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Ellen DeGeneres faces Twitter’s ire for backing Kevin Hart as Oscar host

Some are supporting her #OscarsNeedHart campaign, however.

Photo of Samira Sadeque

Samira Sadeque

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In clips of an interview airing today, Ellen DeGeneres reveals she called the Academy to get Kevin Hart reinstated as host of the 2019 Oscars. It also appears the Academy is interested in reinstating him

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“I called them, I said, ‘Kevin’s on, I have no idea if he wants to come back and host, but what are your thoughts?’” she says in a video clip from her upcoming Ellen DeGeneres Show. “And they were like, ‘Oh my God, we want him to host! We feel like that maybe he misunderstood or it was handled wrong. Maybe we said the wrong thing but we want him to host. Whatever we can do we would be thrilled. And he should host the Oscars.’”

She also tweeted a clip from her show on Twitter late Thursday night, with the hashtag #OscarsNeedHart, garnering some support, even from the LGBTQ community. The resurfacing of Hart’s old homophobic material was what caused the host to step down from hosting in December.

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https://twitter.com/blakestaake/status/1081197166192939009

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However, not everyone’s on board. Many did not understand how DeGeneres, who had to fight tooth-and-nail to come out on network television decades ago, would go to bat for Hart’s homophobic messages. Or why the Academy just can’t choose someone who hasn’t offended a swath of the population.

https://twitter.com/Pithy_Remark/status/1081209284938080256

https://twitter.com/AJ_Kendrick/status/1081204984014872577

https://twitter.com/zeeleis/status/1081208976275107841

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One user is using the hashtag to actually mobilize people against having him reinstated.

https://twitter.com/JustJordan54/status/1081133302986158080

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https://twitter.com/JustJordan54/status/1081119141010919425

In the Ellen clips, Hart responds that the resurfaced tweets of his homophobic material were “a malicious attack” on his character because it meant people had to weed out more than 40,000 of his tweets. He also implied that it was a smear campaign, and intended to “damage” him, his projects, and his investments. It’s “bigger than the Oscars,” he says—which is precisely the point the LGBTQ community and its allies have been trying to make all along. 

 
The Daily Dot