Ellen DeGeneres is on Kevin Hart's side.
The daytime talk show host played peacemaker between the comedian and The Academy Friday, giving Hart a full hour to promote his new movie, The Upside, and defend his decision to step down from hosting the 2019 Oscars.
Speaking without interruption for nearly six minutes, Hart told her it was "unreal" to be invited to host the award show live on ABC Feb. 24.
"There's a lot of goals that I have on my vision board. There's so many things I want to do I check off as they get done, and Oscars was up there. Oscars was one of the highest of highs, simply because there hasn't been a lot of African Americans that have been able to do it; I would have been the fourth. So, to get the moment, celebrate the moment—'Oh, my God! I can't believe it's happen!'—and then the next morning after a day full of congratulations and celebrations, I'm hit with an onslaught on social media of my past coming back up again. Literally, the next morning! Not even a full 24 hours to glow in the glory of 'Kevin Hart Is Hosting This Year's Oscars,'" the comic complained. "When it happened, my first thought is, 'I'm going to ignore it. I'm going to ignore it because it's 10 years old. This is stuff I've addressed. I've talked about this. This isn't new. I've addressed it! I've apologized for it. I'm not going to pay it any mind.'"