The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Griffin loses CNN gig over severed head video
WASHINGTON » CNN says it has cut ties with Kathy Griffin after she posted a video that showed her holding a likeness of President Donald Trump’s severed head.
The network says it has terminated its agreement with the comedian to appear on its New Year’s Eve programs. For a decade, she had co-hosted the annual special with CNN correspondent Anderson Cooper.
Her future with CNN had been in doubt since the video appeared on Tuesday. CNN initially called it “disgusting and offensive.”
In addition to her losing the CNN job, a New Mexico casino said it was canceling a July live engagement, and she has lost a commercial endorsement she landed just weeks ago.
Griffin has apologized for the video.
“I went too far,” she says in a second video. “I sincerely apologize.”
Many people online called for Griffin to be jailed.
The first video showed a straight-faced Griffin slowly lifting the bloody head. She originally described the project with photographer Tyler Shields as an “artsy fartsy statement” mocking the commander in chief.
Griffin says she went way too far when she appeared in the video Tuesday.
The comic apologized later for the image, saying it was “too disturbing” and wasn’t funny.
“I sincerely apologize,” she said in a second video. “I went way too far. The image is too disturbing. I understand how it offends people.”
In her apology video, Griffin begs her fans for forgiveness and says she asked the photographer to remove the images.
“I made a mistake, and I was wrong,” she says.
The video had apparently been removed from Shields’ blog by late Tuesday.
Squatty Potty, a Utahbased bathroom products company, said in a statement Tuesday that it has suspended an ad campaign featuring Griffin.
A publicist for Shields did not respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, a casino in New Mexico has scrapped a scheduled comedy performance by Griffin after her post.
Route 66 Casino, a casino operated by Laguna Pueblo, announced late Tuesday on social media that the July 22 performance by Griffin was canceled.
And Melania Trump says it was “simply wrong” for celebrity Griffin to appear in the video. In a statement released Wednesday, the first lady says that “as a mother, a wife and a human being, that photo is very disturbing.”
She adds: “When you consider some of the atrocities happening in the world today, a photo opportunity like this is simply wrong and makes you wonder about the mental health of the person who did it.”
President Donald Trump has said Griffin “should be ashamed of herself” for the video.
In a post on his Twitter account Wednesday morning, Trump said, “My children, especially my 11-yearold son, Barron, are having a hard time with this. Sick!”
According to TMZ, the grisly image has attracted the Secret Service’s attention. Reportedly, the agency has not directly mentioned the video, but it did answer Twitter users who reported the situation online and has told the celebrity gossip site that it has launched a probe into “the circumstances surrounding the photo shoot.”