Ellen Degeneres Vents On "Late Show"

She's Not "Into Politics" -- And Hillary Clinton's Her First Guest This Season

(AP)  Ellen DeGeneres, who's about to begin the fifth season of her hit talk show "Ellen," had a chance to vent about the seemingly easy job on the CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman" on Wednesday.

"What I'm having a hard time with is it's the same questions over and over and over again, and it's the same guests. Some of them, you know, the inside voice is 'wow, you're still working?'" she told Letterman. "I thought, you're going to be a talk show host, you just talk, how easy is this gig? Until you realize some [guests] are better at acting, some people are better at a script."

"That's right, they really shouldn't be on a talk show," Letterman agreed. "The other problem is when they say 'Oh, Dave can ask me anything.' Then you know you're in trouble because 'I may not be all that curious about you.' What am I going to say?"

He joked that it's even harder to come up with questions for a boring guest now that he's quit drinking.

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Photos: Daytime Emmy Red Carpet

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Letterman suggested DeGeneres find something "to get you through these interviews that you're sort of tired of doing show after show."

"I have new questions, like 'when was the last time you've eaten a pear,'" she said.

DeGeneres also said she's not sure what to ask this season's first guest.

"Hillary Clinton is our first guest ... but I'm not into politics. It's either going to be interesting, confusing or really boring. I have no idea what to ask her at all because I really don't know politics," she said.

This season of the show will kick off in New York, so DeGeneres suggested she and Letterman get to know each other better.

"Could we hang out sometime?" she said. "We have so much in common. I know you don't do a lot, I don't do a lot…"

"And we both like girls," quipped Letterman to the openly gay comedian.

The new season of "Ellen" premieres on Sept. 4.

[dgshiner]

Hillary will need more than Ellen to sell her stiff views about the war and she certainly is not answering any questions for the the working poor, or middleclass american woman! Ellen don''t feel bad and don''t get her attitude either just make her dance!

[oleander8]

jasbek:

I can smell your fear from here...

[shiptonsarch]

Hillary and Ellen on the same show! Twice the reason to change the channel!

[jasbek]

mgpm,
Thank goodness you are so wrong and no one I know is wanting Hillary in office. She has zero chance, and for that I am grateful.

[vancouverboo]

The only guests on Talk Shows are people who have something to sell, books, movies, musicals, CDs, themselves (politicians trying to get votes), so it''s not like they want to be on your shows, they have to be, they are required to be in order ot sell their products. So don''t take it seriously, Ellen, or Dave, you''re there to entertain us. That''s why you''re paid big bucks. You''d better keep us entertained or we''ll flip the channel and you''ll have to find something else to do to kill time. lol.

[aerodog]

I think Ellen''s the best in the talk show category. She''s so easy going and spontaneous with her witty quips. She''s great!

[puzzler125]

Gee whiz, why doesn''t anyone post positive comments here? What about serious questions that Ellen could ask Sen. Clinton or funny comments instead of years old tired jokes about Ellen DeGeneres''s last name, which were never funny to begin with. I guess no one in your family is gay? Oh wait a minute, if there is anyone I bet you call them lovely names too!

[olebd]

I don''t get what is so appealing about Ellen. Her style of humour was overdone by Bob Newhart years ago.

[btree50]

If Hillary Clinton is the so called answer, it must be a pretty dumb question.

[lawandorder7]

I just wish you would go away.

[mgpm-2009]

I''d ask Hilary how it feels to be on the top of her game after being villified and fought against for so many years. It must feel pretty fantastic to practically have the presidency in her pocket, the American people (in majority) want her in despite everything the dorks on the right have thrown at her and her husband. It must be a great feeling.

[thisandthat1]

Good point tribe ... you may be right!

[brianbwb-2009]

Ellen, I have some questions for you to ask Mrs. Clinton;

Why are Bush and his cronies still free, and what have you done to correct that situation?

Why are our soldiers still dying for those lies?

If you become president, what will you do about all those Bush cabinet members who knew Bush was lying about Iraq?

What are your views about how to recover from the effects of globalization, i.e., loss of jobs outsourced to slave countries?

Since lobbying has evolved into simple bribery, what would you do to stop it?

Why do all health care plans, yours included, simply give more money to greedy private insurers?

What would you do to rebuild our obsolete and failing telecommunication, transportation, and education infrastructures?

Questions like these should fill the segment, and since you''d be the only media person asking them, you could claim a journalistic exclusive worthy of Cronkite...

[thisandthat1]

Ask Hillary what it will feel like if she''s elected President, to sit in the Oval Office every day just a few feet away from where Monica Lewinsky serviced her husband, who then looked in the camera and lied to the American public about it. That would be an interesting interview.

[previn2]

Hey Ellen, Why don''t you let your audience email or send you questions? Not a "contest" or anything--just have THAT, and go over the entries, and choose the more interesting ones. Then ask away. There are some pretty clever folks out there...You''ll be like: "Oh yea, why didn''t I think of that?" Well, that''s my 2 cents, for what it''s worth...(Probably about 2 cents!)Ha-Ha!