Car trouble ruined Ellen DeGeneres’ big break day

Ellen Degeneres’ big TV break came at the end of a nightmare day, during which she caused a pile-up in Hollywood.
The comedienne was bumped from her first appearance on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson and booked to appear a week later, but she was so caught up in her thoughts she forgot to apply the handbrake on her car as she went shopping on Melrose Avenue.
“I come back out… and my car is gone and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, my car got stolen’,” the Finding Dory star recalled during a new interview with David Letterman on his Netflix show My Next Guest Needs No Introduction.
“Then I hear horns honking and everything and I had forgotten to put the emergency brake on. It had rolled all the way down. It was in the intersection of La Cienega and Melrose… I’m running after this car. That was the day of Carson.”
Ellen was perfect on the 1987 show and became the first female comedienne in the programme’s history to sit down for a chat with Carson after her set.