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Can This Reputation Be Saved?

Ellen DeGeneres
Still in the doghouse?

It all started so simply: Who'd a thunk that adopting a cute puppy from a local shelter could potentially destroy a career? But, naturally, it's a bit more complicated. When Ellen DeGenere's significant other Portia de Rossi adopted a Brussels Griffon mix terrier from Mutts and Moms, a nonprofit rescue organization, she signed all the standard paperwork. She should have read it a bit more closely.

When, after ten days, the dog "didn't work out," she gave it to her hairdresser, in violation of the contract. But, according to Mutts and Moms' rules, if an adoption doesn't stick, you're supposed to bring the animal back to the shelter from which you adopted it. Not pass it on to someone else. So the shelter repo'ed the dog from the hairdresser, and then the fur really began to fly.

Ms. DeGeneres didn't feel like obeying the rules. She had her publicist threaten the shelter and then ultimately took the story to the airwaves, sobbing. Using her show as a platform, she generated outrage and ultimately death threats against the owners of the shelter, painting them as cruel and heartless.

The only trouble is that, in this ever-more-transparent world, it only took a few days for the Smoking Gun to post emails showing the real story.

And so what about Ms. DeGeneres' reputation? As always for die-hard fans, nothing will lesson their love of Ellen or her show. But in the eyes of many, particularly those who followed it in the blogosphere, the episode was at best embarrassing, and at worse did serious damage to her credibility. Will it blow over? We think, eventually, yes. Although it might take a dog's age. -KDP

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