14 DAY TRIAL // Kathy Griffin is speaking out on the controversial comment that Giuliana Rancic made on E!’s Fashion Police, in the episode dedicated to the Oscars 2015 coverage, about Zendaya Coleman’s hair and how, because it was styled in dreadlocks, it made her think it smelled of “patchouli oil and weed.”
The comment infuriated co-host Kelly Osbourne, who abruptly left the show a few days later, either out of her own volition or because she was fired. She commented on this yesterday, saying she wanted to work on new projects.
So what does Kathy have to say about the controversy?
The joke had been written for Rancic, she didn’t come up with it
First of all, the comedienne confirms that Rancic didn’t make the comment on her own but rather that she was following the script, which means that someone else wrote “the joke” for her. This was confirmed a while back by the leaked script for the episode, which also revealed that E! bosses set Giuliana up and left her to take the fall, because they edited the segment in such a way as to make the joke racist.
Still, Griffin says, she shouldn’t have told the joke. She shouldn’t have allowed others to write jokes for her, the newer co-host continues, throwing some shade at the Fashion Police veteran.
“Some dude wrote it for her,” Kathy tells Splash. “Don't have anyone write you jokes or even suggest jokes for you on Fashion Police. You have enough great insider gossip from actually being on the red carpet. That's what fans want to hear the next day. Just talk and be yourself.”
Seeing how Rancic has been with the show for years and has been covering all the major industry awards for fashion for years, it’s hard not to agree with Kathy: why would she need someone to write her commentary on things she’s seen? She doesn’t, but she probably chose the easy way out.
Kathy doesn’t know what’s up with Kelly
As for the other big story coming out of this scandal, Kelly’s departure, Kathy admits that she has no idea what happened. However, chances are Kelly did leave on her own accord, because she’d been “very upset” at all 7 tapings she did with Kathy.
Kelly and the late Joan Rivers, whom Kathy came to replace on Fashion Police, were very, very close, so it could be that her death in August made her understand that she didn’t want to continue on the show without her.
The other, very popular theory online is that Osbourne was fired for taking to Twitter after the taping aired and threatening to quit if Rancic didn’t apologize to Zendaya within 24 hours. She also hinted that she could and would spill all the dirt on Fashion Police, if she weren’t gagged by her contract.
Rancic has apologized for the offensive remark and took the blame on herself, when outrage online reached major proportions. She hasn’t said anything bad about E! or about having been fed the joke, which was later edited, or anything about the scandal since.
