Kathy Griffin, The Devil

I never thought of myself as a fan of Kathy Griffin. She co-starred on the Brooke Shields show from the 90s called Suddenly Susan that I never watched. As well, she appeared in two Seinfeld episodes as Sally Weaver. Neither episode is among my faves. Apparently, she was in Pulp Fiction but I do not remember her in it at all.

Top 5 Most Memorable Performances from Pulp Fiction
1. Samuel L. Jackson
2. Bruce Willis
3. Ving Rhames
4. John Travolta
5. Eric Stoltz

But as we moved into the 21st century, she suddenly became very funny to me. She has a psuedo reality show called My Life On The D-List which she makes fun of herself struggling to continue to be a name in Hollywood.

Her persona became one where she essentially told it like it was without caring about the Hollywood phoniness. Her show showed her at her best (hosting award shows, going to parties) and her worst (her divorce, the death of her father). For a reality show, it felt honest.

So you are saying to yourself, why am i writing about her? Well, her show My Life On The D-List won Outstanding Reality Show during this past weekend's Emmy Awards.

In her acceptance speech, she said the following.

"A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. Suck it, Jesus. This award is my god now."

Backstage, she still stood by that rather tongue-in-cheek speech by saying, "I hope I offended some people. I didn't want to win the Emmy for nothing."

Well, it worked. The Catholic League is completely enraged by her comments. Catholic League President Bill Donahue has asked TV academy president Dick Askin to denounce Griffin's speech and for Griffin to publicly apologize.

The Catholic League's website has a scathing article about Griffin's comments with a final paragraph that read as follows:

“Finally, while we are pleased to learn that Griffin’s celebrity stock has plummeted as a result of her scripted speech, we also know that there are some very sick people out there who love it every time some bigot takes a shot at Christianity. To wit: the phone calls and messages we’ve received are proof positive of how visceral the hatred is, much of it aimed directly at the Catholic League. No matter, at the end of the day, Griffin lost and we won.”

According to Griffin's publicist, Griffin's reaction was "Am I the only Catholic left with a sense of humour?"

The joke is really on all of us because Griffin's comments are really a reference to her latest comedy special Everybody Can Suck It. Meanwhile, her fans have launched a new website called suckitjesus.com which includes a petition to stop the sensoring of Griffin's comments.

All of this should make for an interesting new season of My Life On The D-List. I just hope (nee pray) for the day when certain media and religious groups start realizing that some celebrities are simply using them to further their career and they would carry more weight if they started ignoring comments such as Griffin's this past weekend.