PHOTOSVogue's Anna Wintour Vs. Ellen DeGeneres: Who Is Meaner?
Anna Wintour and Ellen DeGeneres both have reputations for being some of the iciest women in Hollywood.
The notoriously cruel Vogue editor was exposed when former personal assistant, Lauren Weisberger, wrote the 2003 bestselling book The Devil Wears Prada, later made into a successful 2006 film starring Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly, a fashion editor, believed to be based on Wintour.
DeGeneres on the other hand has been drowning in allegations of a toxic workplace environment, harassment, intolerance and racism by several people in the industry. One of her staffers even compared her show’s workplace environment to The Devil Wears Prada.
“I worked there for a little over a year. It‘s kind of like The Devil Wears Prada. Everyone is trying to make it to the (end of a) year. It’s just a badge of honor to have that and have it on your resume,” the ex-employee of the show said, according to The Sun.
So who is the meanest? Scroll through the gallery below to decide who is the iciest!
A producer who worked on DeGeneres' show has claimed she is a “kiss a**” who is only keen on liking famous people. Hedda Muskat, spoke to an Australian radio station, KIIS FM’s Kyle and Jackie O, claimed that Ellen “did not like people”.
She recalled that the comedian “was not friendly with people” — the only people she seemed to like, she said, were “the A-list movie stars”.
“She’s a big kiss a**. She’s a star … you know what.”
Muskat added that she was “emotionally abused” and “fired for no reason”.
![Julia Schlaepfer, Ben Platt at the 2019 CFDA Awards. 04 Nov 2019 Pictured: Anna Wintour. Photo credit: MEGA TheMegaAgency.com +1 888 505 6342 (Mega Agency TagID: MEGA542383_007.jpg) [Photo via Mega Agency]](https://media.okmagazine.com/brand-img/VLyPbXfrw/0x0/2020/08/ellen-degeneres-anna-wintour-hollywood-ice-queen-bad-boss-06.jpg)
A former assistant said, "You definitely did not ride the elevator with her." Unwritten rules imposed by Wintour at the Vogue offices forbid junior staff from initiating conversation with her; an editor who greeted her on the elevator was reprimanded by one of Wintour's assistants. A visiting reporter saw a junior staff member appear visibly panicked when she realized she would have to be in the elevator with Wintour. Once a junior editor saw her trip in the hallway, walked past without offering assistance, and was later told she "did absolutely the right thing.
Australian radio host Neil Breen has added his voice to the chorus of media personalities and celebrities, accusing DeGeneres of being unpleasant or rude to colleagues, guests and staff.
DeGeneres was scheduled to be on Australia’s Today Show, and her people had a strict set of rules for when she was on set.
According to the host, DeGeneres’ producers told him: “So Neil when Ellen gets here today, you‘re not to approach her, you’re not to talk to her, she’ll come down and sit down with Richard and you’re not to look at her.”
Breen remembers being flabbergasted by the demand, adding that he thought it was ridiculous.
“I kind of said you can’t be fair dinkum – I can’t look at her?!”
He added that when he heard about the rumors and revelations that DeGeneres is actually a mean person, he wasn’t surprised at all.
“As soon as I first saw reports surface there were troubles behind the scenes at Ellen’s show, I didn’t bat an eyelid,” he said.
"I think she has been very rude to a lot of people in the past, on her way up – very terse," a friend of Wontour's told The Observer. "She doesn't do small talk. She is never going to be friends with her assistant.
Ben Gravolet said DeGeneres worked for his mother's recruitment agency in the late 1970s and as a child was subject to cruel insults from the then aspiring comedian.
He said DeGeneres - aged about 20 at the time - called him 'fat' and 'stupid' and 'took pleasure' in his distress, the now 52-year-old claims.
“I would dread going to my mom's office to see her after school or on a day if I was sick and Ellen was there, “ Gravolet said. “She would criticize my weight. I would try to do homework in the office, she'd call me stupid, she'd call me fat."
Wintour has said she admired her father Charles, known as "Chilly Charlie" for being "inscrutable."
OK! recently learned DeGeneres once fired an intern, on her first day, because she accidentally scratched her car.
Investigators at Warner Bros. have been told of the allegation after interviewing dozens of former and current employees about the show’s backstage environment.
A source told OK!: "Everyone in Hollywood wants to get their kids a summer internship at the Ellen show. Some of the most powerful parents in L.A. would call each summer to beg to get their kids a gig. But after one powerful parent was told yes, the dream job turned into a nightmare.”
The parent called the show’s Executive Producer, Andy Lassner, who was all too willing to help the privileged graduate with an internship. But it didn't last long.
“Everyone from staff to guests are driven around the lot in electronic golf carts,” said the source.
“When they are not in use, they are plugged in and charged. The intern had no idea the golf cart was still plugged in and hit the pedal hard. The charger came flying out and was dragged along the side of Ellen's fancy car! That intern was never seen again.”
Noted the source: “It’s Ellen’s way or the highway — and she insisted this intern be fired right away.”
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Former coworkers say the editor is known for volatile outbursts of displeasure and earned the nickname "Nuclear Wintour" by The New York Times. "There are times I get quite angry," she admitted in the documentary The September Issue.
A video from 2013 resurfaced showing DeGeneres joking about not wanting to pay her staff for working overtime.
In an interview with Australia’s Today shows her joking to reporter Richard Wilkins about wanting "everybody to work really, really hard... but not too hard that I have to pay them overtime."
"I think she enjoys not being completely approachable," said Grace Coddington, former creative director at large of Vogue. "Just her office is very intimidating. You have to walk about a mile into the office before you get to her desk and I'm sure it's intentional."
A source told OK! that the television host has little to no respect for minimum-wage production assistants who are considered totally expendable.
“There’s no compassion. If you can’t handle the job, you’ll be replaced,” said a source.
Things can get so bad, people are walking on eggshells.
"Ellen won’t even make eye contact with employees," said the snitch. “She refuses to even acknowledge them.”
"I don't find her to be accessible to people she doesn't need to be accessible to," Vogue publisher Tom Florio once said.
“She has no respect for those who literally clean up her mess. She’ll fire you on the spot if you upset her,” a staff member once told OK! of DeGeneres.
A former personal assistant, Lauren Weisberger, wrote the 2003 bestselling book The Devil Wears Prada, later made into a successful 2006 film starring Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly, a fashion editor, believed to be based on Wintour.
An anonymous camera assistant gave an interview on Stav, Abby, & Matt — the Australian talk show — talking about their experience while working on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
“I worked there for a little over a year. It‘s kind of like The Devil Wears Prada. Everyone is trying to make it to the (end of a) year. It’s just a badge of honor to have that and have it on your resume,” the ex-employee of the show said, according to The Sun.
