Buried deep in a just-published profile of Kathy Griffin’s quest to get back onto the D-list following the widespread backlash to the comedian’s 2017 photo shoot with a bloody Halloween mask of Donald Trump is the previously undisclosed story of how Griffin helped save Australian singer-songwriter Sia’s life. Sia is known for, among other hits, writing “Chandelier”, for Rhianna.
The piece chronicles the outspoken comedian’s slow return from Hollywood exile in the wake of the photo stunt, noting that along the way, she befriended Sia, who was enmeshed in her own media whirlwind surrounding the 2021 film musical she wrote and directed, Music. The widely panned movie musical that was criticized by disability rights activists for its depiction of people on the autism spectrum and for its casting of a neurotypical actor in the lead role — Sia’s longtime dancer/foil Maddie Ziegler — was a passion project for the singer.
Before Griffin’s downfall, she recorded sixteen television specials breaking the Guinness World Record for the number of aired TV specials on any network.
Griffin has revealed that she does not drink alcohol and although she also does not smoke, she was diagnosed with lung cancer and had part of a lung removed.
Griffin has been banned from multiple television shows including The Ellen Degeneres Show, The View, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Her problems with the shows all start with making tasteless jokes about the producers or actors such as Barbara Walters. On September 11, on an E! News televised event, she commented that eleven-year-old Dakota Fanning had entered drug rehabilitation, which was not true.
