IN AMERICA, The Ellen DeGeneres Show is a talk show which rules cable sets everywhere. A primetime staple and syndicated to hundreds of channels across the US, it counts its peers as Oprah, Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, Rosie O’Donnell and Jimmy Fallon.

The post-VMAs interview

For my UK and Aussie readers: the show is normally called ‘Ellen’ for short. She is a charismatic and funny presenter with a legacy of sitcoms she’s starred in – perhaps this is what inspired her now-famous cheeky dance routine, which she does with the audience at the beginning of every show.

Vegan Ellen and Lady Gaga’s Meat Dress

Some features include her giving amazing things away to viewers for Twelve Days, like mahoosive flat screen TVs and holidays. It’s kind of Jonny Ross (RIP Friday Night With, you are sorely missed) meets Oprah, Paul O’Grady and The Generation Game, only cutting out the Jim Davidson BS that came with The Generation Game.

Ellen is so good, the producers know it’s going to be on air through to at least 2014, so screw Armageddon/ whatever that 2012 prediction is meant to be banging on about. Plus, Ellen was one of the first shows in the world to be broadcast completely in HD.

In a word: trailblazing. It doesn’t really mean to be either, but note that newer talk shows model themselves off her format.

This season’s premiere featured a post-VMAs interview with Lady GaGa – and post-THAT Franc Fernadez MEAT DRESS. Just in case you live in a cave (I doubt it but it’s an excuse to put the picture in), avoid the glossies or maybe you have taken a philistine’s oath against the pop star:

Ellen herself is vegan and so asked GaGa in a most diplomatic manner: “What is the purpose of the meat?”

“Well, it’s certainly no disrespect to anyone that’s vegan or vegetarian,” said Lady GaGa.

PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) had already responded to the event with an official statement:

“What’s next: the family cat made into a hat?” said PETA, about the meat dress.

Well, maybe? With the respect owed to the nature of the statement, it is hard for some to tell the difference between rhetoric and really, the encouragement they may have given GaGa in this sentence.

Anyway, in response to Ellen, the Poker Face star produced, perhaps, the first expected answer, last.

 

Lady Gaga’s response to vegan criticism about her Meat Dress

“As you know, I am the most judgement-free human being on Earth.

“However, it has many interpretations — but for me this evening it’s that if we don’t stand up for what we believe in, if we don’t fight for our rights, pretty soon we’re gonna have as much rights as the meat on our bones.

“And… [Lady GaGa then holds up a copy of Vogue Japan, where she appeared in a real meat bikini on the cover]

…I am not a piece of meat,” said Lady Gaga.

All hail the genius of self-generating publicity and hype.

Following a stutter and then a blast of applause, Ellen gave GaGa something more cruciferous:

A kale bikini.