Everything about Kathy Griffin totally explained
Kathy Griffin (born
November 4,
1960) is an
Emmy Award-winning
American stand-up comedian,
producer,
actress and
gay icon. She has also been a
voice actress and a
red carpet commentator. Griffin is a self-proclaimed "
D-list celebrity." She is arguably best known for her role on NBC's
Suddenly Susan. She is also known for her reality show,, and for guest co-hosting on
The View.
Early life
Griffin was born in the
Chicago suburb of
Oak Park, Illinois, and raised there and in nearby
Forest Park. The youngest of five children, she attended
Oak Park and River Forest High School, where she graduated in
1978.
Career
Stand-up comedy
Griffin began performing in the early 1980s
Los Angeles improv comedy troupe,
The Groundlings. In an
E! True Hollywood Story segment, she stated that she often went to see shows at the Groundlings before she joined. She said one time she was there she went backstage and talked with a
Groundling member (
Phil Hartman) and asked him what The Groundlings were all about. This led to her taking classes there and eventually being asked into the Main Company.
She went on to perform stand-up comedy and became part of the burgeoning
alternative comedy scene in Los Angeles, appearing at
Un-Cabaret and her own show "Hot Cup of Talk," Despite running jokes in her act about Executive Producer
Barbara Walters not liking her, Griffin co-hosted the show many times after O'Donnell left in May 2007.
Whoopi Goldberg was ultimately selected as a permanent replacement. On
September 10,
2007 Sherri Shepherd took over the remaining co-host spot, vacant since
Star Jones' departure. Bill Zwecker of the
Chicago Sun-Times reports that a source tells him that
The View is having second thoughts about hiring Sherri Shepherd over Griffin, although both
The View and Walters' spokespersons deny this. Walters has stated that she was worried about hiring another loose cannon after the troubles with Rosie O'Donnell.
Griffin recently divulged in her stand-up that she's now banned from 'The View' after talking about the gig on her most recent televised comedy special,
Kathy Griffin: Straight to Hell.
(External Link
)(External Link) While declining to discuss the ban on Access Hollywood,
(External Link) during the filming of an episode for My Life on the D-List with former View co-host/moderator
Rosie O' Donnell, Griffin dished about being being banned from The View, specifically targetting View executive producer
Bill Geddie in a video posted on R blog.
Solo reality show
First Season
2005 saw the debut of Griffin's solo reality show
Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, on the cable network
Bravo. The show was originally developed as a scripted sitcom for NBC after her popular appearances on
Seinfeld, where she played a version of herself, landed her a development deal with the network. Although that sitcom never materialized, NBC chose to develop a similar version as a reality show on its sister channel, Bravo. The show also featured then-husband
Matt Moline, her parents, her dogs, and her personal assistant Jessica. The first season of the program was nominated for a 2006 Primetime
Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Program, non-competition.
Second Season and Emmy Awards Controversy
The second season, which premiered on
June 6,
2006, brought Griffin the 2007 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Program, non-competition, on
September 8,
2007. She received it during the
Creative Arts Emmy, which was hosted by
Carlos Mencia and aired on
E! on September 15. Griffin stirred up controversy with her acceptance speech, saying,
"Now, a lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. He didn't help me a bit. If it was up to him, Cesar Milan would be up here with that damn dog. So all I can say is suck it, Jesus, this award is my god now!"
Kathy Griffin meant this remark not as a slight on Jesus but rather as a satire of celebrities who thank Jesus profusely and nonsensically for their awards, especially artists who themselves are controversial.
Her remarks were quickly condemned by the
Catholic League which urged the academy to "denounce Griffin's obscene and blasphemous comment." The Academy said that her "offensive remarks won't be part of the E! telecast on Saturday night". Griffin later responded, "Am I the only Catholic left with a sense of humor?"
The editing was condemned in two consecutive episodes
1 2 of
Freethought Radio, the latter containing the deleted material.
Annie Laurie Gaylor in particular objected to the comment being described as "hate speech."
Third Season
The third season premiered on
June 5,
2007, to an all-time ratings high for the Bravo Network, with over 1 million viewers, a 77 percent increase in viewers aged 18 to 49, and a 57 percent increase in overall viewers. The new season introduced Tom, who was hired as a dog walker but was promoted to Griffin's housemate and tour manager, and Tiffany, Jessica's assistant; it also covered an emotional period of her life during the death of her father.
Fourth Season
At Griffin's Costa Mesa performance on November 23, she explained to the audience that she signed on for the fourth season which will begin taping in January 2008. It will air during the summer of 2008. At her performance, Griffin hinted that one of the episodes would be set at an Army hospital post-Emmy acceptance speech.
It was announced on
February 1, 2008, Griffin will start a fourth season of her critically acclaimed reality show
My Life on the D-List with a stint as an
Air New Zealand hostess on the Pink Flight.
Style of humor
Griffin established her career with candid observations about her dating life, later focusing on mocking celebrities, her act currently consists of recounting embellished stories involving celebrities. Her favorite celebrity topics are plastic surgery,
Scientology, drunkenness,
substance abuse, snooty attitudes,
eating disorders, and stars whose
sexual orientation is disputed. Among Griffin's staples are
Paris Hilton,
Clay Aiken, Barbara Walters,
Whitney Houston,
Celine Dion,
Gwyneth Paltrow, Star Jones,
Oprah Winfrey,
Britney Spears, and
Lindsay Lohan.
Griffin is sometimes the object of her own humor, particularly with regard to her D-List status. While Griffin paints herself as a Hollywood outsider, she's a group of close celebrity friends that she only speaks positively about in her acts, such as Rosie O'Donnell,
Joan Rivers, Brooke Shields, Whoopi Goldberg,
Jennifer Coolidge and
Lance Bass. Griffin's longtime friendship with Bass was the catalyst for a feud between her and gossip
blogger
Perez Hilton, in which Griffin expressed anger over Hilton's "outing" of Bass on his website, calling Hilton's attacks on Bass "mean" and "unfunny". Hilton responded by saying that Griffin's anger was hypocritical, considering all of the gay jokes she makes about Clay Aiken in her stand-up routines. Griffin and Hilton ended their feud after the death of Griffin's father, and Hilton appeared on an episode of her show in 2007. However, Griffin appeared as a guest on
The Ellen Degeneres Show on September 11, 2007. One of the most notable controversies occurred when she made a joke during a 2005 E! televised event that the child actress
Dakota Fanning had entered rehab. This incident got Griffin fired from hosting duties on E!'s red-carpet award show coverage. Nevertheless, E! purchased rights to air
My Life on the D-List for its
British channel, a fact she noted in an episode of season 3.
Griffin has claimed to have been fired from an appearance on the show
Hannah Montana, on account of her
Emmy acceptance speech. According to Griffin "the instructions literally came down, 'We don't want her anywhere near the building.'"
(External Link) Disney has since disputed this claiming the star was fired for "creative reasons." Griffin hit back in her comedy act joking "[She] has been flashing her green bra and posing topless."[ http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/05/01/was-kathy-griffin-dumped-over-jesus-joke]
CD
On
June 17, 2008, Griffin will release a comedy
CD titled "For Your Consideration". It is Griffin's first audio-only release of her stand-up material. The disc was recorded during her third show in
St. Louis,
Missouri on
February 10, 2008. Included on the disc are her takes on various celebrities and her personal life.
Personal life
Griffin describes herself as a "
militant atheist". While in high school, she fell away from the
Roman Catholic Church and wanted to become a
Unitarian. Said Griffin: "I'm not really sure what that is, but it sounds better."
She is an outspoken opponent of
LASIK eye surgery, having endured a series of operations for her own eyesight that left her partially
blind in one eye with a visible
eyeball deformity. She is open about her multiple
plastic surgeries, and claims that fat "grew back" after her
liposuction procedure.
Griffin's father, John Patrick Griffin, died of heart failure on
February 17 2007, during the shooting of the third season of her
reality show. The episode related to his passing aired on
June 19.
Griffin placed seventeenth on
Oxygen's 2007 list of "The 50 Funniest Women Alive."
Griffin is a frequent guest on CNN's
Larry King Live. King has stated that she's "one of my favorite guests". During her appearances on the
show she usually chides King on various topics and past guests on his show adding her own personal observations.
On February 12, 2001, Kathy appeared on the
Howard Stern show and discussed several aspects of her personal life.
- Kathy mentioned that she "lightly dated" N'Sync member Joey Fatone.
- At the 2000 Billboard Music Awards, she planned to say a joke directed at Britney Spears in regards to her nipples, but since another member of N'Sync was dating Britney, Kathy randomly directed the joke towards Toni Braxton instead. Toni became very irate over it since she'd been rushed to the hospital recently due to an incident with her breast implants. It was reported in the news that later that night, Griffin nearly got into a fight with pop singer Pink, but Kathy explained that the incident was completely false.
- Kathy clarified that she was never romantically linked to Joel Anderson (from the TV show Survivor).
- Kathy mentioned that she's a friend of Jenny McCarthy. Jenny was invited to Kathy's wedding.
- Kathy discussed the fact that she and Matt Moline signed pre-nuptial agreements.
- Kathy told Howard that she doesn't drink any alcohol based on an incident that occured when she was very young. While choking at the dinner table, she was handed her father's stein of beer. After taking two "gulps", she thought it tasted disgusting.
- Kathy is a friend of Lisa Kudrow, who wasn't invited to her wedding because Lisa had become very famous and they hadn't had a chance to see each other in a long time.
Marriage and relationships
Griffin married
Washington, D.C. native Matt Moline on
February 18,
2001 atop the 360 Degree Restaurant in Hollywood. ABC News reported that she walked down the aisle to the strains of the 1980's
power ballad "
Sister Christian" by
Night Ranger. Her maid of honor was
Brooke Shields, and the wedding was attended by, among others,
Camryn Manheim,
Bill Maher, and
Jane Krakowski.
Although they appeared to have a loving and supportive relationship on her reality show, there were problems beneath the surface. After briefly separating and reconciling in
2005, they divorced in
May 2006. Kathy had her
tattooed wedding ring laser-removed after her divorce. On
Larry King Live, Griffin accused Moline, a computer technician, of stealing $72,000 from her. In a written statement, Moline wouldn't respond to the allegations in public.
Since
July 2007, rumors had circulated that Griffin had been dating
Apple co-founder
Steve Wozniak. They attended the
2007 Emmy Awards together and speculations rose when the two were interviewed together on the red carpet. On
September 18,
2007,
US Weekly reported that Griffin and Wozniak were engaged, however, neither Griffin nor Wozniak confirmed the rumor. During a January 2008 interview on
Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Griffin confirmed that Wozniak will be a regular guest on the fourth season of her reality show. On
Tom Green's House Tonight on
February 6th, Griffin confirmed her relationship with Wozniak. When asked if she actually targeted Wozniak to make her ex-husband jealous, Griffin stated "What better way to get back at my ex, who was a tech, than to marry the biggest techno-nerd in the Universe?" Wozniak and Griffin served as King and Queen of the Humane Society of Silicon Valley Fur Ball on April 5, 2008 in Santa Clara, California, and scenes for the fourth season of My Life on the D List were taped. However, as of
May,
2008, it has been confirmed that Griffin and Wozniak are no longer dating and have decided to remain friends.
Filmography
Film
The Unborn (1991)
Shakes the Clown (1992)
It's Pat (1994)
Pulp Fiction (1994, bit part)
Four Rooms (1995)
The Cable Guy (1996)
Who's the Caboose? (1997)
Trojan War (1997)
Courting Courtney (1997)
Can't Stop Dancing (1999)
Dill Scallion (1999)
Muppets from Space (1999, cameo)
Lion of Oz (2000; (voice)
The Intern (2000)
Enemies of Laughter (2000)
On Edge (2001)
Run Ronnie Run (2000, cameo)
Beethoven's 5th (2003) (straight to DVD)
Lovewrecked (2005)
Dirty Love (2005)
Dinotopia: Quest for the Ruby Sunstone (2005; voice)
Her Minor Thing (2005)
Vegas Baby (2005)
The Last Guy on Earth (2008)
Dixie's (2008)
[CurbYour Enthusiasm] (2006)
|
Television
Fresh Prince of Bel Air (NBC, 1991)
(HBO, 1992)
Big News (1995)
ER (1995)
The Barefoot Executive (1995)
Ellen (1996)
Suddenly Susan (NBC, 1996-2000)
Seinfeld: "The Doll" (NBC, 1996) and "The Cartoon" (NBC, 1998)
Saturday Night Special (Fox late-night series 1996)
Premium Blend (Comedy Central; host in 1997)
Kathy Griffin: Hot Cup of Talk (1998)
Instant Comedy with the Groundlings (1998)
Dilbert (1999-2000; voice)
Jackie's Back! (1999; cameo)
A Diva's Christmas Carol (2000)
"X-Files - " Fight Club" As identical twins Betty Templeton and Lulu Pfeiffer (2000)
Kathy's So-Called Reality (2001)
The Simpsons (one episode, 2001)
The Drew Carey Show (one episode, 2002)
Last Call with Carson Daly (six episodes, 2004-2007)
Whose Line Is It Anyway? (four episodes, 2002-2003)
Celebrity Mole: Hawaii (2003-2004)
Average Joe (host, 2003)
Jimmy Kimmel Live! (13 episodes, 2003-2006)
"Spider-Man" (2003)(voice of psychic twin)
Kathy Griffin: Allegedly (2004)
Kathy Griffin: The D-List (2004)
Kathy Griffin Is... Not Nicole Kidman (2005)
(2005-present, in third season on Bravo Network)
Kathy Griffin: Strong Black Woman (2006)
CNN's Larry King Live (July 11, 2006)
The View (July 27, 2006)
Gameshow Marathon:Match Game(2006)
Last Comic Standing- Guest Judge (2006)
Ugly Betty (Fashion TV reporter in In or Out) (2007)
Kathy Griffin: Everybody Can Suck It (2007)
The View (June 5, 2007)
Larry King Live (June 21, 2007)
The Ellen DeGeneres Show (September 11, 2007)
Larry King Live (September 17, 2007)
E! True Hollywood Story (October 20, 2007)
Kathy Griffin: Straight To Hell (November 29, 2007)
Anderson Cooper 360 (December 31, 2007)
Jimmy Kimmel Live! (January 7, 2008)
Dateline NBC (January 13, 2008)
Bravo A-List Awards (Host) (June, 2008)
|
Other appearances
Griffin has made frequent appearances on reality programs and game shows.
Griffin appeared on CNN with newsanchor Anderson Cooper to host a New Year's Eve 2007 show.
Griffin is a favorite of the late night radio call-in show Loveline, once hosted by Adam Carolla.
She has played on Celebrity Poker Showdown for the Face to Face: National Domestic Violence Project charity.
She appeared on a Comedy Edition episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and won $32,000 for charity.
Griffin was also on a Celebrity Edition of Weakest Link, but lost to Aisha Tyler in the final round.
She appeared as a panelist on the June 22, 2006 episode of CBS' "Gameshow Marathon," which recreated the Match Game.
Griffin appeared in the music video for Eminem's 2000 single, The Real Slim Shady, as an attending nurse in a psychiatric ward. Griffin said during a July 21, 2005, interview on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno that Eminem selected her for the video because fellow rapper Snoop Dogg told him she was "really funny." The single was noted for its caustic criticism of certain celebrities and the entertainment industry.
Griffin, Jim Gaffigan, Debra Wilson, and Michael Ian Black have starred together in several commercials for Sierra Mist soda.
Jerry Seinfeld was so amused by Griffin's caustic comments about him in her standup act that he cast her in the Seinfeld episode "The Cartoon", as standup comic Sally Weaver, who makes fun of him. She had previously appeared in "The Doll", in the seventh season.
She won the first edition of Celebrity Mole.
In a Family Guy episode, A Picture Is Worth a 1,000 Bucks, Griffin was briefly referenced, where she's portrayed as the fast-talking and rambling cousin of protagonist Peter Griffin.
Griffin was interviewed in her limousine by Fausto Fernós of the Feast of Fools in December 2005.
Griffin appeared in Quentin Tarantino's film Pulp Fiction, as herself, as a witness to Bruce Willis hitting Ving Rhames with his car.
Griffin appeared on Loose Women alongside Jackie Brambles, Jane McDonald, Denise Welch and Carol McGiffin. She referred to them as "British uptight chicks" on her show.
Griffin appeared on an episode of The Suze Orman Show on CNBC, discussing her finances
Some of her earliest, raunchiest and most personal performance material can be heard on the Un-Cabaret compilation CD Weather Feels DifferentFurther Information
Get more info on 'Kathy Griffin'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://kathy_griffin.totallyexplained.com">Kathy Griffin Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
