Fans are savaging Ellen DeGeneres after she appealed to their sense of forgiveness in defense of fellow comic Kevin Hart, who was pressured into declining an offer of hosting the Oscars over his decade-old homophobic tweets.
DeGeneres, whose on-screen coming-out made television history, offered Hart a chance to explain himself on her show after controversy over his 10-year-old tweets forced him to turn down a chance to host the Academy Awards.
After he explained that he's already apologized, grown up, and evolved since then – "I'm not that guy anymore" – DeGeneres told him that she's called the Academy to ask for him to be reinstated.
Ellen may believe in forgiveness, but her fans certainly don't. Many were outraged that she had forgiven Hart on their behalf, claiming that she could not speak for the entire LGBT community – and that his apologies had never happened.
Others insisted that he hadn't flagellated himself sufficiently to be forgiven.
A few people stuck up for Ellen, but they probably weren't the kind of supporters she and Hart wanted.
Hart described the focus on his 10-year-old tweets as "a malicious attack on my character," noting that one would have to scroll through 40,000 tweets during the intervening years to dig them up. Ellen tried to put him at ease, telling him not to listen to "a small group of people being very, very loud."
Meanwhile, Hart is reportedly reconsidering hosting the Oscars. No word on whether the "haters" have forced him to have another change of heart.
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