Kathy Griffin Rips Lorne Michaels for Not “Stepping Up” to Help After “Beheading” Photo

More than two years after that fateful photo shoot, Kathy Griffin is finally ready to speak out — and she’s done apologizing. On this week’s episode of The Daily Beast’s The Last Laugh podcast, the comedian opened up about the “beheading” photo, her sudden unemployment, and her eventual apology, which she “one thousand percent rescind[s].” Griffin revealed that shortly after the controversy, Alec Baldwin asked her to appear in the Saturday Night Live Season 43 premiere, but ultimately, the offer “came and went.” While Griffin said that she doesn’t blame Baldwin for the testy situation, she does blame SNL boss Lorne Michaels, who “could have just stepped up and done anything” to help her.

A few months after Griffin was photographed holding a bloody mask of Donald Trump (in May 2018), Baldwin, and many other Hollywood heavyweights, began texting her. “Alec Baldwin was reaching out, saying basically, this is not what we do in America,” she told The Last Laugh‘s Matt Wilstein. However, a few months later, SNL‘s Trump impersonator changed his tact and asked her to appear in the Season 43 premiere. “When he said Lorne [Michaels] and I would like you to do the premiere of SNL, I was like, ‘No way,'” said Griffin. “And I even said, ‘I don’t think Lorne’s a fan … so is this like your idea?’ And then the next day he goes, ‘No, I talked to Lorne, he’s a fan.'”

Griffin told Baldwin that it “would be great” to participate in an SNL sketch, and she even offered to go above and beyond to sell the bit. “Look, I’m not being precious,” she recalled telling Baldwin. “If you want me to walk on holding the head on a stick, if you guys can make it funny, I’ll throw myself under the bus.” Griffin called her agents, who also represented Baldwin at the time, and tried to clear up some things. “Now it’s getting to the point where I need somebody to officially step in,” she said. “Is this Alec just trying to be a good pal and say, don’t worry, you’re going to get work again? Or are they really thinking about a sketch with me in it?”

The comedian’s agents told her that they “didn’t want to bother Lorne” with her questions, and after a while, the entire thing fizzled out. “Finally, it just kind of came and went,” said Griffin. “I’m not blaming Alec, because I really do think he had good intentions. I do blame Lorne.”

“I guess I’m just disappointed that to this day, all the powerful people that could have just stepped up and done anything,” she said, clearly lumping Michaels into that category. “If I had done even just a funny internet video with someone that could have given me some sort of stamp of like, she’s okay. She’s still the Kathy from Suddenly Susan, all the specials, My Life on the D List … She’s still the same girl. And to this day, nobody has done it.”

Listen to Kathy Griffin’s entire interview with The Last Laugh‘s Matt Wilstein here.

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