Tag: Kathy Griffin

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Lawsuit Against Kathy Griffin By Covington Catholic Students Dismissed

Comedian Kathy Griffin
Comedian Kathy Griffin
Comedian Kathy Griffin

A lawsuit filed against comedian Kathy Griffin by a group of students from Covington Catholic in Kentucky has been dismissed (again) by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

I’m sure you remember the sad tale of the Covington students who were involved in a standoff with a group of Native Americans in Washington D.C. on January 18, 2019.

Video footage of student Nick Sandmann, wearing a red MAGA hat standing face to face with Native American elder Nathan Phillips, went viral as the young student was viewed by many as being disrespectful to the Native American elder.

Sandmann later said he was trying to “defuse” the situation by standing still and “remaining calm.”

In the aftermath, Sandmann and his family sought to cash in on what they believed was his victimhood in the situation calling out media outlets for defaming and vilifying him.

Sandmann sued and eventually settled with CNN and the Washington Post.

The group of students in this case alleged harm by Griffin when she tweeted, “Names please, and stories from people who can identify them and vouch for their identity. Thank you.”

“Maybe you should let this fine Catholic school know how you feel about their students (sic) behavior toward the Vietnam veteran, Native American #NathanPhillips,” she said in a follow-up tweet.

But the Cincinnati Enquirer reports the 6th U.S. Circuit Court ruled on Tuesday that Covington Catholic students cannot bring harassment claims against Griffin.

U.S. District Judge William Bertelsman had granted a request from Griffin to dismiss the case but the students appealed that decision to the 6th Circuit.

Bertelsman also dismissed the students’ defamation and harassment lawsuits against CNN, the Washington Post and NBC.

A three-judge panel at the 6th Circuit upheld Bertelsman’s ruling saying the ‘Kentucky longarm statute’ being cited in the cases had no jurisdiction regarding Griffin since she hadn’t “committed any act ‘in [the] Commonwealth’ of Kentucky.”

Circuit Judge Julia Gibbons wrote in the decision, “To satisfy that provision of the longarm statute, the ’cause of action must arise from defendant’s activities’ in Kentucky.”

Additionally, the panel found, “there is no evidence that the defendants posted the tweets hoping to reach Kentucky specifically as opposed to their Twitter followers generally.”

And….done.

(h/t to TRR reader Rusty)

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GOPer Blames Madonna, Kathy Griffin For Capitol Attack

Madonna was blamed by a member of Congress for the attack on the U.S. Capitol last week
Madonna was blamed by a member of Congress for the attack on the U.S. Capitol last week
Madonna (image via Depositphotos)

Republican Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado raised eyebrows today when he attempted to blame international pop-star Madonna and comedian Kathy Griffin for the attack on the U.S. Capitol last week.

The statement came during hours of debate today on whether to approve an article of impeachment against Donald Trump for inciting a violent mob that invaded the U.S. Capitol building as Congress was certifying the Electoral College votes.

Buck told his colleagues that Americans were ‘frustrated’ by a laundry list of things including the Special Counsel investigation into the Trump campaign’s links to Russia, efforts by Congress to impeach Trump (the first time), and more.

“They were frustrated when members of this House spoke over and over about impeaching the President days into his administration,” Buck said. “And then the socialists in Hollywood joined their allies in Congress.” 

The socialists in Hollywood…here we go…

“Robert De Niro said that he wanted to punch the president in the face,” continued the Colorado lawmaker. “Madonna thought about blowing up the White House. Kathy Lee Griffin held up a likeness of the President’s beheaded head, and nothing was heard and nothing was said by my colleagues at that point in time.”

That’s not accurate, of course.

Griffin received considerable pushback from members of both political parties at the time of her ‘severed head’ stunt. 

According to Newsweek she was investigated by the Secret Service and the FBI, placed on the no-fly list for months and lost her New Year’s Eve CNN gig with Anderson Cooper. She also found it difficult to book stand-up comedy appearances for a long period of time.

And while it’s true that Madonna did allude to ‘blowing up the White House,’ Buck takes her comment totally out of context.

Her statement occurred at the women’s march on Washington in January 2017 opposing the inauguration of Donald Trump.

Here’s the remark in full:

“Yes, I’m angry. Yes, I am outraged. Yes, I have thought an awful lot of blowing up the White House, but I know that this won’t change anything. We cannot fall into despair. As the poet W.H. Auden once wrote on the eve of World War II: ‘We must love one another or die.’ I choose love. Are you with me? Say this with me: We choose love…”

Madge clarified her comments on Instagram the very next day writing, “I am not a violent person, I do not promote violence and it’s important people hear and understand my speech in it’s entirety rather than one phrase taken wildly out of context.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Madonna (@madonna)

Madonna and Kathy Griffin were soon trending on Twitter for this very surprising reason.

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Lily Tomlin Officiates Kathy Griffin’s New Year’s Eve Wedding

L-R Kathy Griffin, Lily Tomlin, Randy Bick (screen capture)

Kathy Griffin can look back at 2019 with a smile.

And a ring. A wedding ring.

On top of releasing her documentary, A Hell of a Story, which chronicled her experiences after sharing her infamous Trump decapitation photo in 2017, she also scored with her latest comedy show, Laugh Your Head Off.

And in the last seconds of the year married her longtime boo, Randy Bick, in a New Year’s Eve ceremony officiated by none other than Lily Tomlin.

Girl, you ain’t no D-List if Lily Tomlin is presiding over your nuptials.

“What was supposed to be a shallow, ‘toot it and boot it’ one-night stand has grown and flourished into something far more meaningful,” says Tomlin at the beginning of the ceremony. “They stayed together. Then they couldn’t stay away from one another.”

And they say romance is dead…

Griffin shared in a follow-up tweet that her attire for the wedding was the dress she wore on her first date with Bick.

“This was our first formal date in September 2011!” she wrote. “We are in the back of a limo provided by the one only @GloriaEstefan because her team arranged for me to surprise her as a back up ‘dancer’ when she performed at the Alma awards!”

“I asked Randy to pick out whichever one of my long dresses was his favorite for any reason. He picked out this dress and showed me this photo. Romance is hotttt again.”

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News Round-Up: July 23, 2018

Derek Chadwick (image via Instagram)

 Some news items you might have missed:

• Instagram celeb/model Derek Chadwick (above) comes out as gay.

• Liza Minnelli is auctioning thousands of personal belongings July 30 – August 1, including personal items, correspondence, awards, and photos from her mother Judy Garland, as well as pristine bespoke outfits from designers such as Halston, Chanel, Givenchy, and more. For more info, click on this link.

• The New York Daily News has gutted its newsroom by firing half its staff in an effort to refocus the newspaper’s efforts on breaking news. The below tweet is from the now-former editor-in-chief.

• Controversial soccer player Jaelene Hinkle has been cut from U.S. Women’s National Team. In 2017, she refused a call-up to the women’s national team on the basis that she didn’t want to wear a rainbow number for the team’s Pride Month initiative based on her religion.

• My Instinct colleague Samuel reviews Kathy Griffin’s new Laugh Your Head Off comedy tour.

• Read this: The story of a woman who took care of hundreds of abandoned gay men dying of AIDS.

•  Delaware has become the 15th state to ban so-called “conversion therapy.” #happyDance

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Kathy Griffin’s 17-Minute Rant On TMZ’s Harvey Levin & Bravo’s Andy Cohen

If you are into celebrity feuds, you may be interested in this video posted by Kathy Griffin who is apparently persona non grata everywhere after her “beheaded Trump” schtick some months ago.

Over 17 minutes, Griffin gets around to trashing Harvey Levin of TMZ, Jeff Zucker of CNN, Andy Cohen of Bravo and more.

Watch below as it’s currently trending all over the interwebs.

And all the while, Andy Cohen (who has replaced Griffin for CNN’s New Year’s Eve broadcast) played dumb during an airport interview saying he didn’t know who Kathy Griffin is.

(He was the Bravo executive who oversaw her show My Life On The D-List).

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Kathy Griffin: Donald Trump Is “Trying To Ruin My Life”

Comedian Kathy Griffin gave an emotional, sometimes rambling press conference today regarding the controversy surrounding the image and video of her holding a mask of Donald Trump meant to look like his severed head.

Standing alongside her publicist, Lisa Bloom, Griffin addressed the scandal saying, “I make mistakes. I’m an out there comedian.”

She made a point of saying her apology, issued earlier this week, still stands but added, “I don’t think I’m going to have a career after this. I’m going to be honest. He broke me. A sitting president of the United States and his grown children and the First Lady, personally, I feel, are trying to ruin my life forever.”

The former My Life on the D-List star shared that she is receiving death threats that are “constant, detailed and specific.”

I’m, personally, not sure the press conference was a good idea. In situations like this, where she did go too far, it’s best to make your apology and then step back.

Watch below.

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Backlash Continues For Kathy Griffin In Wake Of “Beheading” Stunt

After posting a very graphic photo of a fake “beheading” of Donald Trump, comic Kathy Griffin took to Twitter to beg for forgiveness.

“I’m a comic. I crossed the line. I moved the line, then I crossed it. I went too far. The image was too disturbing. It wasn’t funny. I beg for your forgiveness.”

The stunt is already affecting Griffin’s bottom line as one casino has cancelled a summer appearance, and even buddy Anderson Cooper has denounced the photo as CNN fired her from her high-profile New Year’s Eve gig.

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CNN’s Don Lemon To Kathy Griffin On The Air: “Nice Rack”

During a stroll through Times Square with Anderson Cooper during the CNN coverage of New Year’s Eve, comedian Kathy Griffin dropped her coast to walk sans blouse.

CNN’s Don Lemon remarked from New Orleans to Griffin, “nice rack – didn’t know you had all that going on up there.”

Lemon, who is openly gay, was also sipping from a cup during the evening which his co-host Brooke Baldwin took from him after the comment.

Anderson Cooper (also openly gay) responded to Griffin dropping her coat with “you’ve got a rocking bod, I have to say.”

Thoughts? Was this a bad thing? Was it just New Year’s Eve antics? Does it matter that Lemon or Cooper are gay? If a straight male news anchor told a guest they had a “nice rack” would that fly?

Or are folks just bored and making a mountain out of two nicely “racked” mole hills?