Rosie vs. Ellen: Sign away the gay?

As you probably already know, late last week the Lesbian Titans of Television (TM pending), Rosie O’Donnell and Ellen DeGeneres, had a testy tête-à-tête via blog/publicist (since, really, who actually speaks face-to-face anymore?). A chronological recap for those who have better things to do with their time than troll the internet for pseudo-feuds between power lesbians. On Thursday in a video post on her blog, Rosie said that Ellen was contractually obligated to not speak about being gay. As she does in these vlog sessions, Rosie and Co. answered reader emails and the question in question went: “Why do you talk about being gay all the time? And the subject of gays all the time. Ellen never mentions it.” To which, Rosie responded:

“Ellen is not allowed to. She signed a contract that said she wouldn’t. [To which her blogging cohort respond with stunned: “She really? She did?”] It was on the heels of my show -- so that’s why she doesn’t. But you know what, she also paved the way for a lot of gay people, especially on TV. There were no gay shows on TV. She was pre-“Will & Grace,” remember that. So, you know, I talk about gay because I like to. And she doesn’t talk about it because she doesn’t want to or she can’t. But who cares? It’s fine. Gay, gay, gay, gay, gay.”

Well, wow. That was quite a bombshell. The next day TMZ contacted publicists for the producers of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” asking if Ellen was indeed being muzzled. The response:

“She’s gay? Who knew? Ellen is free to talk about whatever she wants and we encourage her to do so.”

Then on Friday, Rosie posted an apology on her blog in her normal not-quite haiku, not-quite e.e. cummings style that “according to jim,” and a couple other people we don’t know in the least, “no contract - ever did or would prevent ellen from saying anything in any way shape or form.”

a correction
4 all
my apologies

Well, wow. True or false, Rosie’s claims are deeply disturbing. If it’s true that Ellen really can’t talk about her sexuality on the air, then it is a sad day for free speech and gay awareness. But if it’s true that Rosie was wrong when she aired her contractual conspiracy theory, it proves that the former Queen of Nice should probably be called the Queen of Speaking Out of Her Ass instead.

Where does the truth lie? I tend to believe that Ellen wouldn’t flat-out sign a contract saying no lesbian business on the show. She fought too hard and endured too much to go back into that kind of Hollywood closet. Did producers/executives maybe ask her to, possibly, tone down the gay? Perhaps. But, then again, Ellen’s act her never been overtly sexual, even after coming out. Plus Rosie has a history of playing fuzzy with the facts. And while I appreciate her openness and outspokenness, I do not appreciate her openness to being outspoken when it comes to outrageous, unsupported claims.

Anyway, so now I’m going to go off on a somewhat-related, entirely-more-enjoyable tangent and say, check out the guns on Ellen! On Friday she taped an outdoor segment with Kelly Clarkson (airing today) where The Great Panted One became The Great Bermuda-Shorted One. Plus, her short-sleeve shirt gave us an inadvertent (and rare) peek at her muscley goodness. [Click below to get your own tickets to the gun show.] I opened the picture and went all Joey Lawrence, “Whoa!”