Kathy Griffin is on the cover of The Hollywood Reporter this week. The interview focuses on how she is still being persecuted for the controversial photo of her holding Donald Trump’s bloody, prosthetic head. Although Kathy is working again after losing a spokesperson gig and having several venues cancel her comedy shows, she said she is practically a prisoner in her $10.5 million-dollar compound in Bel Air. I know it’s a $10.5M mansion because Kathy pointedly tells the reporter how much it cost and that she paid for it in cash. She calls it her “F-K-You House.” The main point Kathy wanted to make in her interview is that not only is she not a criminal but that it’s everyone else’s fault she’s being treated like one.
On the seriousness of her “crime”: “I didn’t commit a crime. I didn’t rape anybody. I didn’t assault anybody. I didn’t get a DUI. I mean, my God, there are celebrities that fucking kill people.”
On the night the image was released: Griffin was set to host a dinner party for Melanie Griffith, Rita Wilson and Kris Jenner … “I wondered, ‘Should I cancel the dinner?’ And then I thought, ‘No, these are three women who could probably give me good advice.’ ” The dinner party proceeded as planned. “We sat at the table and talked about it,” recalls Griffin. “We hashed out options, and they were trying to make me feel good – getting the laughs going because I was so freaked out.”
On the Lisa Bloom press conference gone wrong: “It turned out she wanted me to do an infomercial for her. When I walked into that room, I had no idea there was going to be a banner above my head that said LisaBloom .com. I didn’t know she was going to Velcro herself to my shoulder so she couldn’t be cut out of any shot. I didn’t know she was going to hand me a mug that said LisaBloom.com. I got all of that in under three seconds.”
On the advice she received from crisis experts: “I was hearing, ‘Go away for five years. I was like, ‘I’ll tell you what: You go away for five years.’ “
Just to restate, I don’t think Kathy did anything wrong. I do think it was an ill-conceived idea but that is about as much energy as I invest in it. Honestly, I haven’t thought about it since the last time she brought it up, which was when she announced her Laugh Your Head Off Tour. I’m sorry she lost so much revenue but that was always a part of the risk she took when she told photographer Tyler Shields to, “get it out there in whatever way the kids are getting things these days.” If you read the whole article, it really sounds like Kathy is the only one carrying out any kind of sentence. I think she exiled herself, so she can stage a big comeback. The problem is, the comeback only works if people care about the controversy and I think most have moved past this one. The interviewer described their second meeting, which took place at Ivy on the Shore in Santa Monica, a restaurant that celebrities go to when they want to be seen. Kathy, who said she doesn’t go out much since ‘the photo’, arrived in a black Maserati, dressed to be noticed and yet, “despite the theatrical entrance, no one in the packed room seems to notice her; if they do, they don’t seem to care.” Then he noted that Kathy, “seems a little surprised.”
Kathy’s discussed the FBI investigating her after the photo was released. I don’t think anyone actually thought she was a threat but I assume that’s standard procedure for this type of thing. But at the same time the FBI was investigating her, they were also protecting her, including showing her how to sort her mail and which items should be bagged and sent to them for investigation. Obviously, Kathy was getting terrible threats and I’m glad she took precautions. But it also detracts from her narrative that she’s under attack from everyone. She was only investigated for two months but the FBI is still looking after her safety today. I really think she keeps dragging this out along with her feuds with Anderson Cooper, Andy Cohen and now Lisa Bloom so she can “return from scandal.” It’s a smart move, actually. It’s just not being handled well.
Kathy said she keeping her short hair after shaving it off in solidarity for her sister, Joyce, whom she lost to cancer in September. I thought it was a lovely gesture and I’m sorry that Joyce ultimately succumbs to the disease.
Photo credit: Adam Amengual/The Hollywood Reporter