Ariana Grande outwits Seacrest but succumbs to DeGeneres’ onslaught about dating Mac Miller (she is)

Was Ariana Grande off-base or right on target she shut down Ryan Seacrest’s not-quite-a-question about her relationship with Mac Miller? And really, what happened between morning and afternoon on Wednesday that made her confirm said relationship hours later to Ellen DeGeneres? 

Perhaps Ellen is a better interviewer than Ryan — or maybe Ariana had fewer filters up at the crack of dawn and didn’t feel bad snapping at him before she was entirely awake. 

“It's too early for this kind of tea. It's too early, man,” the singer protested on the the host’s radio show after he acted as if an Instagram post of her and Miller getting cozy was her done-deal “confirmation” that they were a couple.

When she’d challenged his presumption that she’d confirmed anything — “Oh, is that what I did? Is that what Instagram means to you now? How did we get there? What was that segue?  … What are you asking? … You said a sentence, there was no question.” — Seacrest defended himself first by saying, “I don't know, it was question No. 7 on my list.” 

So much for doing an interview on autopilot, on both sides of the equation. Honestly, the whole conversation between the radio host and pop singer had been pretty boring to that point, all about her loving music and feeling grateful about it all and, hey, she’s going on tour soon.

“But if you post something,” Seacrest woke up and explained, “like, even in my life, if I post something, then it becomes something.”

Grande begged to differ. “If I post something, that's what I'm willing to share at the moment. But it doesn't mean that you, Ryan Seacrest, with millions of listeners, are entitled to more information.”

“It doesn't?”

“No,” she said. 

“Oh,” Seacrest said, letting her off the hook. “All right. Well then, I've gotta — question No. 8's not nearly as fun.” 

Cut to “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” later in the day. 

After asking permission to ask relationship questions, DeGeneres wasn’t about to let her guest off the hook. 

“The guy that you're with is Mac Miller, right?” she said, kind of asking a question and definitely leaving Grande pulling her designer sleeves over her hands and covering her face when them. “Oh my God, is this coming …?” the singer said as she tried to change the topic to performing with Miller on Ellen’s show three years ago. 

“I asked you something about him [back then] and you said, ‘Oh, I’m his homey,’” DeGeneres said, eyes on the prize. “And now he's living in your homey.” 

“There’s that,” Grande said simply, just as the show projected a huge photo of the two of them making goo-goo eyes at each other. 

“This is so crazy. I've never, like, had the relationship talk on a show before,” the clearly uncomfortable 23-year-old said, looking pleadingly out to the audience as if someone might help her get out of the moment. 

"It's just me, so far … ," DeGeneres said, earning a nervous “No pressure” blurt from her guest. “But you’re with him, right, and you’re happy and stuff?” 

What could Grande say to that except, “Oh, yeah. Thanks.” And then she covered her head. Good talk, ladies. 

Promotional interviews aside, it’s not as if Grande and Miller have been running a covert operation since she broke up with dancer Ricky Alvarez in late July. 

Sure, Miller had to shut down relationship rumors way back in 2013, when they worked together on her tune “The Way,” including kissing in the video for the song.  

"That's the homey. She's got a boyfriend and everything,” Miller told MTV News at the time. “Obviously, that [kiss] made everyone talk. I didn't even know that was going to happen and then we were shooting and the director was like 'This should happen' and I'm like 'all right.' … I went back to my old school ... and everyone was freaking out like 'You kissed Ariana Grande.' I was like 'Yeah, you know how I do.’”

Now he’s posting pictures like, oh, this one:

The couple was seen together in July, first at Disneyland and then playing “Pokemon Go.” In early August she released a remix of "Into You" that features Miller.

The two were photographed at LAX together in the middle of August and then leaving a club together the Friday before the MTV Video Music Awards late in the month. They cozied up to each other in the audience during the show; on the red carpet, she’d dropped the word “boo” when asked where he was. There was the snuggly Snapchat video.

Last week came the Instagram posts on both of their pages, and on Friday he released “My Favorite Part,” featuring Grande. According to People they kissed in front of folks after taping a performance this week for the AT&T Audience Network Presents series. 

"We hung out for a long time and everything just happened organically," Miller told the outlet Monday. "We love making music together — we do that always. But she's my best friend in the world." 

Can’t help but think something has been confirmed here, right? Even if it’s only that DeGeneres is quite clearly Grande’s kryptonite. 

Follow Christie D’Zurilla on Twitter @theCDZ.

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