Ellen DeGeneres Posts Mannequin Challenge Video After Being Blocked From White House Event

Talk-show host gets in on viral sensation with Robert De Niro, Tom Hanks and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Ellen DeGeneres certainly knows how to make lemonade out of her own woeful lack of preparedness.

The talk-show host arrived at the White House on Tuesday to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, only to be temporarily turned away because she forgot to pack her identification.

“They haven’t let me into the White House yet because I forgot my ID,” DeGeneres tweeted, along with the hashtags #NotJoking and #PresidentialMedalOfFreedom.

However, it seems that DeGeneres and White House security were able to iron things out. Shortly after posting about her temporary exile, DeGeneres tweeted the message, “I’m in,” along with a nod to the latest viral craze, the Mannequin Challenge.

DeGeneres did the hold-still routine with her fellow Medal of Freedom honorees, which might make the video the most prestigious undertaking of the Mannequin Challenge yet. Along with DeGeneres, it featured Robert De Niro, Tom Hanks, Bill Gates and basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, among other luminaries.

After receiving the highest civilian honor of the land, DeGeneres was back to joking.

“@POTUS Barack Obama just awarded me the #MedalofFreedom. I hope it serves as an ID,” she wrote. “I have no idea how I’m getting home.”

Maybe she should ask one of the dummies she was hanging out with for a ride.

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