That made me go into hiding in my house, that's when the pills started

July 27, 2023 10:21 AM

She isn't to everybody's taste, but Kathy Griffin has a lot to share. After the Trump Photo Incident* her career stopped cold. She's finally back with sold-out shows in Vegas and a new book. In her conversation with Jen Taub for the Booked Up podcast [1h6m, podcast page link], Kathy shares much about her career and life, including addiction and recovery and struggling to rebuild her career. It's an open and frank and very Kathy Griffin conversation that I greatly appreciated. CW: suicide discussion

This is not the conversation you think it's going to be, unless you know Griffin's style. I've been watching her for decades so it all made sense to me.

*In 2017 Griffin tweeted a photo of herself holding up a dummy head with a Trump mask on it covered with ketchup with the implication that she had severed his head. This resulted in the complete blacklisting of Griffin, her losing years-long network contracts, and her being investigated by the Secret Service and suggestions she might be charged with wanting to assassinate the President.

posted by hippybear (8 comments total)

Thank you for posting this. I've been following Kathy for years also (and we share a birth date, a Midwestern Catholic upbringing, and complicated relationships with our mothers...among other things). Looking forward to listening.
posted by pantarei70 at 10:58 AM on July 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

Saving this for a later listen. I’m not sure she’s my cup of tea but I think she’s an interesting figure.
posted by samthemander at 12:11 PM on July 27, 2023

When I saw the picture, I didn't even recognize it as Trump.
posted by mike3k at 1:17 PM on July 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

haha I hadn't seen the original photo. What a cartoonish overreaction to a comedic image depicting something millions of people felt everyday for years.
posted by GoblinHoney at 3:26 PM on July 27, 2023 [5 favorites]

Cartoonish overreaction, sure? But it was a personal vendetta making a hard-working successful woman miserable for years, and fear for her life at times, just because he could do it. Nobody actually believed she was going to kill him. But they could ruin her life if they pretended they did. Full disclosure: I have not listened to the podcast. I follow her and she’s talked about it a fair amount.
posted by Glinn at 4:40 PM on July 27, 2023 [11 favorites]

Kathy's career died for our sins. Thankfully she s still alive.

I guess the lesson from Snoop Dogg is, just use a gun, and then the America cancels itself out
posted by eustatic at 7:54 AM on July 28, 2023 [4 favorites]

If I see art with a woman holding the severed head of a powerful man, I'm thinking Judith and Holofernes (OK, maybe Salome and John the Baptist). The implication is that the man is maybe a lecherous tyrant, and it is an image which has been considered acceptable subject matter for, uh, 500 years? More? I'm pretty sure it was in my high-school art history textbook.

It's a travesty that they would come after her over it.
posted by surlyben at 10:08 AM on July 28, 2023 [4 favorites]

I tried to listen to the podcast but the vocal fry of that interviewer was unbearable.
posted by mygraycatbongo at 6:04 PM on July 29, 2023