Kathy Griffin Leaves ‘Fashion Police’: The Timeline

March 16, 2015
Photo: PRPhotos

Comedienne Kathy Griffin often gets in trouble for things she said – but her current controversy all stems from things she didn’t want to say. Kathy stayed an extra day in New York just to sit down with Howard and tell him the full story behind the controversy swirling around her leaving E!’s “Fashion Police” after just seven episodes.

Here is the timeline of how everything went down:

September 2014 – before Joan Rivers passed away, it was reported that Kathy Griffin was vying for her gig on “Fashion Police.” It was even reported that Kathy was talking about getting the gig at Joan’s funeral. Not only is this untrue, but Kathy had said at the time that she wouldn’t take the job since it was too sensitive and too odd.

January 2015 – Kathy debuts on “Fashion Police” with Kelly Osbourne, Giuliana Rancic and Brad Goreski. “They had a format they wanted me to stick to which was contrary to what they said in the beginning,” Kathy said. Joan had used zingers and cue cards, which is a different style of comedy than Kathy’s own. Kathy said they told her she could clean house if she wanted but she wasn’t looking to put anybody out of work.

Melissa Rivers called Kathy and said she was the only person her mother would’ve given her blessing to.

February 2015 – It was reported that Kelly wasn’t thrilled with Kathy as Joan’s replacement. Kathy doesn’t think that’s true. Kelly is still grieving and any “shade” between them was false and made up. Kathy claimed she never worked at a show with so many leaks – “It’s a leaky boat over there,” she told Howard.

March 2015 – During the “Fashion Police” Oscar Special, Giuliana Rancic says of actress Zendaya Coleman’s dreadlocks: “I feel like she smells like patchouli oil … and maybe weed.”

Giuliana’s comments were deemed racist and Kelly Osbourne, who is pals with Zendaya, resigned from the show that very day over Rancic’s comments. “My impression of Giuliana was she is not a raving racist,” Kathy told Howard.

Of Kelly’s departure, Kathy said: “I think that Kelly has said post that she had four or five such great years with Joan.” Kathy continued: “To me that means, ‘You know it’s not the same as it was with Joan.’ I gotta be honest, I kind of feel the same way.”

March 12th, 2015 – Kathy resigns from the show after just seven episodes. Kathy admitted to Howard that “Fashion Police” wasn’t her best work, and claimed that it’s not really what she does. ”I’m a comic. The other people on the panel are not comics. I felt like I was being forced to dog pile on these women who showed up … and looked great.”

Kathy told E!’s Frances Beriwick “Please understand, this just isn’t what I do.” The network let her walk away.

Comedian (and King of Hollywood Comedy) Judd Apatow called Kathy to express his admiration for her stand-up specials and Kathy asked him for Lena Dunham’s phone number. She called Lena up and asked her to help craft a statement, and Lena obliged.

Kathy released this statement across all her media platforms:

She also reached out to her celebrity friends, asking them to publicly support her. Many of her friends: Kelly Osbourne, Courtney Love, Ali Wentworth, etc. all tweeted messages of support.

Kathy’s good friend Cher called her up and said she needed clarification. Once she got the story, she asked how to tweet and, thus far, hasn’t tweeted anything about Kathy. Still, we’re sure Cher supports her friend.

Now, Kathy is turning back to her live performing roots and looking to the future.

“I probably burned the bridge for all of NBC Universal,” Kathy said.

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