360 degrees of awkward! It’s safe to say that Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper do not see eye to eye about Kathy Griffin‘s departure from Fashion Police. The Bravo host and his guest, both longtime pals, argued over the ongoing controversy surrounding the show during the after show of Watch What Happens Live on Wednesday, Mar. 18.
CNN hotshot Cooper, 47, told a caller that he sent Griffin a text after she announced she was leaving the show. “I’m a huge Kathy Griffin fan. I want nothing but the best for Kathy,” he said of his New Year’s Eve Live co-host. “And I think she’s going to go on to bigger and better things.”
Cohen, 46, had a different take. “I think it’s like the pot calling the kettle black,” he interjected. “She’s like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to make fun of anyone.’ This show’s about making fun of people. And the reason everyone loves Kathy Griffin is she makes fun of people constantly… I mean I love Kathy Griffin too! And I love her humor. But if it wasn’t working, then say it wasn’t working. I didn’t think it was working but don’t make it about the body shaming.”
According to Cooper, the comedienne has always presented her humor “in a different way.” The respected journalist also gave a nod to Griffin’s “long, well-written statement,” in which she explained her sudden exit from the show after just three months.
(In it, she wrote: “I discovered that my style does not fit with the creative direction of the show and now it’s time to move on… My brand of humor, while unrepentant and unafraid, is all about CONTEXT. Listen, I am no saint…But I do not want to use my comedy to contribute to a culture of unattainable perfectionism and intolerance towards difference.”)
Like Griffin, Cooper also alluded to the recent controversy involving Giuliana Rancic and her comments about Zendaya Coleman’s dreadlocks. “To be completely honest, I don’t understand some of the other folks who are on that show,” he said. “I would watch that show for Kathy Griffin. Some of the other people, I was like: I don’t get why this person is on television.”
He also called out Cohen for even riling up the conversation in the first place. “You love to stir it up,” he said to Cohen, adding to viewers: “This is what a party at Andy Cohen’s house looks like. He always invites one or two people who are going to end up drunk and end up yelling.”
Following the recent departures of both Griffin and Kelly Osbourne, E! announced this past Tuesday, Mar. 17, that the snarky style show was going on hiatus.
Watch the two TV personalities go at it above!
