Ellen DeGeneres Always Acted ‘Creepy and Weird’ Toward Margaret Cho
Add Margaret Cho to the long list of entertainers who accuse Ellen DeGeneres of not living up to her reputation as the Queen of Nice, but let’s face it — that crown was dented, tarnished and kicked to the curb a long time ago.
Cho dished the dirt last week on The Kelly Mantle Show. Amidst sharing stories about old pals Joan Rivers and Quentin Tarantino, the conversation turned to the disgraced comic. “Ellen is so…” Cho began.
“Complicated?” asked Mantle.
Don't Miss
“Somebody that I’ve known for such a long time. It’s so weird now,” Cho continued. “Public perception of her is more true. She’s mean. She was a mean girl.”
Why did DeGeneres have it out for Cho in particular? She couldn’t know for sure, but “I think she always had kind of negative feelings toward me because her girlfriends and wives always liked me.”
Whatever the reasons, “Ellen was like really weird and not nice to me for most of my career,” Cho said. The bad vibes were especially disconcerting because Cho often performed as Ellen’s opening act in the 1980s. While DeGeneres was a headliner at the time, it was well before she became nationally famous.
“Later, when I would do her talk show in the 2000s, she acted like we just met,” Cho revealed. “And I’m like, ‘Bitch, what?’ That’s weird! Like, we go way back. What? That’s so creepy and weird.”
DeGeneres’ dismissive behavior extended to times when Cho wasn’t in the building. She told a story about attending a David Bowie concert in a giant Chinese emperor costume. Bowie was so taken by Cho’s outrageous display that he talked about it at length when he appeared on Ellen the next day.
But you never heard Bowie talking up Cho. “She cut it out of the show, which made me so mad,” revealed Cho. “And the producer, who was a really good friend of mine, had to call me and tell me, ‘I can’t believe she did this, but she cut it out of the show. But you need to know that (Bowie) was going on and on about your outfit. He loves you. God said your name.’ That was so rude!”
Mantle wished Cho had sent Ellen a note and asked for the footage — it would make one hell of a YouTube clip. That would have been a good idea, Cho said. “I know (the video) exists somewhere.”
Cho conceded that the Bowie slight might not have been personal. After all, DeGeneres might have had to cut down the interview because the show was running long. “But still I’m going to take it personally,” Cho said. “Just because I decided to.”
