UPDATE 13 May 2021: Now that Ellen DeGeneres has officially pulled the plug on her daytime TV show, it’s high time that we revisit the iconically awkward interview that was perhaps (?) the catalyst for it all — the host’s cringey convo with Dakota Johnson, who completely owned Ellen and accused her of lying on global TV. It’s beautiful. Behold!
It’s a year almost to the day since Dakota Johnson uttered those immortal words “actually, no, that’s not the truth, Ellen“, and nothing has been the same since. I mean, really think about it – the world has changed so much since November 27, 2019, and this video was really the catalyst for … well, at least some of it.
Since last November, Ellen has faced a monumental backlash, with staff on her long-running show coming out in droves to complain of mistreatment and a toxic work environment, and various waitresses and bodyguards coming out to share their stories of hellish experiences with the talk show host, and this is really all where it started.
Up until that point, her image was squeaky clean, but that fateful day, she fucked with Dakota Johnson and found out. When she accused the actress of not inviting her to her recent 30th birthday party, Dakota snapped back without a care, and in the process, revealed that her favourite comedian is not Ellen, but Tig Notaro.
Adding another wild layer to all this, it later emerged that the real reason why Ellen skipped Dakota’s party is that she was attending a Dallas Cowboys game with wife Portia de Rossi and former president George W Bush.
“People were upset,” the host later said of the controversy. “They thought, ‘Why is a gay Hollywood liberal sitting next to a conservative Republican president?’”
Dakota Johnson celebrated her 31st birthday in October, although it’s unclear if Ellen attended.
