Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Ellen Degeneres


[image copied from Wikipedia]

This article is a companion piece to the poem "MC", which I posted yesterday, in wordcurrents.

Ellen Degeneres' type of humour really appeals to me. While it is self-deprecating and seemingly self-conscious and even seemingly naive, it appears to come from a genuine joy. We all need that joy in our lives. While there is occasionally a bit of an edge to it, Degeneres offers the edge as a kind of devil-girl dare, like sticking out your tongue — for a moment, she shows her inner brat, and we like that. (Like her Oscar show cracks about the absent Dame Judi Dench's surgery.)
I used to like the "Ellen" show, and was sad to see how the industry dropped Ellen and her show so quickly when she perhaps naively declared her personal sexual preference, and it was not acceptable to the silly "moral majority"; it was as if she had been caught in a giant very public act of bigotry. Brava, Ellen, for overcoming such massive institutional cowardice and prejudice so completely and so bravely.
I genuinely liked Degeneres' hosting of the 79th Oscars, which I viewed with the sound off, for the most part, except when Degeneres and a few others were on camera. The erst of the time, I was writing, casting occasional glances at the TV.
I was pleased to see Ryan Gosling's sister, Mandi, on his arm at the awards. Mandi was a very talented student in the Program for the Arts Drama course I ran at CCVS in the last years of the teaching career. Ryan would have been in the program, but he became a member of the revived Mouseketeers before that could happen.


[Ryan and Mandi Gosling]

So, the Oscar held two pleasures for me: enjoying Ellen Degeneres and spotting Mandi on the red carpet. Cheers, Mandi!

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