This week I share a personal story about working with Kathy Griffin!
VIDEO SUMMARY
Last week’s video was so serious that this week I wanted to do something more lighthearted. So I am going to do a storytime video on another one of my work experiences. I am going to talk about the time I worked with Kathy Griffin, and we are going to get into all the details.
Kathy Griffin has been in the news a lot lately over the controversy with the mask of President Trump. Please do not take this video as any kind of political statement. I do not want to be getting any death threats from this video. I am just sharing a personal story from over 10 years ago. My opinion on the whole trump mask situation, is that it really does not matter whether a Republican or Democrat is in the office. No matter who is President, they should be treated with a level of respect. So whenever any comedian makes jokes about the President, honestly, it makes me uncomfortable. They are the President of the United States. And I know that maybe that makes me old-fashioned, but that was just the way I was raised. So please understand, this video is not Republican or Democrat, and I am not making any political statement here. I much prefer to hear jokes about Justin Beiber or Demi Lovato. I love a good Demi Lovato joke. So Demi I’m sorry… not sorry.
Now that is out of the way, let us get into the story. We are going to go back to 2005. I worked for a while with the TV station E! Entertainment, and one year I worked on the whole cycle of award shows. What a lot of people do not understand is that all the major award shows are scheduled in a row. You have the Emmy Awards, Golden Globes, SAG Awards, and the Oscars. All the same camera crews work on each show. They just move from show to show to show. So that is what I did for a year, and it was a blast.
So where does Kathy Griffin come in? E! Entertainment hired Kathy Griffin (along with Star Jones) to host “Live from the Red Carpet” at the 2005 Golden Globe Awards. You have to understand what was happening at the time. Joan and Melissa Rivers had just left E! over a dispute and went to the TV Guide Channel. So for the very first time, E! Entertainment was facing very real competition for red carpet coverage. So E! decided to go in a new direction and hired Kathy Griffin.
One of the reasons I am making this video, is that I saw a side of Kathy that is not getting portrayed in the media. I do not normally talk about specific people online, because people generally do not like when you tell their secrets. But Kathy does this to everyone else, so I am hoping she can handle it. And this was so long ago that she probably does not even remember who I am. The side of Kathy Griffin you normally see in public is very loud and in your face, but I got to know a more vulnerable side of Kathy. The reality was Kathy was nervous about doing Live from the Red Carpet, and she had good reason to be. Fashion Police is the show where everyone sits around and comments on everyone’s outfit from the night before. Fashion Police had been making fun of Kathy for years, and putting her on the “Worst Dressed List.” Kathy was an easy target, because she was a comedian. So it was very easy for Fashion Police to make fun of Kathy, while sparing the feelings of the other celebrities they wanted to make a good impression with. So for years, they were making fun of her and showing these goofy photos of her on the red carpet. And now Kathy herself was going to be a member of the fashion police. Have you ever seen that movie “Mean Girls.” Lindsay Lohan plays a red-haired girl who becomes friends with the popular, fashionable girls in school. Well this situation was like “Mean Girls,” but in real life. She is actually sitting on a panel with other people who were mean to her. So Kathy was very nervous.
So the day of the Golden Globes arrives, and I think she rocked that show. She looked amazing. She shows up wearing this beautiful green dress. And she was very professional. She showed up on time. She did her homework. She was super prepared. She was a pleasure to work with. And you have to remember. This show is live, and live shows are tough because you can do all the preparation, but things change all the time and you have to perform on the spot, and there is no second take. I thought she was funny in the show. But I am just an accountant. What do I know about comedy? So you can actually decide for yourself. I found clips from the red carpet coverage on YouTube, and I put the links in the description box below, so you can watch the clips and decide for yourself. In fact, leave a comment down below and let me know what you think. I even found the clip of the infamous Dakota Fanning joke. Kathy made this joke about Dakota Fanning going to rehab. I hate to explain jokes to people, but the joke is funny because it is so absurd. But not everybody found it funny, and the press really got worked up over that particular joke. So you can watch the clips for yourselves and let me know what you think.
Mariska Hargitay and Kathy Griffin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwrTNCv8eEg
Kerry Washington and Kathy Griffin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPLb5PwTfuo
Dakota Fanning joke: https://www.thedailybeast.com/kathy-griffin-insults-dakota-fanning
The other thing to realize is that these are long days of shooting. E! Entertainment covers the pre-award show, and the post-award show. And then everyone starts work at 4am the next morning to shoot Fashion Police. So these are really long days. And let me tell you something. You really find out about a person’s character at 4am in the morning. At 4am, Kathy shows up, and what I saw really struck me. I will always remember this. She treated every crew member on that set with care and respect. Whether it was the makeup artist, or the camera man, we were all working together to get ready for the show. It did not matter if you were the most important person, or the least important person. And I was the least important person on that set. I was just starting out my career. I did not have any connections. Kathy Griffin treated me just like everyone else on that set. She was such a pleasure to work with. You have to understand, this is not normal behavior in Hollywood. That is why this stands out so much in my memory out of all the celebrities I have worked with. The normal behavior of celebrities is to be nice to people who are important or famous, and not to care about anybody else. Kathy Griffin is on a really short list of celebrities I knew who treated every crew member as if they were important and they had something to contribute. And for me personally, that stands for a lot. That was the real Kathy Griffin. That was the 4am Kathy Griffin. It is something I will never forget.
What Kathy did not know, was I worked on the business side of E! Entertainment. I was the person who was crunching the ratings numbers. If you know anything about television, it is all about the ratings. And E! was closely watching the ratings to see if they wanted to keep hiring Kathy for future shows. What you can get from the ratings is a minute by minute breakdown of the show. You can see when people are tuning in and when they are tuning out. I was going through all the numbers, and the ratings were good. People were tuning in to see what Kathy Griffin was going to do on the red carpet. And this is not some big secret. The ratings numbers get published in all the trade journals. I took my analysis to the executives at E! and said “Look at this. Kathy is winning out there.” But like I said before, I was not that important, so my analysis did not mean all that much. E! Entertainment ended up firing Kathy anyway. But it was not because she did get great ratings or did not deliver. She ended up getting fired over stylistic differences.
That was the extent of my interactions with Kathy Griffin. It was only two days, but it made such an impression on me. So much so, that it is something that I try to bring to my career today. It does not matter who you are in the company, whether you are somebody cleaning the floors, or a new hire just starting out, you should treat everyone like they are the most important person in the world. And for that, I have to say: Kathy Griffin, I am a fan… even though sometimes your jokes make me feel uncomfortable.
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Neither Zach De Gregorio or Wolves and Finance Inc. shall be liable for any damages related to information in this video. It is recommended you contact a CPA in your area for business advice.