Allegedly

Kathy Griffin knows she is not on the A-list, and she has built an entire stand-up act around why she belongs exactly where she is. On stage, she is less of a traditional joke-teller and more of a professional gossip, using the word “allegedly” as a legal shield while she targets the egos of Gwyneth Paltrow, Renée Zellweger, and Barbara Walters. Her approach is a mix of backstage journalism and high-society sabotage, treating the glamorous elite of the early 2000s with the absolute lack of reverence they deserve.

Recorded at the Variety Arts Theatre in Los Angeles in late 2004, the special catches Griffin at a pivotal career transition. Her sitcom Suddenly Susan was a few years in the past, her reality series My Life on the D-List was still a year away, and she was releasing this set directly to DVD to bypass network television censorship. She delivers long, winding stories about pitching a sitcom to Kelsey Grammer, surviving a tense guest appearance on The View, and observing the chaotic behavior of Brooke Shields’ mother at Shields’ wedding. The set also includes an extended look at her USO tour to the Persian Gulf, where she finds comedy in military bureaucracy and desert heat.