Review: Kathy Griffin’s Celebrity Run-Ins: My A-Z Index

There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who think Kathy Griffin is hilarious and those who don’t get her comedy at all. Count me in the first camp. The red-headed agitator’s latest book is a collection of awkward and funny encounters with some of the most famous people in showbiz. 

Book cover. Shows Kathy Griffin in a red dress on a blue coverTo get Griffin’s humour, you have to be plugged into pop culture. You need to know that Caitlyn Jenner used to be Bruce, Woody Allen married his adopted daughter and Anderson Cooper is a Vanderbilt. You don’t have to take any of it seriously, in fact, it’s better if you don’t. Griffin tells of the time Miley Cyrus finally understood her: You mean they’re all just jokes? Yeah, honey, just jokes.

This book made me laugh out loud several times. Griffin’s nickname for one of the Kardashians is so silly (and she even uses it in front of them) that it gave me several cases of giggles. In a couple of the anecdotes, she starts talking to celebrities she’s never met and creates ridiculous situations. She yelled out “FOSTER” when she spotted Jodie Foster at an event, and introduced the Oscar-winning actress to Sidney Poitier. Foster, humbled by the introduction to living legend Poitier, was egged on by Griffin to explain her Oscar-winning roles to him. You would think someone as accomplished as Jodie Foster might just walk away, dignity intact, but Griffin practically orders her to explain her career to Poitier. It’s a scream. So is the time Griffin embarrassed Leonardo DiCaprio, whom she’d never met, after she spotted him using his phone at an event. Celebrities are sometimes paralyzed by her presence, wanting so desperately to not become part of her live act, that they unwittingly write themselves a role. She can be biting but she isn’t mean.

Some of the entries involving 100+ celebrities are heart-warming, some reek of a little bit of desperation but most of them are amusing at the very least. It does leave one wondering how much longer Griffin can continue to roast the stars in her act, now that she’s become friendly with so many of them. The ones she’s closest to might surprise you, as it did me. This book is the epitome of a “light read”, simply dishy and fun, like the woman herself.

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