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But
once the cat was out of the bag, there
was no way it could be stuffed back in. Even evangelist
Jerry Falwell weighed in on her coming out, calling her “Ellen
Degenerate” (to which Ellen replied in Time, “I’ve
been getting that since the fourth grade. I guess I’m happy
I could give him work”).
Even
though Ellen consistently maintained that she did not mean her coming
out to be a huge political statement, that’s what it was.
Never before had an openly gay actress played an openly gay character
on television. In addition, there was the added thrill factor of
knowing who Ellen’s new girlfriend was—formerly straight
(or temporarily gay) actress Anne Heche.
Their
relationship landed them in gossip columns and entertainment rags
across the world—as well as on Oprah, where they talked openly
about their devotion for each other and the backlash that followed.
Both Ellen and Anne felt stigmatized by the media and the entertainment
industry for coming out, and they felt that their work lives suffered
because of it. When Heche starred opposite Harrison Ford in the
film Six Days, Seven Nights shortly after coming out as Ellen’s
girlfriend, there was widespread speculation over whether she would
be able to be convincing as a straight woman in the movie. Ellen’s
hit comedy was canceled the following season due to a combination
of factors including poor ratings, lack of network support, and
boycotting by advertisers for its gay content.
Despite
these challenges, both Ellen and Anne continued to work—albeit
less publicly—in the years after they came out. Ellen starred
in two films, The Love Letter and EdTV, and by
2000 both she and Anne were executive producing If These Walls
Could Talk II for HBO. Her 2000 HBO comedy special, The
Beginning, was nominated for an Emmy.
Unfortunately,
Ellen and Anne’s public relationship was also unraveling.
When Anne showed up in an ecstasy haze in Fresno looking for her
spaceship, it was clear that their four-year-relationship was over.
The messy breakup and Anne’s subsequent marriage to Coley
Laffoon—a cameraman who had accompanied her and Ellen across
the country to document Ellen’s standup the previous year—hit
Ellen hard. In an interview with The Advocate in 2001, she said:
"[Y]ou
know, it feels like your insides are cracking open. I hadn’t
experienced it before. I had never been left by anybody—I
was always the one to leave. And I had never had my heart broken.
And it feels like you cannot go on. And I would sit and literally
not know where the day went. The sun would come up and the sun
would go down, and I didn’t notice because I was just staring
at the wall. I didn’t leave my house. I would go through
days of crying. It felt like I would never live again. But you
do."
Determined
to climb out of the emotional and professional hole she had fallen
into, Ellen hired herself a trainer and worked out every day to
make herself feel better. By the next year, she had successfully
pitched a new television sitcom to CBS about a woman who moves from
the big city to a small town—and who happens to be gay.
Unfortunately,
The Ellen Show was a failure, and it was pulled
after one season on the air. Fortunately for Ellen, Telepictures
Productions—the producers who are now behind her hit talk
show—were interested in pursuing her to host a talk show like
Rosie O’Donnell’s. Talking to Out Magazine this month,
Ellen says, “It was the first time I got a really nice bottle
of wine and a card which said ‘Congratulations! You’ve
been canceled!’”
As
the details of the talk show were being hammered out, Ellen wrote
a new standup routine that she took on tour across the country in
2003; this culminated in an HBO special, Here and Now, that aired
last summer. She wrote a second book of humorous essays and stories
titled "The Funny Thing Is…," which became a New
York Times bestseller later that year. Ellen also found time to
voice the character of a forgetful fish, Dory, for Pixar’s
animated film Finding Nemo—which went on to become
the number one film of 2003.
Playing
the loveable, hilarious fish Dory (a part that was written especially
for her) brought Ellen back into the mainstream, allowing Americans
to rediscover her quirky humor, and to remember that she is very
funny. They were primed for Ellen to return to television—this
time as a daytime talk show host in the fall of 2003.
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