I was always a fan of Kathy Griffin, dating back to the days of the Suddenly Susan TV show. Susan got terrible reviews, but I was a devoted fan, sticking with the show even through the last, stumbling season, or at least the first half. I even watched the show in reruns for awhile, before deciding that wandering the streets alone was a less pitiful method of filling the empty hours.
Anyway, I sort of lost track of Kathy over the years, until I read a funny article she wrote for the New York Times telling about her endless search for outfits terrible enough to get her on the “worst-dressed” list of a national magazine—any national magazine.
I don’t know if Kathy actually wrote the article, but it was funny enough to prompt me to rent a concert DVD she did a couple of years ago, “Kathy Griffin—Allegedly.” It wasn’t bad—there was too much about her great gay fans (don’t tell us about your great fans, stand-ups. Make us laugh!) and too much about Brooke Shields’ wedding. Clearly, Kathy enjoyed talking about the one A-lister who would actually hang with her. But, all in all, I would give it a B.
Recently, I came across newer versions of Kathy’s act on YouTube. I gotta admit, on a lot of these clips Kathy is pretty funny, though I wish they wouldn’t bleep her “fucks.” Kathy’s an unrepentant recovering Catholic, and her harsh words about the “kidfuckers” are refreshingly from the heart.*
All this prompted me to rent the first episodes of Kathy’s reality show, My Life on the D-List, now in its fourth year. Kathy’s life, four years ago, at least, was in fact pretty D-listy. We see Kathy earnestly soliciting telephone numbers from TV “stars” half her age so that she can call them about appearing on her “Toys for Tots” special (because, hey, Kathy just loves those tots!). We see her going to a Kabbala book release “event” and she’s the only celebrity there! Ouch!
We also meet Kathy’s husband, who seems to be struggling, just a bit. He’s gained over a hundred pounds in the last year and his consulting “business” consists of, well, him. Like a lot of LA folks, he’s thinking about getting some work done—a tummy tuck—and he’s worried about the effects, like, right now, he thinks about food all the time, so if he gets a tummy tuck, what will he have to think about? Tough one, right?
I read online that by now Kathy and hubbie are splitsville, which frankly sounds like a good idea for both of them to me. We also meet Kathy’s PA, who says that she does have a “bitch” job—like, where’s my Evian, bitch?—but parts of it aren’t so bad. (Which parts, eh, bitch?)
Kathy lives in a huge house, which definitely took my opinion of her down a notch. It kind of resembles the Taj Mahal done in flagstone. Well, Kathy likes it, and she has this fabulous gay interior decorator/architect to redo the place for her. Mr. Gay’s career doesn’t quite seem to be booming, because he lives with Kathy, and his redecorating seems to be limited to saying things to Kathy like “I see this whole wall covered with a gigantic sheath of metal” and Kathy saying back “Yeah, but wouldn’t that be, you know, like, incredibly expensive?”
After about twenty minutes of this, you kind of get the feeling that you’ve seen it all—at least, I did. But catch Kathy on YouTube. She’s funny.
*On Susan Kathy was a Jewish slut rather than a Catholic slut. I guess a Jewish slut is less threatening and just as funny.
