Kathy Griffin is apparently heartbroken that Rosie O’Donnell did not invite her to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live! during O’Donnell’s week behind the desk — even though Griffin herself admits O’Donnell may have had absolutely nothing to do with booking the guests.
Yes, this is apparently a real celebrity controversy in 2026.
Griffin devoted part of her Talk Your Head Off podcast to explaining just how wounded she was over the perceived snub, opening the discussion by warning viewers that things were about to get emotional.
“I might cry. I am asking for your pity,” Griffin said. “I love a good pity cry.” She then described the situation as deeply personal before finally revealing the source of her distress.
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“My feelings are really hurt that I was not invited to go on Rosie’s week of the Jimmy Kimmel show,” Griffin said.
Apparently, not landing a late-night television booking has become grounds for public heartbreak.
Griffin Wanted Her Rosie O’Donnell Moment
O’Donnell began her week-long stint guest hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday, August 17, with Kimmel previously presenting the booking as something of a joke aimed at President Trump, given O’Donnell’s decades-long public feud with him.
Griffin evidently saw an opportunity.
The comedian explained that she and O’Donnell are longtime friends, as is Jimmy Kimmel, and said that she believed an appearance alongside O’Donnell could have created a significant television moment.
Rosie O’Donnell hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live! – ABC
“We’re good pals,” Griffin said of O’Donnell. “We’re like sisters.”
She then pointed to the two women’s respective histories involving Trump, including Griffin’s notorious 2017 photo stunt that resulted in enormous backlash and temporarily made her radioactive even among many in Hollywood. Griffin complained that she expected support from fellow entertainers after the incident but instead found much of the industry turning against her.
Griffin apparently believed putting herself and O’Donnell together on Kimmel would be a natural pairing.
There was only one problem. Nobody actually invited her.
Griffin Admits Rosie Might Not Have Control Over Booking Guests
Making the entire episode substantially more embarrassing is Griffin’s acknowledgment that O’Donnell might not even have been responsible for the guest bookings.
Griffin said she recently traveled with O’Donnell and directly mentioned that she would “love to be a guest” during her Kimmel week.
O’Donnell apparently made no commitment.
Kathy Griffin in an interview – YouTube, Kathy Griffin
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“She didn’t say anything about me being a guest,” Griffin recalled. “And I thought, ‘Well, she’s the guest host, she may have no say in it.’”
Griffin then went even further.
“And, to this day, I don’t know if she has any say in it,” she admitted. “As far as I know, she could or could not. I really… How would I know, right?”
That would seemingly be the end of the story for most people.
If you don’t know whether your friend controls the guest list, perhaps publicly lamenting that your friend didn’t invite you is a little premature. Instead, Griffin said friends began contacting her ahead of O’Donnell’s hosting stint asking which night she would appear or whether she might be involved in some sort of surprise appearance.
Griffin admitted that she began getting excited about the possibility.
“Yeah, this could be a really cool moment,” she recalled thinking.
“Then that moment passed. And kept passing.”
Tragedy.
Rosie Tells Griffin She Should Have Called
O’Donnell eventually responded to Griffin’s public complaints on Instagram, and her answer managed to make the whole spectacle even more ridiculous.
“Kathy – shoulda called me honey – I didn’t choose the guests…,” O’Donnell wrote.
In other words, Griffin apparently could have picked up the telephone and spoken privately with her supposed longtime friend before turning the situation into podcast content.
Instead, the public got to watch one celebrity complain that another celebrity had not booked her on a television program — only for the second celebrity to inform her that she did not book the television program.
Rosie O’Donnell hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live! – ABC
Griffin nevertheless insisted that there is no actual feud and continued praising O’Donnell.
“She’s doing a great job and will continue to,” Griffin said, encouraging viewers to support O’Donnell’s appearances.
So Griffin loves Rosie. Rosie loves Griffin. They are supposedly like sisters. They are not fighting.
Griffin is merely publicly explaining how Rosie deeply hurt her feelings over something Rosie says she did not control.
Hollywood friendship sounds exhausting.
The Anti-Trump Celebrity Grievance Machine Eats Itself
There is another layer to this spectacle that makes it even more revealing.
Both Griffin and O’Donnell have spent enormous portions of their modern public careers revolving around their opposition to President Trump.
O’Donnell has continued making Trump a centerpiece of her Kimmel appearances. During the week, she referred to him as “Mango Mussolini” and sarcastically credited him with making her famous again.
Griffin, meanwhile, explicitly invoked their shared history with Trump when explaining why she believed appearing alongside O’Donnell would have been such an important moment.
Kathy Griffin in an interview – YouTube, Zach Sang Show
Two celebrities whose political identities have become inseparable from their hostility toward the same man now find themselves generating entertainment news because one of them did not get invited onto the other’s temporary late-night hosting gig.
And Griffin apparently felt strongly enough about it to publicly ask her viewers for “pity.” Perhaps nothing better illustrates the self-serious bubble surrounding certain corners of celebrity political culture.
There are actual problems in the world. Kathy Griffin not being booked for Rosie O’Donnell’s week on Jimmy Kimmel Live! is not one of them.
How do you feel about this exchange between Kathy Griffin and Rosie O’Donnell? Sound off and let us know!
