'Fashion Police' Controversy: Kathy Griffin Leaves E! Show After 7 Episodes, Does Not Want to Criticize 'People's Bodies'
The comedian believed to carry on the torch of Joan Rivers on E!’s “Fashion Police” has quit. Kathy Griffin told fans she will be leaving the show after only a few episodes. Though she did not say it, her departure could be linked to the comments Giuliana Rancic made about Zendaya.
On a lengthy letter posted to her Twitter account, Griffin, 54, informed her fans that she will be leaving “Fashion Police” after seven episodes, following former host Kelly Osbourne, who left the show in February.
Recounting her accomplishments, her LGBT activism and her shows for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, Griffin said she would leave E! show.
“When I chose to step into the shoes of my beloved friend Joan Rivers at Fashion Police, I was thrilled to continue her legacy as a woman being brash and eccentric on television,” she wrote.
She admits her jokes can be brash and inappropriate but she does them with context, adding, “There is plenty to make fun of in pop culture without bringing people’s bodies into it.”
As a feminist, she “does not want to use [her] comedy to contribute to a culture of unattainable perfectionism and intolerance towards difference.”
“After 7 episodes of Fashion Police, I discovered that my style does not fit with the creative direction of the show [and] now it’s time to move on,” Griffin explained, adding that she wanted to help women, gay kids and people of color. “I wish E! and the E! team only the best and I hope to continue to make you all laugh performing live or on television, where I can be smart, irreverent, unrepentant and unafraid in observational way that is candid, honest and justified.”
Friend and former co-host of “Fashion Police,” Kelly Osbourne, congratulated Griffin on Twitter.
The network confirmed Griffin had left the show but said “Fashion Police” will continue airing.
"We can confirm that Kathy Griffin is leaving E!'s ‘Fashion Police,’" the network said in a statement, according to E! News. "We wish her all the best and are grateful for her time on the show, as well as the many laughs that she gave us all. ‘Fashion Police’ will return, as scheduled, on Monday, March 30, at 9 p.m. with our talented co-hosts Giuliana Rancic and Brad Goreski, and executive producer Melissa Rivers. “
Though it was not explicitly said, Griffin could be leaving the show following the comments Rancic made, saying Zendaya looked like she smelled of patchouli oil and weed.
Talking with the Chicago Sun-Times’ Splash Magazine earlier this week, Griffin was asked if there would have been an issue if she had said the joke.
“Probably not,” Griffin said. “But I wouldn’t have said the joke in the first place. Some dude wrote it for her.”
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