Ellen DeGeneres: Former producer Hedda Muskat makes shock claims about host - NEWS.com.au

A producer who worked on The Ellen Show has claimed the host would “laugh” when staff members were berated by the executive producer.

Hedda Muskat was one of the first producers hired to work on the show in its first season back in 2003.

But as she told Channel 7’s Sunrise, it didn’t take long for Ellen DeGeneres to show her true colours.

“When you walk into her office to pitch her your segments there was always a snarl and I always felt that I was never welcome,” Ms Muskat told hosts Natalie Barr and David Koch. “She always hurried me like ‘get to the point, get to the point’.”

RELATED: A timeline of Ellen DeGeneres’ year from hell

The producer described the work environment as “uncomfortable” and said things took a turn for the worse when Ed Glavin was hired to be the show’s executive producer.

“It changed when Ed Glavin was hired,” Ms Muskat said. “He became her dog, her voice.

“I was privy in meetings while he went off at people with a vein bulging in his neck … she (Ellen) would turn around, laugh and say that ‘every production needs their dog’.”

Ms Muskat said that staff were “terrified” and after a couple of months she was banned from having meetings with Ellen.

“I was told by my executive producer to no longer go in her office and to have my underling, who was a new hire with no talk show experience, go in and pitch my segments, that Ellen no longer wanted me to come in,” she said on Sunrise.

Ms Muskat also claimed that Ellen banned staff members from bringing their children to work if they had a day off school, even though it was common practice on other talk shows she had worked on.

“On this particular day, I remember bringing my daughter in … I wanted to introduce her to Ellen,” Ms Muskat said. But the host had no interest in meeting Ms Muskat’s 12-year-old daughter.

“She just snarled again and walked by … I was flabbergasted that she didn’t even make eye contact,” the former producer said. “I was the lead producer on the show and I was shown so much disrespect.

“I was told later to no longer bring my daughter to work … I was told Ellen doesn’t want kids in the office.”

RELATED: Ellen’s former show DJ confirms there was a toxic work environment

Ms Muskat claimed that she was fired “for no reason” at the end of Season One of The Ellen Show after refusing to share her sources with Glavin.

“When Ed brought me into his office about a week before I got fired, he said that he really loved all of my work, but where do I find my guests … who are my sources?

“I said, ‘I’m a journalist, my sources are my calling card, that’s why you guys hired me, for my sources that took me 18 years to build’.”

Ms Muskat claims she told Glavin she would “give you some direction” but wouldn’t give up a lot of her sources.

“From that moment I was on the hit list and I was no longer invited to staff meetings – I was told to no longer attend,” she said.

Ms Muskat is one of many former and current Ellen staffers who have spoken out about the comedian and the “toxic” environment behind the scenes of the hit daytime show.

She told the Sunrise hosts she felt compelled to speak out after Ellen released a statement last week in which she blamed others for the “toxic” environment.

In the statement, Ellen said: “As we’ve grown exponentially, I’ve not been able to stay on top of everything and relied on others to do their jobs as they knew I’d want them done. Clearly some didn’t.”

Ms Muskat said: “I chose not to go public until 17 years later when I started seeing her disparaging comments trivialising all these people who were accusing her. I was like, I gotta come forward.”

RELATED: Ellen’s brother and her high-profile friends rally behind star

She denied that she was simply a disgruntled employee, telling Sunrise: “If I was going to be disgruntled, I would have spoken out in the years after I was let go. I’m doing this to set the record straight that we must not condone a toxic culture that’s happening in the workplace.”

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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiogFodHRwczovL3d3dy5uZXdzLmNvbS5hdS9lbnRlcnRhaW5tZW50L3R2L2VsbGVuLWRlZ2VuZXJlcy1mb3JtZXItcHJvZHVjZXItY2xhaW1zLWhvc3QtbGF1Z2hlZC13aGVuLXN0YWZmLXdlcmUteWVsbGVkLWF0L25ld3Mtc3RvcnkvNWYxYzEzYmJjYzkyYzAwMTZhNTkzMjIwOGM0MjQyYTPSAaIBaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAubmV3cy5jb20uYXUvZW50ZXJ0YWlubWVudC90di9lbGxlbi1kZWdlbmVyZXMtZm9ybWVyLXByb2R1Y2VyLWNsYWltcy1ob3N0LWxhdWdoZWQtd2hlbi1zdGFmZi13ZXJlLXllbGxlZC1hdC9uZXdzLXN0b3J5LzVmMWMxM2JiY2M5MmMwMDE2YTU5MzIyMDhjNDI0MmEz?oc=5

2020-08-05 22:56:03Z
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