs the adoption agency lied to the family Ellen gave the dog to. She told them she was just coming over to look at their house and make sure it was okay for the dog, but then called the cops and took the dog away. The only reason she was even able to do this was that the family did the right thing and filled out an adoption form online. And because DeGeneres has given the dog to a nice family, the lady was infuriated and vindictive and did what made her feel good instead of what was best for the dog or the family. Apparently she’s now getting death threats.

The attorney for Mutts & Moms tells “The Insider” that ELLEN DeGENERES’ formerly adopted dog has been placed in a new home. On her show Wednesday, Ellen addressed the importance of micro-chipping pets to insure proper ownership. She contends that the reason she cannot claim ownership of her adopted dog, IGGY, is because his identity chip was still registered to the rescue agency.

Sources tell ET that while the agency claims Ellen broke her contract by giving him away to a trusted co-worker, the Mutts & Moms owners themselves have not followed all the rules set by their company. They allegedly did not require Ellen or her partner PORTIA DeROSSI to fill out an application, nor did they change the registered owner information as they said they would. Additionally, it is said the contract in question does not contain an age clause, another reason given by Mutts & Moms for taking back the dog.

Our sources also tell us the family Ellen gave the dog to — her hairdresser, her husband and their two pre-teen daughters — did fill out an application online when the dog took up residence with them. It was at that time the agency said they would come out to inspect their property as part of the adoption process. Instead, they reclaimed the dog and calling the police. As Mutts & Moms were officially registered as the owners by the chip, authorities turned over custody to them.

[From the Insider]

This is so sad. I worked at a vet clinic for a year, and came across a lot of different people that dealt with animals. Though most of them were really nice and caring, there was this bizarre subset of people that were really stuck up and full of themselves and very, “I know what’s best for your dog, not you.” Like I said, there weren’t many of them, but they tended to be so rude and arrogant and similar to each other that they really stuck out.

When I adopted a cat a few years ago, the shelter explained to me that she had already been microchipped, and that they had a policy of not changing the name and address on the chip to the new owners. Their reasoning was that people move a lot and rarely remember to update Home Again (the microchip company) with their new address. Thus if the dog is lost and found, the chip is useless. The shelter’s logic was that they would keep the address in their name, so that if the cat was lost, she’d at least be returned to them instead of euthanized. And then, theoretically, I could call the shelter and get the cat back. Slightly convoluted logic, but it works. But they also made a point of telling me all of this, even thought it was in the very long contract I signed. They also made me sign that I wouldn’t give the cat away to anyone, but would bring it back to them. Again, because the contract was so long, they pointed out these important things so I knew them. It sounds like no one did that for Ellen, and why in the world would you know that if you don’t work with animals all day long? It’s just not something a person would think about; when you take on an animal as your responsibility, you naturally assume it’s your job to find them a new, good home if it comes to that.

I really hope this doesn’t turn people off from how great it is to adopt shelter pets. It is a wonderful thing to do, you’re saving a life and bringing something fluffy in to your home. Don’t let one bad place scare you off.

Ellen DeDeneres tried to do the right thing – she went with partner Portia de Rossi to a pet rescue agency and adopted a dog. But when the pooch, a Brussels Griffon mix, didn’t make friends with her cats, Iggy wound up in the doghouse. Sorry, bad pun.

It seems that part of the dog adoption agreement is that you can’t hand the dog on to other owners. Ellen had passed her dog on to live with her hairdresser and two children aged 11 and 12, after spending $3,000 having the dog neutered and trained to be with her cats, although he must have been a slow learner. A representative from the Mutts and Moms agency came and collected the dog on Sunday night, prompting Ellen to address the issue on her show Tuesday.

“I guess I signed a piece of paper that says if I can’t keep Iggy, it goes back to the rescue organization, which is not someone’s home, which is not a family,” she said in a show transcript provided to The Associated Press.

“I thought I did a good thing. I tried to find a loving home for the dog because I couldn’t keep it.”

DeGeneres said her hairdresser’s daughters, ages 11 and 12, had bonded with Iggy and were heartbroken when the dog was taken away.

“Because I did it wrong, those people went and took that dog out of their home, and took it away from those kids,” a sobbing DeGeneres said on her show.

“I feel totally responsible for it and I’m so sorry. I’m begging them to give that dog back to that family. I just want the family to have their dog. It’s not their fault. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have given the dog away. Just please give the dog back to those little girls.”

AP

I suspect that Mutts and Moms isn’t your standard rescue shelter. While it is a non-profit organization, the AP reports it doesn’t have a listed number, and when I’ve gone to my local animal welfare there were no Brussels Griffons, mixed or otherwise. But then all my focus was on the kittens and horses.

Still, I have to agree it’s a pretty nasty thing to take a dog away from kids. Couldn’t you just come and check that the dog was in a good home? It seems heartless to just take it away from a loving family because it wasn’t placed there originally.

Note by Celebitchy: Here’s the video about this case, thanks to TMZ, which shows that the adoption agency is pretty vindictive and cruel. The owner of the agency claimed she was “just going to do a house check,” when she came by, but then left with the dog after calling the cops. It’s all pretty ridiculous and I hope this organization gets new management and backs down, apologizes and returns this dog to the little girl who loved him. Considering that a celebrity is involved, this is incredibly bad PR for them. This makes me so mad.

Update: Here’s Ellen crying before telling the story about how the evil adoption agency took away the dog. Thanks to TMZ.

Remember Ellen’s sitcom, back in the day? I don’t think a ton of people watched it before she came out, but I always thought it was funny. Before her current talk show, I always heard people saying they thought she was annoying, but now everyone seems to be in love with her (I’m no exception – listen to her old comedy CD, it’s hysterical). Ellen had Mariska Hargitay on her show this week, and wanted to show a clip of Hargitay guest starring on Ellen’s sitcom back in 1996 (though weirdly enough, the episode was taped in 1994 during the show’s first season). ABC gave Ellen a big old no, even though she worked for the network for years – and her show is still syndicated on many local ABC channels.

“Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres has been refused access to clips from her own former sitcom. The comedienne asked ABC/Disney bosses to let her show a segment from her old program, which featured a guest appearance from actress Mariska Hargitay – and was told the footage was off limits.

“DeGeneres, who hit the headlines a decade ago when she ‘came out’ as a lesbian on the sitcom and in real life, was hoping to use the clip to show Hargitay when the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star made her debut on the Ellen show on Friday.

“‘She was a guest star on my original sitcom and it was a hilarious scene… I wanted to show it today… but Disney will not let me have any clips of my show to show, unless we pay a whole lot of money. It was my show… We’d be advertising it, it would help them.’”

[From Starpulse]

That would piss me off too. I’m kind of surprised Ellen even mentioned it, since she’s considered the real “Queen of Nice.” We forget that Rosie O’Donnell used to have that title, before the “View” and drawing horns on pictures of Elizabeth Hasselbeck. Ellen had Kathy Griffin on her show this week, and admitted that she originally didn’t watch Griffin’s show “My Life on the D List” because she thought it’d be too mean-spirited, but said she’d given it a viewing and enjoyed it. The contrast between the stars was interesting to watch.

“Ellen’s good-natured style of humor made for an interesting conflict with the sharp, pointed jabs Kathy is known for taking against celebrities, a difference the host brought up in the interview.

Ellen: “Do you feel bad? Do you feel like you could then go up — because I know all these people. So, for me — and I was also on the other end of it — I used to get… After I came out, I was the butt of everybody’s joke. So I know what it feels like to be talked about all the time.”

Kathy: “Not mine. Not mine. And that’s really — people say ‘Do you have lines? Do you have lines?’ [lines that you won’t cross] Yeah, I don’t make fun of people who have a sense of humor about themselves, I don’t make fun of people — honestly, what I do is I make fun of people who created a situation. I don’t say about Star Jones, ‘Uhm, she’s fat. Goodnight everybody!’ I say ‘I worked with her and my experience was she was a [censored].’ That’s my experience with her, we all know it. Don’t act like I’m the first one to say that … but, also, if you were puking all over in nightclubs or get out of the car without the panties that’s a different story because that’s something you’re controlling … and it’s fun. Honestly, I make fun of people’s behavior more than I make fun of how they look. And I’ve been that person too, I’ve had the nasty pictures and had the ‘worst dressed’ and all that too.”

[From After Elton]

After that, Ellen had a segment where she held up pictures of famous people and told Kathy she had to find a nice thing to say about each of them. Kathy made a few barbs instead (you could tell she was trying not to but couldn’t resist) and Ellen looks visibly pissed/annoyed and almost angry at her a few times. It’s kind of funny. Here’s a clip below.

Well the ever-so-fickle Academy has decided against asking Ellen DeGeneres, last year’s host, back again. Apparently there’s a different producer most every year, and the producer picks the host. So this year’s producer produced 2006’s Academy Awards and wants to go with 2006’s host, Jon Stewart. Stewart as given so-so reviews after his first hosting gig. DeGeneres was apparently considered “too nice” – though I didn’t realize the Academy Awards were supposed to be edgy.

“Jon Stewart will return as host of the Academy Awards. The star of Comedy Centrals ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’ will get his second shot at hosting Hollywood’s premiere event, which will be held on Feb. 24 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. He hosted the 78th annual awards show in 2006.

“Stewart was ‘a terrific host’ for that event, Oscar telecast producer Gil Cates said Wednesday, announcing the selection in a statement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. The academy didn’t indicate why it decided to go with Stewart after using comedian Ellen DeGeneres this year. ‘I’m thrilled to be asked to host the Academy Awards for the second time because, as they say, the third time’s a charm,’ Stewart joked.

[From the Associated Press]

I didn’t realize hosting the Oscars was such a revolving door situation. I know it’s considered kind of the “be all end all” for a lot of comedians, but I have yet to watch one that didn’t cure my chronic insomnia in 30 minutes flat. But that’s also the reason I haven’t watched one in a few years. I thought Jon Stewart’s humor didn’t really translate from his show to the Oscars. His political humor is funny, but there’s only so much room for it in an awards show format.

“Stewart, a political satirist, injected some political humor into his 2006 performance, taking jabs at the war in Iraq and ribbing Hollywood’s elite about their ties to the Democratic Party. However, some jokes bombed and he got mixed reviews. ‘His usually impeccable blend of puckishness and self-effacement fell flat,’ a review by The Associated Press said, adding he was ‘too deferential, too nice and too obvious in his targets.’

“The 44-year-old Stewart, who also hosted the Grammys in 2001 and 2002, noted the split decision on his own cable TV show the night after the Oscars, saying he had a great time but didn’t know how he did until he saw the reviews.

“‘I sucked and was great!’ he said. ‘I was a painfully smug and unfunny heir to Johnny Carson.’”

[From the Associated Press]

Does anyone else find Hollywood’s obsession with awards kind of annoying? Why is so much congratulation necessary? I guess it’s just the fact that they’re all awarding each other, like it’s some great accomplishment. I think it’s kind of the grown up children in us that want a blue ribbon for doing well at the science fair. Only the science fair involves a lot of low cut strapless dresses and cummerbunds. I don’t even want to tell you what’s in their juice boxes.

Picture note by JayBird: Here’s Jon Stewart at the Emmy Awards last year. Images thanks to PR Photos.