The One Joke Kathy Griffin Will Not Tell

What makes Kathy Griffin do it? On her third New Year's Eve broadcast on CNN with Anderson Cooper, she dropped the f-bomb. And it wasn't even that funny. She deliberately mispronounced the name of that balloon kid--"Is it Falcon, fuckin,...?" You could tell the only reason she said it was that she was on live, she could get away with it, and CNN probably made a big deal about her not cursing just because she told some rowdy guy in Times Square to suck it last year. She just wanted to push some buttons. The f-word here didn't make a political point or nothing.

But there are some places that even our beloved Kathy won't go. She must want to be asked back to CNN even though she said the f-word. I've heard from several sources that dreamboat Cooper is gay and Kathy, who just loves to push the envelope, did not make one joke about his alleged semi-closety existence, nor has she ever in any of her CNN appearances or anywhere else. Why do you think that is? Particularly when she was also appearing with openly gay Lance Bass (remote from Las Vegas) and Don Lemon (in the crowd) who is also rumored to be gay. This was probably the real super dealbreaker with CNN: "Kathy, if you make insinuation that our fair-haired boy who is our only hope of beating Fox in the ratings is a secret hairdresser, you will never be on any CNN show ever again! And that includes Larry King!"

I wish Anderson could be open enough about his sexuality so that Kathy could rib him instead of just making gags about him getting coffee for Kristain Amanpur. Obvioulsy, middle America could not take having it said that their Anderson who stood up to unfeeling politicians like Senator Landrieu and felt their pain during Katrina, might actually be a show-tune lovin' sissy boy.

I recall one interview Cooper was conducting with Pi Diddy or Sean Colmes or whatever he was calling himself at the time. Diddy offered Cooper some gift to give to his girlfriend. The newscaster replied he didn't have one. Why couldn't he just have said, I'm gay? He would say he's not the story. But all straight newscasters do not hesitate to mention their wives or husbands. It's the old invisibilty again.

Sidenote: While grocery shopping on Sunday, I noticed the National Enquirer at the checkout line. The cover story was "Who's Gay and Who's Not." Anderson was among the celebrities pictured. I actually started to read this fine example of investigative journalism, but the line ahead of me moved and I had to put my yogurt on the moving belt.