Ellen is going to play nice at the Oscars

What, you thought she was going to be angry like Chris Rock? Let's just say nothing in this New York Times article, where Ellen DeGeneres talks about what she plans on doing during her Oscar hosting stint next year, surprised me at all. "I know what the job is," she tells writer Jacques Steinberg. "It's to honor movies and to honor people who worked hard. Those people take it seriously. I'm there to make them feel good and take their minds off it a little bit and make it a fun night." In other words, she won't be wondering why Jude Law has a career, like Rock did, or raising the ire of George Clooney, like Jon Stewart did this year (of course, Clooney was overreacting, but still...). Either way, given how well she's done at the Emmys, she should do fine here, even if she's not edgy.

The article goes on to talk about her talk show Ellen and contrasts her with fellow daytime talk show personality Rosie O'Donnell. It also discusses why Ellen doesn't mention her girlfriend, Arrested Development's Portia de Rossi, all that much during her show. To Ellen, it's not a big deal. Contrast that to when she came out almost ten years ago, and that observation shows how far things have come on TV.