Wanda Sykes: "I Was So Envious of Ellen DeGeneres"

Funnylady talks about being an out lesbian in Hollywood. And wait till you read what she had to say about the owner of the Fox network...

By Marc Malkin Apr 19, 2010 7:34 PMTags
Wanda Sykes, Constance McMillanMichael Caulfield/Getty Images

Wanda Sykes' talk show may be on Fox, but that doesn't mean she's gonna kiss ass when it comes to the network's ultraconservative owner, Rupert Murdoch.

"It's sort of like Rupert Murdoch [is] buying back all the hate that he's doing," the funnylady cracked at this weekend's GLAAD Media Awards in L.A.

She added, "It's sort of like saving him from going to hell."

Yikes.

On a much sunnier note…

Sykes was presented with this year's Stephen F. Kolzak Award by Constance McMillen, the Mississippi teenager who made national news recently when local school officials canceled her prom because she wanted to bring her girlfriend. While praising McMillen for having the courage to be an out lesbian, Sykes deadpanned, "I wouldn't even tell people I was black in Mississippi."

Backstage, Sykes told me she has no regrets about coming out during the height of the Prop 8 controversy when she announced at a Las Vegas gay rights rally that she married her girlfriend in California before voters banned same-sex unions in the state. "I've gotten so many emails and kids coming up to me and saying, 'Thank you,'" she said. "It's not just gay and lesbian kids, but straight kids, too."

She also gave a shout-out to a fellow funnylady talk show host. "I want to thank Ellen DeGeneres," Sykes said. "I was so envious of her. She was all out and happy. It really did a lot for me."

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Have you heard about the Real Housewives of Atlanta star who may have recently dated a woman?