.jpg) Kathy Griffin |
Kathy Griffin, the star of the Bravo show “My Life on the D-List,” used her appearance on the Emmy awards program to tell Jesus to “suck it” and to claim full credit for the honor for herself.
Griffin, at the 59th annual Creative Arts Emmy Awards held recently, was honored for having the Outstanding Reality Program, overtaking ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” after several attempts.
“I guess hell froze over,” Griffin announced. “A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this. He had nothing to do with this. … Suck it, Jesus! This award is my god now.”
The statement brought an immediate reaction from Bill Donohue, president of Catholic League. He called it a “vulgar in-your-face brand of hate speech” from a self-described “complete militant atheist.” He also suggested The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences chairman Dick Askin take action, which wasn’t long in coming.
Officials confirmed the remarks will be censored when the program airs Saturday on E!, and Donohue said it was a good beginning.
“The Academy … reacted responsibly to our criticism of Kathy Griffin’s verbal assault on 85 percent of the U.S. population,” he said. “The ball is now in Griffin’s court. The self-described ‘complete militant atheist’ needs to make a swift and unequivocal apology to Christians. If she does, she will get this issue behind her. If she does not, she will be remembered as a foul-mouthed bigot for the rest of her life.”
He continued: “Mel Gibson. Michael Richards. Isaiah Washington. Imus. Jerry Lewis. Every time a celebrity offends a segment of the population, he pays a price, in one way or another. The question now is whether Kathy Griffin will pay a similar price for her outburst. And as we have learned, her verbal assault was calculated.”
Members of the mainstream media, including the Associated Press, were not reporting on the extreme portions of Griffin’s statement, calling it instead an “off-color” remark.
“It is [a] sure bet that if Griffin had said, ‘Suck it, Muhammad,’ there would have been a very different reaction from the crowd and from the media who covered this event,” Donohue said. “To say nothing of the Muslim reaction.”
Donohue noted reports from the event said Griffin’s “foul remark ‘drew laughs.'”
“It falls to Askin to distance the Academy from this outrageous incident. We are contacting Griffin’s agent as well,” Donohue said.
According to Reuters, Griffin’s reaction to the situation was: “Am I the only Catholic left with a sense of humor?”
A blog post on New York Magazine’s website said “we can always count on Kathy Griffin to inject a little energy into a boring awards show.
“Usually she does it from the outside, sniping at celebrities’ outfits with microphone in hand. But this year she finally got invited to the ball, winning a Creative Arts Emmy for Best Non-Competition Reality Program, and the star of ‘Life on the D-List’ didn’t disappoint, unleashing a joyfully blasphemous rant…”
 An amorous Jesus character played by Justin Theroux gooses a virgin librarian (Gretchen Mol) in “The Ten,” a film spoof based on the Ten Commandments |
It’s not the first time actors have been deliberately “in-your-face” against Christian values. As WND reported, a comedy spoof on the Ten Commandments that portrayed Jesus Christ deflowering a sexy virgin triggered outrage.
“The Ten,” rated R for pervasive strong, crude sexual content, language and some drug material, starred Jessica Alba, Winona Ryder, Gretchen Mol and Liev Schreiber, among others.
The movie featured 10 separate stories, each inspired by one of the Ten Commandments from the Bible.
“If you’ve ever stopped yourself from murdering someone, then you yourself have been following the Ten Commandments without even knowing it,” clowned director David Wain on the film’s website.
One storyline has Gretchen Mol playing a virtuous librarian “who has a sexual awakening in Mexico with a swarthy local” named Jesus H. Christ, according to Wain.
He says other tales include:
- A guy (Adam Brody) who becomes an accidental hero after falling out of a plane
- A doctor (Ken Marino) who kills his patients “as a goof”
- A police detective (Liev Schreiber) who covets his neighbor’s Cat Scan machine
- A prisoner (Rob Corddry) who covets his fellow inmate’s “wife”
- A woman (Winona Ryder) who falls in love with, and then steals a ventriloquist’s puppet
 In a scene from “The Ten,” actress Winona Ryder asks a dummy, “Are you going to show me your hard wood [expletive] like you said you would?” |
“This is going to be a very negative attack on faith and values,” Ted Baehr, chairman of the Christian Film and Television Commission, which publishes MovieGuide, told WND. “It’s very sad society has descended into this attack mode.”
Baehr is aware the film is a comedy, but says, “In the old film code, you couldn’t defame anyone’s religion.”
 Comic Sarah Silverman not happy that God is cuddling with her after sex on Comedy Central’s ‘Sarah Silverman Program’ |
Even “The Ten” is not Hollywood’s first portrayal of God having sex with women.
As WND reported in March, Comedy Central finished its season of “the Sarah Silverman Program” by featuring the title character having sex with God and then trying to brush him off after a night of lovemaking.
Silverman was shown in bed with an amorous Almighty, whom she referred to as “Black God,” portrayed by actor Tucker Smallwood, a former NBC television director who also served in the Army in Vietnam.
Ted Baehr’s “MOVIEGUIDE?: The Family Guide to Movies & Entertainment”
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WND Staff