A part of what’s extraordinary concerning the scandal is how unusual it’s. On SNL, Fox Information, and The Rosie Present, for example, the historical past of live-taped TV is a historical past of hostile workplaces, sexual predation, and tempestuous bosses. Superstar rudeness is so pervasive that it helps gasoline an entire trade of gossip publications, and so-called diva antics by no means canceled the careers of, say, Christian Bale or Aretha Franklin. But DeGeneres might be held to a unique normal than different entertainers—as a result of her product is her personal persona, as a result of she has centered that persona round niceness, and since the identical cultural forces that led her to create that persona nonetheless exist at this time. To look again over her profession now could be to wonder if the key, bitter ingredient in her success has been revealed. Softness has lengthy been her protect—and this scandal, on some stage, exhibits what it was defending towards.
