Everybody Is Talking About It

Kathy Griffin strips to underwear, but Anderson Cooper still more embarrassed by Green Goblin abduction on New Year's Eve

by Mandi Bierly

Kathy Griffin broke CNN’s “no nudity” order on New Year’s Eve when she stripped down to her bra and underwear shortly before midnight. Watch the video below. Sadly, we’ve yet to see anyone upload her and Anderson Cooper’s second most talked about moment: That bizarrely unfunny interruption of the telecast when we — and all of the confused Times Square revelers looking up at the JumboTron beneath the ball — watched the Green Goblin from Broadway’s Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark try to convince a kidnapped Cooper to become an anchorman on his World Wide Freak Network (WWFN). Maybe that bit would have played better if the Green Goblin had identified himself sooner, or had the picture and sound not gone in and out for home viewers, or had it felt at all timely. Still, watch Spider-Man save Cooper below in a short clip. Griffin properly ridiculed Cooper afterward, at least, with lines like: “This is what happens when I take a day off,” “If you think you’re ever gonna live this down,” “Was that your integrity coming up and now it’s gone?” (after Cooper coughed), and “After that last bit, I feel above you. Trust me.”


Griffin managed to make Cooper wonderfully uncomfortable multiple times throughout their 90 minutes on the air. Some choice moments:

• “That harness would hurt my nether regions. It would hurt my vagina. I’m just gonna say it.” — Kathy after a clip of Anderson flying around the Spider-Man theater was shown

• “Now whose face are we gonna put on your nipple when you have a nip slip in 20 minutes?” — Kathy after they showed a photo of Nancy Grace’s nip slip on Dancing With the Stars with Wolf Blitzer’s face covering the nipple

• Kathy showed a photo of herself naked under the sheets in Anderson’s bed at his Long Island house. He’d invited her for the weekend, and she arrived a day before him and texted him photos of her in compromising positions during his broadcast.

• “Can I say, ‘I’m gonna watch your balls drop?’ It’s like a double entendre.” — Kathy, right before Anderson threw to a commercial

• Kathy said she spent last night at Anderson’s house and revealed that he has his childhood collection of toy soldiers lined up in the guest bathroom.

• “They could watch the balls drop” — Kathy to phone-in guest Kelly Ripa, who said she and her young family are in Colorado vacationing with Jerry Seinfeld and his family and watching the show

• “Did he say he’s a member of Al Qaeda?” – Kathy, about Ryan Seacrest

• Kathy kissed Anderson while supposedly reenacting how Lady Gaga kissed Mayor Bloomberg as the ball dropped. Anderson’s response: “I want to know how uncomfortable I just looked.” Kathy then claimed Bloomberg “fondled” Lady Gaga, which Anderson was quick to say she was making up.

• “K-Y… K-Y. I was just asking if it’s a KY New Year’s?” — Kathy complaining about the Nivea sponsorship

• Kathy told the story of what happened last year after the broadcast when Anderson agreed to come back to her hotel room to hang out — he left after 15 minutes. She started harassing him about coming back this year — could they order a pizza or is the delivery time too much of a commitment for him? “You know, we’re actually on TV,” Anderson reminded her.

• Kathy and Anderson started bickering about whether Ryan Seacrest and Oprah Winfrey really want to kill her, which Kathy believes. She then tried to say her theory that Seacrest has hoisted the Kardashians on us and “emotionally waterboarded” us was Anderson’s. Kathy tried to get Anderson to talk about the email exchange he had with Seacrest earlier today, and he threatened to bring up Piers Morgan. Those inside jokes produced the longest Cooper giggles of the night.

• “I’ve been called a Wisconsin badger… in the sack,” said Kathy. “Sweetie, if that’s all you’ve been called,” Anderson said.

• “It’s a dating website for Christians and people that love Christians and want to sleep with Christians — like specifically, they want to have sex with Christians. Like Christian sex. Nothing’s hotter.” — Kathy asking Anderson to explain why ChristianMingle.com is a sponsor of the show. Anderson’s response, “Okay, let’s move along.”