It took months of pleading and Halloween costume dress-up, but Ellen DeGeneres has finally scored her dream: co-starring on the cover of O magazine with Oprah.
Ellen is only the second person to share Oprah’s cover (the first was Michelle Obama) and, of course, the first gay to do it.
And this issue is extra special: Subscribers receive the issue with the cover at right, while newsstand buyers will score the one at left. You know, so real fans are forced to buy two issues.
It’s the perfect culmination of media stars to promote a media product: Yesterday, Ellen debuted the covers on her show, the same day (in real life) that she joined The Big O in Chicago, signing some 1,000 copies of the issue (see below video).
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Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Which means on Monday, Ellen (and wife Portia De Rossi) will be on Oprah’s show for even more publicity.
Brian
I love Oprah. According to the book FREAK TALK BACK by Yale sociologist Joshua Gamson, it was the tabloid talk show craze of the 1980s & early 1990s that did more to make gays mainstream than any other 20th century development. It was really the blockbuster success of Oprah’s show (back in her her trashy days) & her unique confessional style that popularized the tabloid talk show genre before the likes of Jerry Springer took it to sleazy extremes. That’s why Ellen had Oprah play the therapist on her coming out show.
dontblamemeivotedforhillary
I was blinded by the white on the cover of ‘O’ magazine. Ellen is a cute pixie and a class act. Oprah should retire and start her network before her eyes glaze over and leave it up to a new generation. I’d like to see both promote openly gay men more though I’ve seen rare glimpses, Oprah with the flaming Mariah Carey fans and Ellen with her early ardent support for Adam Lambert on the rigged season of American Idol. As a gay man, I just chalk it up to the general gross-ness that women, America, straights, lesbians, blacks, employers, “the whole planet” have for Gay men and the physical act of our love. It’s still the most shocking image to some people, even liberals! It’s not so much that Gay is the New Black because black has always been visible, but like Domestic Abuse – people just want us to hide our “business” hence the struggle in urban Pride Parades between gyrating hustler floats and gays seeking normalization. We are the cake left out in the rain!
Brian
Oprah made Nate Berkus (an openly gay man) host of her reality show “The Big Give”. He was the first openly gay reality show host.