Famed talk show host and comedian Ellen DeGeneres was about to enter the White House on Tuesday to receive the country's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom but was barred from entering.
According to NBC24, even her star power couldn't overcome the White House security staff, who wouldn't let her through the gates because DeGeneres had lost her official identification card. The always good-natured host tweeted on @TheEllenShow a photo of herself posed on a bench by the White House grounds, patiently waiting. With a helpless smile on her fact, DeGeneres tweeted with the photo that she still wouldn't be let into the U.S. president's Washington, D.C. address because of her misplaced ID. She included the hashtag #NotJoking and #PresidentialMedalOfFreedom.
The Medal of Freedom is an annual award given to individuals who have been handpicked by the U.S. President. The significance of the award is that recipients can come from any background, as long as they have made an important contribution to national security, world peace, culture or other public and private initiatives.
Ellen DeGeneres was one of 21 individuals part of this year's illustrious roster of awardees. Others included basketball stars Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar-winning actors Robert De Niro and Tom Hanks, health activists Bill and Melinda Gates, leading architect Frank Gehry and iconic singers and performers Diana Ross, Bruce Springsteen and Cicely Tyson.
The 58-year-old DeGeneres eventually tweeted that she had been let into the White House, accompanied by a video of fellow awardees doing the "Mannequin Challenge." She later tweeted a photo of herself wearing the medal, with wife Portia de Rossi, wondering if the medal could serve as her ID and joking that she now needed to find a way to get home.
The ceremony was a tear-filled and sentimental one for Ellen DeGeneres, according to the Huffington Post. President Obama praised the host's bravery, citing that she came out to the public two decades before marriage equality was declared legal. He noted her abundance of kindness and light, and that she made the world better "one joke, one dance" at a time.
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