Kathy Griffin blames the Straight's Guy MacPherson

Unexpectedly, I spoke with Kathy Griffin on Tuesday about her upcoming show at the River Rock on Saturday.

Turns out that a story I wrote on Lily Tomlin, which ran in the Straight on January 1, played a role in getting her up to Vancouver a day early.

At the end of our unscheduled chat, she wanted to pick my brain about a good Vancouver-specific location to film an interview with Tomlin for her show. I wonder if I'll get a producer's credit on the show?

Probably not. But here's a brief transcript of our talk:

Kathy Griffin: I have a funny story for you.

Guy MacPherson: Oh, okay.

KG: Alright. So we're just starting taping season five of My Life on The D List. And we're going to River Rock and we're not going to cover it because it's another stand-up gig. This year on the D List we're actually a lot more celebrity oriented. So the theme of the year is that I'm an A-lister in training. So for episode one we have Bette Midler and we have an episode with, you know, Rosie O'Donnell and I go spend the night at Gloria Estefan's house, and all these fabulous celebrities. And we just nailed down Lily Tomlin. I'm nominated for a Grammy for best comedy album and Lily is one of only three women in history to win that Grammy. So I had set up a day to shoot with her in Los Angeles and I had another thing to shoot for the D List that day and I was pulling my hair out. And all of a sudden I happen to see your interview request and it said "click here for other articles" so I clicked on the Lily one and my jaw just about dropped when, at the end, it said Lily is going to be at River Rock the night before me.

GM: You didn't know?

KG: No, but you have created pandemonium. I started calling the Bravo producers last night at one in the morning going, "Oh, my God, is there any way we can mobilize? Can we get the crew into Canada? Do people have passports?" And by the way, I haven't even asked Lily yet. I left a message on her home machine and I hope she'll go for it. Now I love the idea of doing a whole half an episode with Lily but at River Rock. So I'm hoping it happens. I'm going to go in early to see her anyway because I've never seen her live show, I'm ashamed to say. But I just think that River Rock will be a great setting for the show. I don't know if you've ever seen the rooms but they have some really wacky suites there. And we can do stuff in Vancouver. So I'm so hoping she says yes. And I'm so hoping that our crew can get together quickly. But it's all your fault, basically.

GM: Well, thank you.

KG: I'm really excited. I might have a heck of a busy weekend on my hands but I hope it comes true.

GM: Were you going to film up here anyway?

KG: No, that's what was funny. We weren't even really gonna start filming for another two weeks. We were going to shoot Bette in Vegas and then we're going to Savannah, Georgia, to do Paula Deans. Do you know who she is, on the Food Network?

GM: No, I don't.

KG: She's a huge Food Network star. She's just great. So we were kinda like thinking we were gonna gear up but then boom, I dropped the bomb on everybody last night at one in the morning. So anyway, I will definitely be coming up early to see her for sure.