Ellen DeGeneres, after production of her show was suspended due to coronavirus, is back and is filming from her Los Angeles living room. (YouTube/The Ellen Show)
Ellen DeGeneres will recover from the fierce backlash she’s currently on the receiving end of by being “phoney” and “playing the game”, a reputation expert has said.
Ellen has, in recent weeks, been accused of “mean” behaviour towards guests and staff, and has come under fire for allegedly leaving her crew in the dark over their pay while regular filming on her show is paused.
The allegations have left a huge dent in the comedian’s sunny public image, and now a reputation specialist has suggested it poses a real threat to her illustrious TV career.
“The behaviour that’s been revealed about Ellen is rat poison to the Ellen DeGeneres brand,” brand expert Eric Schiffer, chairman of Reputation Management Consultants, told Fox News.
“When you have a brand like Ellen’s leak information that is 180 degrees different than this facade she’s been painting, it creates a dumpster fire on her image.
It’s like watching the Hindenburg.
According to Schiffer, Ellen’s alleged “mean” behaviour could have turned off “20 to 30 per cent” of her fanbase.
In order to rectify this, he suggested she will “put on even more phoniness and play the game”.
This will involve “surrounding herself with other celebrities, puppies and babies to try to make light of things”, he added.
Ellen is currently broadcasting her chat show from her LA home and has, in recent days, surprised a team of nurses fighting coronavirus with a special celebrity message and an invitation to one of her 12 Days of Giveaways shows.
She also topped up the hospitals’ employee hardship fund with a $50,000 donation.
But the crew of her talk show reportedly remain furious with the star, claiming they have been dismissed for weeks about the status of their jobs and pay.
Ellen crew say they’ve been left in the dark on pay.
According to two sources who spoke to Variety under condition of anonymity, for more than a month the core stage crew of more than 30 employees received no written communication about their working hours or pay.
Meanwhile Ellen is broadcasting from her home with the help of a skeleton crew of four, with reports stating that she has hired an outside, non-union tech company.
A spokesperson for Warner Bros Television, which distributes the show, told Variety: “Our executive producers and Telepictures are committed to taking care of our staff and crew and have made decisions first and foremost with them in mind.”
Ellen herself has not commented, but said in a teary social media video prior to the reports emerging that she “misses” her staff.