Kathy Griffin: 'Glee' Guest Star As Palin-Inspired Character?

Well if this isn't the most perfect casting job in history.

Kathy Griffin, who has sparred with the Palin family incessantly over the last two years, is now set to play a character inspired by their matriarch on "Glee". Really. TVLine reports that the comedienne -- who most recently called Bristol Palin "the white Precious" in a standup routine during a USO trip -- is set to play a Tea Party candidate mom and regional finals judge on the musical comedy.

While TVLine says that a source tells them that the character, to be named Tammy Jean, "really isn't anything like Palin," the casting breakdown the show put out may indicate otherwise. According to Movie Line, the show was in search of a "recent Tea Party candidate and home schooler -- a Sarah Palin type."

Either way, the casting is a bit of a culmination of a close relationship Griffin has had with the "Glee" cast. In October, she appeared with cast members at an LGBTQ advocacy event at Occidental College in California, and shared an on-stage kiss with Chris Colfer. And, she's gotten chummy with the show's teacher and adult figure, Matthew Morrison.

As for Griffin and the Palins, there's an even longer history there. Griffin has flirted and even taken as a date Bristol Palin's ex-fiance, Levi Johnston, and has promised to offend another Palin in 2011.

So will she take them on -- or even play them sympathetically? Last June, "Glee" creator Ryan Murphy hinted that perhaps his show was ready to be nicer to the Tea Party.

"We've taken a couple jabs at the right wing this year," he said to TV Guide. "So what I want to do with this character is have someone who Christian kids and parents can recognize and say, 'Oh, look -- I'm represented there, too!' If we're trying to form a world of inclusiveness, we've got to include that point of view as well."

No matter what, the episode should be very, very interesting.

Comments

[LCdruid]

08:01 PM on 03/21/2011

Griffin is a sleastack.

[Frank Bourne]

08:40 AM on 03/21/2011

Does Griffin ever play any roles that mock her own people?

[EmmaDarian]

09:03 AM on 03/21/2011

What do you consider her "own people?"

[YouDontWantMeHere]

09:05 AM on 02/26/2011

Hay GripOn! Guess What? the 2nd time found 347.01KB!

[zest]

06:38 PM on 02/23/2011

Rightwingers hate gays; why accommodate them?

[FerrellGummitt]

11:28 AM on 02/21/2011

How about Michael Moore play an Aerobics Instructor?

To say that this woman is tiresome is understating my feelings.

However, here's a thought: How about some Tea Party leaders contact her and give her some helpful pointers? Seriously. Be helpful and and "kill her" with kindness.

That way, she won't get the reaction she so desperately wants.

[BVictor1]

12:48 PM on 03/20/2011

You mean laughter?

[DaveThinks]

05:11 AM on 02/21/2011

Great, still have no desire to watch this show. Heard enough frat boys in college singing Journey songs to want to watch a show dedicated to it.

[LeBelAge]

05:09 AM on 02/21/2011

Ryan Murphy is suffering from some kind of Stockholm Syndrome. Its better to mock people like Palin rather than try to find common ground or pretend Palin types have an ounce of humanity.
Palin types would gut every liberal like a fish if given half a chance.

[goingstrong]

09:37 PM on 02/20/2011

Lets try that again, anyone who jabs, swipes at or otherwise makes fun of the team Wasila is a friend of mine!

[Burgundy]

10:24 PM on 02/20/2011

Well, that's a bit pathetic but whatever floats your boat.

[goingstrong]

03:02 AM on 02/21/2011

yup it sure does

[ranchero42]

07:01 PM on 02/26/2011

Kathy Griffin is a great choice! She's spent so much time around drag queens - this character will be a cinch!

[goingstrong]

09:36 PM on 02/20/2011

haa haa anyone who jabs, swipes at or otherwise makes fun of the Palin family is a friend of mine!

[mitchpeter]

07:52 PM on 02/20/2011

Kathy and Glee, a marriage made in my Gay Heaven!
Thank-you!
And in my town it's on Fox!
www.gaynycdad.com

[LeBelAge]

05:09 AM on 02/21/2011

LOL. Yes that's true. Kathy and Glee together is a gay marriage made in heaven.

[ManuOB1]

07:45 PM on 02/20/2011

See? That's where my mind's at. When I read "white Precious" I thought she was referring to Gollum in Lord in the Rings.

[goingstrong]

09:34 PM on 02/20/2011

haaa haa Brilliant, to be honest both suit her!!

[conservicide]

05:20 PM on 02/20/2011

Why don't you include chainsaw serial killers too, if you want to be so damened inclusive.

[ESJ247]

02:11 PM on 02/21/2011

Kathy will be hanging around chainsaw serial killers to learn her character.

[rvolt24]

12:53 PM on 02/20/2011

i will be amazed if Griffin can play the part without being a bad caricature... i'll be more suprised if she can act at all.
the only reason she has taken the part is to smear "Tea-Partiers" and conservatives... and that's the only reason Glee has cast her.
it's a sad statement when a show like Glee, a major theme of which is inclusiveness, decides that divisiveness is the way to get ratings.

i'm suprised that "white precious" comment gets so many laughs; especially here... she's calling Palin an overweight illiterate with a child out of wedlock... yet Glee has taken sympathetic stands on two of the three issues on their show... seems to me that Kathy is the antithesis of Glee.

[bmermaid]

01:28 PM on 02/20/2011

Griffin was a better actress than Brook Shields (who is a very good actress) in that sitcom that they did together a few years ago.

[Just a passerby]

03:59 PM on 02/20/2011

"'m suprised that "white precious" comment gets so many laughs; especially here... she's calling Palin an overweight illiterate with a child out of wedlock."

She does "Precious" a disservice. After all, the character lives in terrible conditions yet manages to achieve. In contrast, Bristol manages to get knocked up and has money fall into her lap while behaving badly.

[SouthernJewel]

11:54 AM on 02/20/2011

Laughed at Kathy's line: Bristol Palin "The White Precious"

[Leland Avants II]

11:40 AM on 02/20/2011

Might be the only episode i ever watch of Glee...but Kathy is a bright cookie..I bet this turns into a regular cameo.