On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 3:57 PM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote:

> Per the interview, once Suddenly Susan wrapped Griffin and her people
> assumed she'd land a starring vehicle for herself. It never materialized.
> What she said in the interview was she ultimately found herself doing the
> reality series and related banality because no other offers occurred. And
> once you find yourself working crappy shows (as I experienced working
> behind the scenes in dick clark productions hell), it is tough to catch a
> break and advance to something more substantive/rewarding.
>
> Like I said, not a fan of hers, but people wanting to hear a realistic
> side of the pandering nature of Hollywood should listen to her. It is rare
> to find anyone in the business who openly admits, hey, I'd rather be doing
> something better than this. The only other one who comes to mind is
> Harrison Ford who has freely admitted to both Conan O'Brien and Jon Stewart
> that the movies he's there to promote aren't worth watching.
>

Again, while I am not a huge fan of hers, and of much of her genre, I think
it is important to distinguish between her understanding of what she is
doing and how others might interpret it. I don't think she sees "D List" as
crappy banality, I think she sees that as her taking her lack of
opportunity into something she made for herself and that she is quite proud
of.

I think in the interview the contrast she is drawing is between herself and
the paths open to Janeane Garofalo and Sarah Silverman, two other women who
were also part of the alt comedy circles she ran with, and which Maron was
a dean of. Griffin seems a little jealous of the other two women, perhaps
implying that they had doors opened to them (both in films and television)
because of their looks (perhaps this is what led to her openly admitted
forays into plastic surgery), though I am quite sure Garofalo at least
would hotly dispute that. My own view would be that of those three women,
Griffin is by far the least talented, and so deserved to have fewer doors
opened for her. Griffin does acknowledge that she never was a conventional
comic or stand-up. But she does seem to have a chip on her shoulder that
she was told she was never on the list to replace Dave - implying it was
some kind of anti-woman thing. The fact that it even occurred to her that
she should replace Dave is evidence of a profoundly different understanding
of her career than I have, and it seems obvious her being left off the long
list had nothing to do with her gender.

I dislike Kathy Griffin a lot less than I assumed I would before I was very
familiar with her work, and that is about as high as my regard goes for her.

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