14 DAY TRIAL // Now that she’s out of her contract with E!, after having decided to leave Fashion Police, Kathy Griffin is at liberty to talk to the media about the reasons behind the decision, while also revealing whatever inside details she has on the aftermath of the Giuliana Rancic racist controversy and Kelly Obsourne’s shocking departure.
Griffin did just that in her chat with Howard Stern, the first interview she’s agreed to since announcing on social media she’d decided to leave the show after only 7 tapings. You can find some excerpts from the full chat below, while the rest is available on SoundCloud.
Not her best work, she regrets taking the offer
What stands out the most in the interview is the fact that Kathy feels (and is willing to admit to it) regret at ever accepting the offer to join the panel of Fashion Police after Joan Rivers’ death last August. It was Joan’s daughter Melissa who called her up to personally ask her to be on the show, but she should have never accepted.
First of all, Fashion Police is simply not the same without Joan, which is something that producers aren’t ready to accept. The show needs to change, and she assumed this was what would happen when she came along; it took her about 7 episodes to understand that she’d been wrong.
Fashion Police can’t adapt, and Kathy is done sticking around and waiting for producers to wake up and smell the proverbial coffee.
“I don’t really feel like it was my best work, I'll be honest,” she says. “I stand by my specials and my series.”
No feuds, just incompatibility
Kathy takes the time to deny reports that she and Kelly had fought for the entire duration of her short stay, or that they both quit because Kelly thought she should have been the one who got the most attention on camera.
She and Kelly are actually friends, Kathy adds. In retrospect, though, it feels like Kelly was just waiting for an “excuse” to get up and leave, since she probably started thinking about it shortly after Rivers’ death, when E! confirmed the show would continue as before.
This excuse was provided to her with Giuliana Rancic’s racist joke about Zendaya Coleman’s hair at the Oscars, which prompted an instant backlash and a very sincere-sounding apology from Rancic.
So yes, there was a lot of drama backstage at Fashion Police, but there were no feuds pushing Griffin out the door, she stresses.
Does she wish none of it had happened? Of course. Does she dream of going back in time and just saying “no” to the offer? Absolutely. But that doesn’t mean that she left slamming the door behind her.