Smallscreen Features

Wasilla beckons Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, the full Monty

By April MacIntyre Apr 28, 2010, 0:09 GMT

01/31/2010 - Kathy Griffin - we love her © Albert L. Ortega / PR Photos

"Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List" was promoted yesterday at the NBC summer press day as a trim and petite Griffin took the stage with her assistant Tiffany Rinehart and manager and EP Tom Vize, and gamely answered some of Monsters and Critics questions along with a room full of press at the Pasadena Langham Hotel.

Entering the room, the demur Griffin loudly announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, two-time Emmy Award-winning comedian Kathy Griffin.  Everybody sit down.  Sit down. I'm just a person, quipped Griffin. "I brought my purse like my mom in case any of you f*ckers tried to steal something.  My mother takes her purse to the bathroom. (At this point Griffin holds up a diet Red Bull) I've got the Lindsay Lohan diet, sugar-free Red Bull.

Griffins reality comedy show returns to Bravo in June for a sixth season. 

When one reporter asked her about Kristen Chenoweth's D-Listed appearance, Griffin was effusive, "Kristen Chenoweth is so f*cking cool, and she's a Christian who thinks I'm funny, which has never happened.  So somehow she's like a forward-thinking Christian, and I very much appreciate that she was on My Life on the D-List because I like to make fun of the Jesus, but she brought the heat.  She was great."

Griffin added, "Kristen Chenoweth has a great sense of humor about herself, and so that's not really someone I would target because I'm very focused on Oprah and Ryan Seacrest.  And did you guys read that Kitty Kelley book?  I can't wait to read that.  You know, she called me for a quote, and I was too scared to even talk to Kitty Kelley.  But believe me, I'm going to read it cover-to-cover..."

When asked if everyone was fair game, Griffin said, "somebody who has a sense of humor about themselves is less likely to be in the act or made fun of.  But, no, it's all fair game.  I mean, it's a little hard when I've met someone and they're friendly, but then, you have your Sharon Stones, and they bring the crazy every time you see them really consistently.  So while I think Sharon Stone is glamorous and beautiful and actually pretty funny, she also gives a lot of good material.  And then you have the Sarah Palins that are obvious.  They're nothing but material and less material for the comedian.

Monsters and Critics asked Griffin how her purported lover Levi Johnston was doing.

"Levi. My lover, Levi Johnston is doing so well that we actually went and did an
 episode of My Life on the D-List in Wasilla. Yeah, this isn't the f*cking Kardashians, folks. We went to Wasilla, Alaska, or as Levi calls it, The Silla.'  So we kicked it in The Silla, and Levi and I actually went to Sarah Palin's house and knocked on her door.

We asked if there be a cross-pollination with Sarah Palin's Alaska" and "My Life on the D-List"?

"Yes." Griffin shared.  "I will actually kick her ass, and here's what I can promise you.  I can promise you that My Life on the D-List will have more dick jokes than "Sarah Palin's Alaska," and it will be more amusing, and yet it will be less shocking because I cannot wait to see that shit.  I'm sure -- she's so educated on all things - maybe if you show her where Anchorage is on a map, she can find it.  I question that, though."

One reporter asked Kathy if she felt she had moved up from the D List to a higher celebrity echelon.

"No, and here's why.  I love that question because I have moments where I feel like
 I'm on the A-List.  I really do.  I got nominated for a Grammy for best comedy recording, and I got to be in the real Grammys, not the Schmemmys, like,  those ones that nobody cares about.  So somehow I actually got to go to the primetime ones, and I went, and I'm in my rented Herrera gown and my Fendi shoes, and I'm on my way to talk to Mary Hart at Entertainment Tonight,' and then they stopped me and said, 'Tonight's correspondent for you will be Snooki. (Laughter) And I then was interviewed by Snooki from "Jersey Shore.'  (Laughter)  And that's how I know I am still firmly planted on the D-List where I belong.  Yeah, I know Snooki. I know that's impressive to you."

Twitter came up with Griffin, who is looking to pick a fight.

Griffin dished,  "I am looking to have a Twitter war because that's something that could help me get on the A-List.  So I saw that Demi Moore was having a Twitter war with Kim Kardashian.  So I am on a mission to find a high-profile celebrity to have a Twitter war with, and,  I put it out there.  I do my own twats on Twitter.  So please follow me." Griffin continued, "My twats have a lot to say, and I would love to be in a Twitter war with -- well, Oprah would be my dream.  But if not Oprah, maybe Dr. Phil or -- whoelse?  Maybe -- maybe somebody from "Jersey Shore."  Maybe myself in the situation could have a Twitter war, not that he can read, but somebody could translate into Jersey.

The Lohans came up. Griffin mused, "Or you know what?  Michael Lohan might be good because he probably gets as much press as Lindsay at this point.  And I'll take on Ali.  I'm not afraid.  I don't care that she's a minor.  I'm going to have a Twitter war with Ali Lohan.  How about that?  I'm going to tell her to start that coke younger.  Younger.  Go ahead.  You should have started at 12.  You're a little behind the times, Ali, and then it will blow up."

One reporter asked if David Hasselhoff was worthy of her hoped-for Twitter war.

Griffin didn't miss a beat, "If Hasselhoff was more lucid, I'd be happy to be in a Twitter war with him or at least his cheeseburger.  So I think he would be actually really fun to be in a Twitter war with because his kids would probably just do it for him.  I don't see him picking up the phone and doing his own twatting, but it would be -- somebody like that would great, but you have to  have those weird people that have a million followers.  Like Anderson Cooper's producer Jack Gray, he produces "AC360," and he has a
million freakin' followers, and now that Miley left, because she'd about had it.  I'd love to be in a feud with Miley Cyrus or any of the Cyruses, in particular Noah.  I think I should start a Twitter war with Noah, who's 6 or whatever.  But she'll be on the stripper pole by summer."

Griffin discussed some upcoming "My Life on the D-List" projects.

"The show is a combination of me taking gigs that I think will lend themselves to the show and also the cameras really just following me around for 12 hours a day and hoping I say something funny.  So it's a combination.  So when I'm producing the
show, I purposely pack my calendar with all kinds of crazy things, and then sometimes we come up with ideas.  For example, the pap smear, the genesis of that was in Season 1, I was doing a date somewhere, and then a guy came back stage and he was jumping around excited, and we were taking pictures together.  And he was a gay guy, of course, and he said he's a gynecologist, and he would give me a pap smear.  And ever since that guy, his name is Dr. Hong -- and ever since Dr.
 Hong was jumping around Season 1, we've been toying with the idea of doing a pap smear on the show.  And then this year, we just did it."

Griffin elaborated, "Then things just happened.  Like, for example, when I went to New York to do Law & Order, I really was nervous, and I really did cold-call Liza Minnelli.  I mean, I know her a little bit, but I certainly don't know her well enough to call her and say, 'Can I come over?  Will you help me rehearse?' And she just said, Yes.'  And I sent her a script ahead of time.  I got to her apartment.  She knew the scene better than I did, and then later on, when you do the sit-down interviews on these reality shows, it was really funny because I got a note from Bravo where they said, "You have to re-do that interview.  It's not real.  We don't believe you would just cold-call Liza Minnelli and she would just say, 'Come over.'"  I said, Well,  I don't know what to tell you.  That's what happened.'  So then I got her to be on the D-List.  And, you know, that was something that I hoped for on the show, and then it really, really happened."