Kathy Griffin

[smitten]

I think it boils down to this:

- She wanted attention, she got it.
- Her press conference was unnecessary theater. (And I think those tears were phony.)
- We do NOT need distractions from the left right now. There are too many important things actually happening on the right that we should be spending our time and effort on while they are trying to distract us themselves!

I've seen some threads on twitter defending her, especially after the pile on b/c of her press conference, and I thought about it for a while. But you know, no one forced her to have a press conference. That bugs.

[eclair]

My best friend's world has shrunk since his partner retired and they moved to Reno. It's just them and their dogs, for the most part. Friend has a computer and uses it some, but he seems cut off from a lot that's going on. And that's fine, he loves his dog, his home and his partner.

That said, he called yesterday to catch up, and part of our conversation was that he told me he sent Kathy an e-mail of support, and offered their home if she wants to hide out in Reno. He also said that she's taken the photo down from her website, and he hoped he could find the image somewhere online...yeah, I think you can find the image online.

It seemed like too much effort to try to catch my friend up on what Kathy's part in all this was. My friend and I both hate Trump, so we left it at that, and talked about our pets and families.

[MrsOldManBalls]

Mar 19, 2005 3:03:24 GMT -4 Carolina said:

She seems incredibly insecure even by Hollywood standards. Worst of all, especially for a comedian, she can dish it out but she can't take it.

I realized this long ago and haven't been able to enjoy her work since. She did this to herself, it'll blow over.

[Ginger]

Jun 3, 2017 17:11:01 GMT -4 Carolina said:

Jun 3, 2017 16:31:35 GMT -4 @niki81 said:

She lost me years ago when in one of her stand-up specials she did a whole section making fun of her assistant (or a guy who worked for her in some capacity) who pulled out his eyelashes. For someone that seemed to be in her life for a while and did a lot for her, she took a lot of glee in exposing his mental condition for laughs. Maybe she had his permission to put it in her act, but it just seemed heartless of her regardless. I feel like a friend's mental illness should be off limits even with their consent to use it in your act.

That guy wasn't just her assistant but also her live-in boyfriend.

famvir's post really nailed it. I love Kathy's stand up but she comes across like a bottomless pit of need in real life. She seems incredibly insecure even by Hollywood standards. Worst of all, especially for a comedian, she can dish it out but she can't take it. I generally have a lot of sympathy for her since I don't think she's a very happy person, but this mess is entirely of her own making.

She has weird relationships with her assistants. At the beginning of her reality show, she seemed very difficult to work for and her assistants seemed sort of downtrodden and silently enduring. Then she got new assistants and made them part of the show and we were supposed to believe that Kathy is the boss who is also a BFF! Except behind the scenes it was the same and they quit. And then of course she basically treated her husband like an unpaid assistant the whole time they were married.

She is massively insecure and all of her "such-and-such celebrity is a jerk" stories need to be taken with a grain of salt because sometimes she trashes people just because she approached them and they didn't kiss her ass. Anna Kendrick's not the only one. But it's virtually impossible to find a well adjusted comedian so it's just something I keep in mind with her.

[Ginger]

Bumping to post an interview with The Cut. She's still playing the victim way harder than Taylor Swift, but I found interesting how other celebrities reacted to her privately during the scandal.

And here's the Anderson Cooper part:

Griffin’s best-known celebrity friendship, going back 17 years, is with CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. But after TMZ published the photo, Cooper came under tremendous pressure to repudiate it. Without reaching out to Griffin, he tweeted the same night: “For the record, I am appalled by the photo shoot Kathy Griffin took part in. It is clearly disgusting and completely inappropriate.” Griffin acknowledges that Cooper was in an untenable position, but she feels that their long friendship afforded her a call or text message beforehand.

In the following days, Griffin says four of Cooper’s CNN colleagues reached out repeatedly to Griffin to check on her and offer private support (I independently confirmed this). But Cooper didn’t contact Griffin until August 10, CNN confirmed to me.

On July 26, when asked about Griffin on Andy Cohen’s talk show, Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Cooper claimed that Griffin was still a friend. “Yeah, we’re still friends, and look I said what I said about — I didn’t think what she said was appropriate, but I wish her the best and I hope she bounces back,” he told Cohen.

The fact that Cooper was telling people publicly they were friends, while not checking in with her, hurt Griffin deeply. When he finally reached out to her in a series of text messages, she told him their friendship was over.

A source close to Cooper tells me that Cooper was “shocked and upset by the photo, and while he was not ready to talk to her personally about it, he still considered her to be a friend, and was publicly supportive when asked about the controversy.”

I don't really blame Anderson. I feel certain that anything Anderson said to her privately she would have made public. If he said anything supportive to her, she would have trotted that right out at her press conference and made it sound like he was on her side. The only safe way for him to stay out of the story was to say nothing to her.

[Carolina]

Being a shit-stirrer who is quick to burn bridges isn't likely to lead to good things.

[Deleted]

As annoying and difficult Kathy Griffin could be, if you're her friend, you know who she is and what's in her heart, and you wouldn't be disgusted by her and cut her off for making a bad decision in a photoshoot or getting emotional and playing the victim in a press conference. She was Anderson Coooper's friend while he was still in the closet. She didn't out him. Instead, his friendship with her helped him to ease out of it himself. She was respectful of his wishes. I think he owed her a little respect in return. He was pretty much forced to make negative public statements at the behest of his employer, but there was nothing to keep him from privately reaching out to her.

“I’m obsessed with politics. I always have been, and now, with Trump, many people are obsessed with politics, so that’s going to be a big part of my act.”

It's about time she changed up her act, but it might be too late. If she had a new special, I'd be willing to give it a go to see some new material. I stopped watching her shows a few years ago when they became too predictable -- Kardashians, Cher, Real Housewives, Celine Dion, award show encounters, rinse and repeat.

[luminosa]

Aug 29, 2017 7:54:45 GMT -4 @highondegrassi said:

As annoying and difficult Kathy Griffin could be, if you're her friend, you know who she is and what's in her heart, and you wouldn't be disgusted by her and cut her off for making a bad decision in a photoshoot or getting emotional and playing the victim in a press conference. She was Anderson Coooper's friend while he was still in the closet. She didn't out him. Instead, his friendship with her helped him to ease out of it himself. She was respectful of his wishes. I think he owed her a little respect in return. He was pretty much forced to make negative public statements at the behest of his employer, but there was nothing to keep him from privately reaching out to her.

“I’m obsessed with politics. I always have been, and now, with Trump, many people are obsessed with politics, so that’s going to be a big part of my act.”

It's about time she changed up her act, but it might be too late. If she had a new special, I'd be willing to give it a go to see some new material. I stopped watching her shows a few years ago when they became too predictable -- Kardashians, Cher, Real Housewives, Celine Dion, award show encounters, rinse and repeat.

I definitely agree that he should have reached out to her privately but just bc he is her friend (even knowing who she is and how she acts) doesn't mean he can't be disgusted at one or more of her actions. I know you weren't saying this, but being friends with someone doesn't mean you are automatically on board with all their decisions.

She's a lot to take, but I do love when she dishes on celebs.

[Deleted]

I think the bar of disgust should be set a little higher when your friend is a professional comedian who made a mistake in a professional setting.

[Atreides]

Aug 29, 2017 7:54:45 GMT -4 @highondegrassi said:

As annoying and difficult Kathy Griffin could be, if you're her friend, you know who she is and what's in her heart, and you wouldn't be disgusted by her and cut her off for making a bad decision in a photoshoot or getting emotional and playing the victim in a press conference. She was Anderson Coooper's friend while he was still in the closet. She didn't out him. Instead, his friendship with her helped him to ease out of it himself. She was respectful of his wishes. I think he owed her a little respect in return. He was pretty much forced to make negative public statements at the behest of his employer, but there was nothing to keep him from privately reaching out to her.

I imagine it must have been a very difficult position that Anderson was in. Not only is he a public figure, he is also a journalist (the face of CNN, no less) who must maintain objectivity. Now we can all bet that he is vehemently anti-Trump in his private life, but he couldn't send her any form of official support. He knows that if he had contacted her, there was a good chance she wouldn't keep it secret, and it could have destroyed his career too if that came out.

I hope when some time has passed, they can kiss and make up. A 17-year friendship is a very long time to be destroyed by this.