Unashamedly, comedian Kathy Griffin seeks spotlight, lets it fly

By Joe Brown

Friday, Oct. 30, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Kathy Griffin has nabbed two Emmy Awards for her hit reality show — and she won’t let anyone forget it. She carries the trophies along with her to TV talk show interviews and has done everything short of legally changing her name to “Emmy award-winning comedian Kathy Griffin.” Griffin then set her sights on a Grammy nomination, naming her CD “For Your Consideration” — and got one last year. And now she’s aiming for the Nobel Prize in Literature — or at least a few minutes on Oprah’s couch. The comedian’s autobiography — cheekily titled “Official Book Club Selection” (see item 2) — went right to No. 1 on The New York Times nonfiction best-seller list last month. Griffin performs back-to-back stand-up shows at Mandalay Bay tonight.

1. Griffin titled the book as a naked ploy to get herself invited onto the “Oprah” show. In the foreword, Griffin addresses the Big O Herself: “Dear Oprah. Hi. How are you? How’s Gayle doing today? Nice to hear. Get ready, ’cause after you read this barn burner, you’re gonna want me on for sweeps week. ” Griffin has started a petition to Oprah — she’s more than 38,000 signatures toward her goal of 50,000 — but she still hasn’t been invited onto the show (Griffin did score couch time with Tyra Banks). She’s prepared for the Oprah eventuality: “Let’s establish some ground rules for my much-anticipated appearance on your show. First of all, I’d like to sit on your lap, at a moment of your choosing. Please wear peach. I love you in summer colors ... You will have to introduce me using your signature vowel-elongating bellow. Repeat after me: ‘KAAAA-THAY GRA-A-AA-FF-A-A-A-A-A-N!’ I already have chills.”

2. The book has a jokey title, but it’s a serious, well-written story of Griffin’s life from her chatty childhood. “The littlest Gossip Girl,” she dished the dirt about her family’s secrets to the next-door neighbors — in exchange for cookies. Griffin’s book is available in hardcover (which includes a hilarious parody of a guide for reading groups), but fans might want to also buy it as an abridged, downloadable audiobook — it’s read by the author in her trademark, acquired-taste tone of voice.

3. Like her stand-up act — pretty much a breathless, unscripted 90-minute overshare — the book (which includes some truly scary post-op photos of her plastic surgeries) is an extended case of TMI. Perhaps explaining her whole career, Griffin talks about her mother being prescribed methamphetamines while pregnant with Griffin (“In my mind, she’s Judy and I’m Liza”), her struggles and success as an actress (she turned to stand-up when sitcom gigs grew thin) and developing her gay following as a high schooler.

4. Always game for a photo op (and never above tipping off the paparazzi about her own antics), Griffin, 48, recently added never-was First Babydaddy Levi Johnston to her chain of ludicrous set-up dates, taking the 19-year-old father of Bristol Palin’s baby to the Teen Choice Awards in August. She said: “Long-distance relationships are not easy, especially when he’s in his igloo and I’m in my Hollywood tower.” He said: “I just, you know, look at her, shut up and do what I’m told.”

5. On Tuesday, Griffin will release her version of a Christmas album, a live recording, and Bravo will air her seventh stand-up special the same day. Whether or not she adds a literary prize to her trophy case, it’s undeniable that Griffin has finally made it big: Her face is currently blown up four stories high on the side of the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.