A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin

Title: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin

Author: Kathy Griffin

Genre: Memoir

Time: 8 hours

Rating: 8 out of 10

I love Kathy Griffin.  I remember wasting a whole afternoon not working coz I was watching youtube videos of her doing standup comedy.  I remember watching her reality show thinking how adorable her parents were and said to myself how cool that she’s very close to them (I was sad for her when I found out her dad died).  I was delighted to find out that she is Anderson Cooper’s BFF and I remember this hilarious show (I think it was a New Year’s Eve countdown show) where a visibly flustered Anderson Cooper was trying to reign in an obviously drunk Kathy Griffin.  It was pretty funny but I think the producers were probably not happy because the next year, no more Cooper and Griffin.  There was also another show (I think it was Oprah) where Griffin was like in Cooper’s place and she was wearing his undies, I think she was trying to mortify him, kinda like how friends tease each other.  They must be really close coz Gloria Vanderbilt thinks of her like a daughter.  You never would think of Gloria Vanderbilt and Kathy Griffin being all buddy2x with each other.

When I saw this book, I thought, this would be pretty funny like Chelsea Handler’s Memoirs.  But actually, it’s not.  I wasn’t laughing out loud on this on this one like I did with Handler’s books but I liked it still anyway.  As Handler’s book was more of a collection of outrageous anecdotes written in a way to shock the readers into laughter, this one was really a story of Griffin’s long “journey” into making it in Hollywood.  And it wasn’t all smooth sailing, given her personality and how her sense of humor is an acquired taste and she the fact that she is unapologetic about it, which is what I love about her.  She’s kinda like Joan Rivers, she goes there.  She says what people are too kind to say out loud.  She also says aloud what people didn’t even think of.  She sort of has no filter and I find that funny.  Of course, that might not be the best thing to do if you wanna make it in Hollywood as you need to kiss a lot of asses.

I enjoyed reading about her childhood, how she started in Hollywood, the anecdotes of now-famous celebrities before they were famous like the one of Marishka.Hargitay of Law & Order: SVU falling on her ass because no one caught her in their Trust Fall exercise.  It just so random and the type of funny story you’d hear from one of your bffs

The book had a lot of “surprises.” Things I never knew or never would have guessed about her.  Like how she dated Quentin Tarantino.  Another surprise was the whole dating the Woz was a publicity stunt.  Although, I did think at that time house weird it was when he suddenly was getting married when they were still together/just broke up and she was all supportive about the new relationship.  I guess they were two quirky people that you’d think would somehow work.  Although this happened after the book came out but she did the same thing with Sarah Palin’s daughter’s baby-daddy (forgot his name).  But that one was felt kinda desperate, though.

She dished a lot on her book—why her marriage ended, her pedo older brother, who she pissed off in Hollywood and how she pissed them off, and many more.. I thought she’d also talk about the crazy antics she and Anderson Cooper got into but she never mentioned it.  In fact, Anderson Cooper was never mentioned at all in the book.  However, Cooper is a very private person, maybe she promised him he was off limits.

It’s been a while now since I heard or seen of Griffin popping out in television.  She kinda went away after her dad passed away.  She resurfaced doing that creepy publicity stunt with that Palin baby-daddy and again on her short stint replacing Joan Rivers in Fashion Police.  That didn’t last long, though.  I wonder what happened.  Did she piss someone off again?  But one thing I’ve learned from her book is she somehow always bounces back so I’d prolly see her back on TV eventually.