Andy Cohen Pretends Not To Know Who Kathy Griffin Is In Bizarre Interview

There’s a reason why “new phone, who dis?” is considered to be the ultimate insult in the digital age. It’s always a bit embarrassing when someone doesn’t know your name when they should. However, it’s downright scathing when you know someone knows your name but they’re pretending to play dumb. It’s one of the ultimate petty power moves, and Kathy Griffin is suffering from it in full force thanks to Andy Cohen.

In TMZ interview that New York Magazine and Huffington Post writer Yashar Ali posted to his Twitter page, Cohen pretends to not have the slightest idea who Kathy Griffin, the woman he’s replacing on CNN’s New Year’s Eve broadcast, is. Here’s the full interview:

Ali starts by congratulating Cohen on the New Year’s job before asking the host if he has planned anything with Kathy Griffin. It’s a logical question as Griffin was unceremoniously replaced from her long-standing gig after her disastrous Trump photoshoot. After asking “Who?” twice, a smiling Cohen says, “I don’t know her.”

So let’s break down what happened. You could argue that Cohen is giving Ali a bad interview because he may be frustrated and is clearly walking from the airport, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Cohen gives good answers to every other question he’s asked. Also, it’s not possible that Cohen truly doesn’t know who Griffin is, considering he was her de facto boss at Bravo for years while Griffin was filming comedy specials and My Life on the D-List for the network. Kathy, what do you have to say about this?

Cohen knows Griffin, and it seemed he wanted to humiliate her in the most Hollywood way possible — by pretending he doesn’t know she exists. Everyone kind of walks away looking silly on this one, but at least we have got a good flustered reporter clip out of is. Stars, they’re just as petty as we are.