Baltimore Sun

Griffin still hustling after Trump debacle

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Kathy Griffin says two days into the fallout of her 2017 photo posing with a fake severed head of President Donald Trump, she knew she should film what was happening.

She was losing jobs, making headline news and the topic of widespread scrutiny, not to mention the subject of a government investigat­ion into whether she was a credible threat.

“I kept saying, ‘I think this is an important, historic story,”’ Griffin said. “The president and the Department of Justice shouldn’t make you unemployab­le and uninsurabl­e.”

The problem was that no one wanted anything to do with her. So she picked up her iPhone and began filming. There’s no glam, no production crew — not even microphone­s. Griffin says she just knew she needed to capture what was happening in the moment and to keep it real.

The result is a feature film, “Kathy Griffin: A Hell of a Story,” that’s part documentar­y, part comedy special. She financed it herself and carried a poster from interview to interview on a recent press day.

“Look, I made it at Kinko’s, OK? I’m still on the D-list,” she quipped, referring to the Bravo reality series that earned her two Emmy Awards.

The film was well-received at SXSW earlier this year. Fathom Events agreed to show it Wednesday in 700 U.S. theaters. What happens next is anyone’s guess — Griffin just knows she will keep hustling and she’s not giving up.

“I just want people to know you don’t have to go down. You can take a few punches, but after I kick the bucket, I want somebody to go, ‘You know that crazy redhead? They got her but she didn’t go down.“’

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