No More D-List for Kathy Griffin

Sarah Jessica Parker, Gloria Steinem, Kathy Griffin, Andy Cohen

I'm really bummed to report that one of my favorite shows, "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List" will not be returning for another season.

The comic told People Magazine, "It was a really tough decision because I think of the D-List as pretty much my baby for the last six seasons and I also think it was really time to stop doing it."

Griffin added, "Reality is great, but I really didn't set out to be a reality star. So now it's time to spread my wings and show that I'm a little different than Kate Gosselin."

But fear not, the Emmy winning comic will still be seen on Bravo with four live stand-up comedy specials this year.

Super cute "Power Gay" Andy Cohen, Bravo's Executive Vice President of Original Programming Development, the brains behind the Real Housewives franchise and host of Watch What Happens, said in a statement Wednesday, "There is no better way to start off 2011 than giving Kathy Griffin an unprecedented four new stand-up comedy specials on Bravo in one year. Kathy's quick fire humor and ability to tap into pop culture make for must watch television."

Griffin promises to keep her act fresh with new material, telling People, "[I'm] trying to keep the material as up to the minute as possible," she says. "Audiences know when they come to see me live, they're going to see new stuff. [And] as long as there's a show called My Strange Addiction about a woman who only eats toilet paper ... then I have to do stand up." 

You can read the full People Magazine article here.

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Kathy Griffin, Wanda Sykes, Lance Bass and Tim Gunn talk to Larry King about Anti-Gay Violence and Bullying (video)

Image via WikipediaThis was a really great discussion on Larry King Live, despite Larry's sometimes cluelessness. Kathy talks about "Trickle Down Homophobia", where anti-gay sentiments, laws like Don't Ask, Don't Tell, anti-gay voter initiatives, the lack of commitment from our leaders to move forward on LGBT rights and anti-gay religious leaders help to create a sense that it's okay to hate LGBT people. These societal values are passed down through our culture to the younger generation.

October is not just LGBT History Month, but it's also National Bullying Prevention Month. CNN's Anderson Cooper hosts a special presentation this Friday night at 10:00 pm called Bullying: No Escape. 

Enough is enough!

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Kathy Griffin to Larry King: "Gay Marriage is a civil rights issue." (video)

America's Best Fag Hag, comedian Kathy Griffin, went on Larry King last night and talked about the Prop 8 stay, Levi Johnston, "Dr." Laura Schlessinger quitting her radio show and Rod Blagojevich's hung jury.

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Kathy Griffin Reacts to Bristol Palin - Levi Johnston Engagement (video)

You know I loves me some Kathy. When I saw the news reports that born-again virgin Bristol Palin was engaged to her baby-daddy/Playgirl Playmate, Levi Johnston, my first thought was, "I wonder how Kathy is taking the news." Well, actually it was more like, "How's she gonna work this into her act?"

As if she could hear my thoughts, my favorite redhead posted the following video on her YouTube page with these heartfelt words:

Every woman has been where I am today. Raw, emotional and in full hair and makeup. For you broken-hearted people across the world and in parts of lower Wasilla, this one's for you! Keep the faith, keep your swagga.

Kathy Griffin

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Kathy Griffin faces off with Palin Wanna-be Elisabeth Hasselbeck on "The View"

Kathy Griffin appeared on the "The View" Tuesday to promote her new season of "My Life on the D-List". After a discussion of  vagazzling, her very public pap smear and "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal, Gay-merica's favorite redhead found herself in the cross hairs of Sara Palin wanna-be Elisabeth Hasselbeck and the largely irrelevant Sherri Shepherd, (Seriously, why is Shepherd even on this show?).

Doing their usual, unconvincing "I'm so offended" routine, Shepherd and Hasselbeck, who have both made careers out of being uninteresting, bland and boring, confronted Griffin over comments she's made about them both in her act. To her credit, Kathy, who had been banned from the daytime yenta-fest for several years by none other than Babs herself, stood her ground during the following exchange:

Hasselbeck: "You've said things about people here that are (a) untrue and (b) not so funny, so do you ever feel weird coming here and sitting here promoting things.

Behar: "This party's getting ugly..."

Answers Griffin: "Actually, this moment is what I live for. So bring it."

I have no idea who the virtually invisible woman sitting between Griffin and Hasselbeck is. Take a look:

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GetEQUAL Activists Stage Bi-Coastal Sit-ins in Pelosi's Offices (video)

What a day for LGBT activism yesterday! Activists from GetEQUAL staged sit-ins in the San Francisco and Washington DC offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday in an effort to push the speaker to take action on the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

According to en email blast from GetEQUAL, members "won't leave until Speaker Pelosi commits to bring the Employment Non-Discrimination Act to the floor for a vote this month – or until they are arrested."

Well that's exactly what happened in DC and San Fran. The coordinated bi-coastal protests took place within hours of  Lt. Dan Choi and Capt. Jim Pietrangelo taking over an HRC photo op with Kathy Griffin in Washington. Choi then led a march to the White House, where he and Pietrangelo chained themselves to the fence. The twowere arrested with activist Robin McGehee, founder of Meet in the Middle and an organinzer of the National Equality March.

The following video was posted on YouTube by GetEQUAL just minutes before the sit-ins took place.

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Breaking:Dan Choi Hijacks HRC/Kathy Griffin DADT Rally, Chains Himself to White House Fence

This story has been burning up the interwebs all afternoon. Details are coming in quicker than I  can keep up. At about 1:00 pm this afternoon, the Human Rights Campaign held a rally at Freedom Plaza in the heart of a very busy DC, just two blocks from the White House, to kick off tomorrow's lobbying effort for the repeal  of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT).

Towleroad's Andy Towle reported the following earlier today:

According to Tweets from Robin McGehee at GetEqual (see stream below) reporting from the Kathy Griffin - Human Rights Campaign "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" rally, McGehee, who is traveling with Lt. Dan Choi, asked Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese if Choi could speak at the rally and he rebuffed her, telling her it was Kathy Griffin's rally.

McGehee is the co-director of the National Equality March and the organizer of the Meet in the Middle 4 Equality rallies in California.

Choi took the stage anyway, told Griffin DADT is not a joke, and announced that he was marching to the White House. Choi then began leading hundreds on a march to the White House. Reports are now coming in that Choi has chained himself to the White House fence, "Until we have full equality," Choi reportedly says. Choi and Captain Jim Pietrangelo are reportedly both handcuffed to the White House fence.

According to McGehee's tweets from the scene, within minutes, about 20 secret service agents were on the scene along with DC police, who proceeded to put yellow police tape around Lt. Choi. The crowd that followed Choi from Freedom Plaza was estimated in the hundreds, but disbursed to 50 or less after authorities arrived.

Reports from the scene say that Lt. Choi, Capt. Jim Pietrangelo, who also handcuffed himself to the fence, where arrested along with McGehee, founder of Get Equal and Meet in the Middle and an organizer on the National Equality March.

Radio host, blogger and activist Michelangelo Signorile tweeted from the scene, "Dan Choi took HRC's and @kathygriffin 's celebrity photo op and turned it into a real protest at White House. And they stayed behind."

The following video of the White House prtest was posted on YouTube this afternoon. You can see Lt. Choi and Capt. Pietrangelo in the middle of the screen:

Kathy Griffin - Mariska Hargitay "Law & Order" Lip-Lock: FAIL! (video)

In an upcoming episode of Law and Order: SVU, scheduled for March 3rd, Kathy Griffin plays a lesbian activist, named Babs Duffy,  involved in the investigation of the death of one of her group's members. As the investigation moves along, Griffin's character works closely with Detective Olivia Bensen, played by lesbian icon, Miriska Hargitay. Naturally, Babs gets "mixed messages" from Bensen and plants one on her.
It looks like the "mixed-messages" tradition continues in Hollywood. SVU has done a really good job over the years in portraying LGBT stories in a fairly realistic manner without resorting to stereotyping. Why then are they now falling back to the tired old scenario where the only way a lead character could have a same-sex encounter is through a misunderstanding? Why is the gay character once again portrayed as the predatory aggressor? The fact that Kathy Griffin reportedly had some creative input in the story is the really confusing part.

When are we going to see some really bold moves in prime time TV when it comes to telling our stories? We all know people who came out later in life after years of marriage and raising kids.

Why not have Detective Eliot Stabler (played by hottie Chris Meloni) realize that he can't live a lie any more? It would certainly fit his brooding, moody character who can't seem to manage a happy home life for more than a few weeks at a time. Melonie has already played gay in the HBO series "Oz", so it wouldn't effect his career in any way. It would certainly be a breath of fresh air to TV franchise that is beginning to show its age.

Here's a clip of the kissing scene between Kathy and Mariska that could have been written by anybody anywhere that had never met a gay or lesbian person. Sure, Kathy is her usual sarcastic self, but this was not worthy of her efforts, especially with Olivia's slightly (?) homophobic parting remark to a coworker at the end of the scene.

The Big Gay Moments of 2009

For my final post of 2009, I thought I'd put together a collection of some of the gayest moments of the year. There were so many highs and lows this year, I'm sure I've left a lot of them out, but these are some of the standouts that deserve special recognition.  For all the ups and downs, successes and failures, 2009 was definitely a big year for the LGBT community. It was the year that we refused to be ignored, marched on Washington and demanded that our new president make good on his promises.


2009 started out with a bang on New Year's Eve last year when Kathy Griffin shared hosting duties with CNN closet-boy Anderson Cooper in Times Square. Kathy claims she thought her mic was off as they went into a break when she went off on a heckler. Yeah, right. That's why we love you Kathy. I'm hoping she tops herself this year, or maybe she'll get a room and top Andy instead.

On January 20, 2009 history was made with the inauguration of our first African-American president. The best moment of that day for me will always be Aretha's hat.

April brought us the dimwitted proponent of "opposite marriage", Miss California, USA, Carrie Prejean who rose to notoriety for speaking her mind (which explains the short answer) and taking the debate on gay marriage to new heights by sinking to the lowest depths of bigotry. It should not have surprised anyone that the latest right-wing poster child for all things pure and patriotic had made a few solo sex tapes that became pubic public. It turns out we didn't have to give her the finger after all. She was doing a nice job of it all by herself.

In May, the California supreme court ruled that denying sane-sex couples the right to marry was unconstitutional. The national Organization for Marriage, lead by bulldog in drag, Maggie Gallagher and funded heavily by the Mormons, launched Proposition 8, a voter initiative that put civil rights up to a popular voter. Though we fought hard and long, we were out-financed by the enemies of freedom and lost at the polls. In the months between victory and defeat, 18,000 gays and lesbians, including Ellen DeGeneres and Portia DiRossi, were legally married in California. The courts decided to let those marriages stand. The legal challenges to the ruling and a new voter intitiative to overturn Prop 8 are in the works.

"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more... from Jack Black

The crushing defeat of marriage equality in the nation's most liberal state was a call to action for the LGBT community. Activist Cleve Jones, who marched with Harvey Milk in the streets of San Francisco in the 70's and in the 80's founded the Names Project/AIDS Memorial Quilt, took up the challenge issued by activist and political consultant David Mixner and The National Equality March was born. Despite harsh criticism from old guard veterans like Barney Frank, with only five months' preparation, over 200,000 LGBT Americans converged on Washington DC on October 10, 2009 and demanded that the president that we helped elect, who promised to overturn "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the "Defense of Marriage Act", live up to his promises. We're still waiting.

Although we lost in California, we gained domestic partnership in Washington state and full marriage rights in Iowa, New Hampshire and Washington DC. 2009 was a banner year for LGBT rights. As we usher in 2010, we must dig down deep to continue the fight and keep up the pressure on Washington and our statehouses. Our time is now.

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Separated at Birth?

This just in from Kevin in the (212):

"I was catching up on my DVR'd "D-List" episodes last night when I realized my dear Kathy Griffin is starting to remind me of a slightly less attractive version of another fave of mine, Miss Coco Peru. (Are you taping your wig to give yourself a faux facelift now, Kath? Come on!)"

Kathy Griffin to Host Joan Rivers Comedy Central Roast

(From EW.com)

"My Life on the D List star Kathy Griffin will host the Comedy Central Roast of Joan Rivers. The event will tape on July 26 in Los Angeles, and air on the network on Aug. 9. 'I will be roasting Joan with more gentleness and tenderness than her latest chemical peel,' said Griffin in the network release. 'On the other hand, I will give her a verbal pap smear and god only knows what I'm going to find down there.'"

Why We Love Kathy Griffin

Kathy Griffin's appearance on Late Night with David Letterman this week demonstrates why we can't get enough of the queen of the d-List.