"I think we all have moments where we feel like we're on the D-list and we're at a family reunion or an office party, and it really is that feeling of being on the outside looking in and being a little bit envious, but mostly bitter," she said. "And yes, I do embrace it. There's nothing more fun to me than having a big bucket of bitter with a side of envy."
Her mother, Maggie — who is a recurring guest on Griffin's reality show," My Life on the D-List" — is currently facing her own D-list troubles. Half of the time, Maggie lives with Griffin. The other half of her time is spent in a retirement building, where she's struggling to fit in with the other women.
"She is working her way up through the ranks," Griffin said. "It's fascinating, they sit at different tables, and she kind of wants to sit with this girl Myrna, but her other friend Lisa doesn't let her sit with Myrna. It never ends. And that's why I think people have embraced the D-list because it really does never end. High school never ends, so get ready because they could tell you that you graduated, but you didn't."
For the upcoming season of "My Life on the D-List," Griffin says her mom rules.
"First of all, my mother has a book coming out. So f**k me and the horse I rode in on," Griffin said. "By the way, this is a real book. Not like on the other reality shows where people act like they have a book. She's got a real, freakin' book deal. And her book comes out June 29, and it's called Tip It because she likes to tip her box of wine if it's running low ... You have to realize, I am now the sidekick on my own show. My mom is the star, she's run with it, and I'm just happy to play the nosy secretary."
Even if her own mother has stolen her show from her, Griffin is still far from the D-list. She's won two Emmy Awards for "My Life on the D-List," was nominated for a Grammy with her comedy album, For Your Consideration, and her book, Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin, became a New York Times Best Seller.
But that doesn't mean everyone's accepted her into A-list status. She has been banned multiple times from "The View," and most recently from CNN, where she dropped an F-bomb on air while talking about Balloon Boy with Anderson Cooper.
"I was banned from ‘The View,' and I offended Barbara [Walters], and what do you know, my show got good ratings, and I was invited back on. And I offended Barbara again because I said something about her, and I was banned for a while, and then, what do you know? My book became a number one New York Times Best Seller and I went back on again! So I sort of learned like, ‘Oh, I get it.' They call you when they need you and if they don't need you, they get the added bonus that they find me offensive."
Griffin's "She said what!?" attitude may offend Hollywood powerbrokers, but to the rest of the world, her outlook on celebrity and "glamour" is realistic, and downright hilarious.
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Kathy Griffin
DeVos Performance Hall, Grand Rapids June 13, 7:30 p.m. $45.50 and $65.50 devosperformancehall.com, (616) 742-6500
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"The thing I hate most about Hollywood is basically how stupid everyone is," she said. "It bothers me that nobody reads the paper in Los Angeles — I'm not even sure that the mayor reads the paper."
Not that she's completely cynical about Hollywood. There are many wonderful things about Hollywood that Griffin embraces.
"We have Speidi, and they started one way, and now they're calling 911 because Heidi's mom rang their doorbell, and Spencer has a beard and looks like he hasn't eaten in a while, and now there's photographs of their house and they're hoarders — that's the type of thing that I'm all over," she said. "You know, it's one thing to make jokes about ‘The Hills' when it started, but now it's turned into this whole other thing where Heidi looks like Joan Rivers and Spencer looks like a roadie from the Grateful Dead. So that's what I love about Hollywood, is the changes are ever growing."
It's those people that are at pop culture's forefront that Griffin loves, and another reason why she loves Hollywood.
"Hollywood is the gift that keeps on giving," she said. "That's what I love about someone like Sarah Palin. She's not going anywhere, she is the gift that keeps on giving, and she says something stupid on a weekly basis that people have heard and I find the people need to discuss it. So when I hit the stage, I guarantee to you, Sarah Palin would have said something ridiculous."
On the topic of Palin, Griffin says Levi Johnston, "my lover, my constant companion," is doing well. Griffin and Johnston made headlines last summer when she brought him as her date to the 2009 Teen Choice Awards. She followed up by going on "Larry King Live" and announcing she was pregnant with his child.
"...this year on ‘My Life on the D-List,' Levi and I actually knock on Sarah Palin's door. We're goin' the extra mile for ya," Griffin said.
When Griffin hits the stage in Grand Rapids, it won't be the first time she'll be visiting West Michigan. Originally from Chicago, Griffin's family vacationed in Saugatuck for a week every summer, and says she has great memories of the town.
"I haven't been to Saugatuck in forever, but my brother John and his family still go every year and I'm so happy that they do."
Griffin also guarantees a show that will offend. Onstage, she says, is where she can say all the things she's not allowed to say on television.
"[The show is] not for children. Leave the children at home and come with a very, very open mind," she said. "...the live shows are really where the fur flies. That's where it's goin' down, and that's where I kind of feel like I can say the stuff I can't say anywhere else — I can't say on TV, can't say even if I'm bleeped — that's where it all happens."
