Ellen DeGeneres made big celebrity headlines Friday when she pushed for Kevin Hart to host the Oscars after all. And after a furious backlash, she doesn't appear to be changing her mind, reports E! Online. "However you feel about this, the only positive way through it is to talk about it," she tweeted amid the uproar, adding the hashtag "@KevinHart4real." Last month, the actor pulled out of the Oscars gig after old jokes and tweets of his seen as homophobic emerged. During her interview with Hart on Friday, DeGeneres revealed that she had called the Academy on his behalf to appeal for a second chance, and Hart said he was reconsidering his decision. DeGeneres is not only a former Oscars host herself, but a gay comedian. She maintained that a "small group" of "haters" had gone after Hart, and many, inside and outside of the LGBT community, took issue with that.
They included BuzzFeed reporter Adam B. Vary, one of those who first reported on Hart's history. "It wasn't a mob of of people out to get Kevin Hart," he wrote in a series of tweets. "It was a group of people who wanted to understand Hart's thinking about those hurtful tweets & his stand-up jokes." Joining the criticism was Don Lemon of CNN, who objected to Hart's assertion that he had long ago apologized for his comments. If Hart did, Lemon can't find it. “For many in the gay community, but especially in the black community (Lemon is a member of both), the Twitter apologies or explanations on Ellen have fallen flat," said Lemon, per the Daily Beast. "To many, they seem insincere, and that he has somehow turned himself into a victim instead of acknowledging the real victims of violent and sometimes deadly homophobia. Kevin, if anything, this is the time to hear people out.” (More Ellen DeGeneres stories.)
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