Two days ago, comedian Kathy Griffin announced that she would descend on our nation’s capitol today to hold a rally in an effort to convince Congress to repeal what she feels is the outdated “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy which the U.S. Army employs. And she wasn’t joking at all.

In short, the policy says, if you’re gay and you’re in the military, don’t tell the rest of the military; and in turn, the rest of the military won’t ask you who you’d rather have sex with.

“I was nervous the whole time because it’s not my world, obviously,” Griffin said at the rally today, according to IrishCentral.com. “Also, I have a problem with the potty mouth, so I didn’t know how far I could go when joking with these legislators — and I learned not far at all. Almost every one of my jokes was taken as a serious statement, even when I asked the majority whip to whip me.”

But in case you’re thinking that this was just another way for the press-friendly Griffin to create headlines — she was also filming for her reality show, My Life on the D-List — the comedian did some serious work this week in D.C.

Kathy Griffin arrives at the Don't Ask Don't Tell rally in Washington. Photo by @MMonides

IrishCentral reports that, “Kathy spent the best part of a week in Washington attending strategy sessions with gay rights activists. On Wednesday night she attended the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association dinner and Thursday she attended a Human Rights Campaign Rally at Freedom Plaza.”

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As we reported two days ago, comedian Kathy Griffin is set to guest star on the March 3 episode of Law & Order: SVU, playing a lesbian activist.

We had posted a clip that NBC was happy to post on their site — of Griffin’s character forcing a kiss on Mariska Hargitay’s character — but the network quickly removed it from the site. Did they preemptively act because they knew interest groups would say they’re exploiting the one scene in the show to promote the episode?

Today, NBC shared this with us, a largely serious interview with Griffin, who explains her character in detail and talks about the filming process. Check it out.

Walking PR stunt and comedian Kathy Griffin will appear on the long-awaited return episode of Law & Order: SVU on March 3. Griffin plays a lesbian activist who, apparently, really wants to make out with Mariska Hargitay’s character Det. Olivia Benson. But will Benson accept her advances? No! But why not watch the video of the scene anyway? UPDATE 5:46 pm EST: Since we posted the scene with Griffin kissing Hargitay, NBC has pulled the clip from their site and instead uploaded this one:

Hey, remember that 1994 episode of Roseanne when Mariel Hemingway plants a wet one on Rosie? We do too. Sixteen years later, America still finds a girl to girl kiss on network television quite the event. Odd. Watch the clip after the jump.

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We’re obviously not surprised that our pick to win the Grammy for best comedy album, Patton Oswalt, didn’t win the award tonight, seeing as mainstream names like Kathy Griffin and George Lopez were on the nominee list.

And we’re happy (kind of) that Stephen Colbert snagged it instead (instead of one of the other nominees), for his A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All (released in November of 2008, making it eligible for the 2009 entries).

But, there is this: as far as we can tell, Colbert’s release, nominated in the Best Comedy Album category, is a DVD; so it’s not an album. A scan of Comedy Central’s online shop and Amazon.com shows no audio version of Colbert Christmas. Other media outlets explain it by calling it the soundtrack of his DVD special? So you can just take out the musical parts of a DVD, not release it commercially but get it nominated for an album Grammy? Seems like a lot of shoe-horning for no reason. It’s not like there weren’t dozens of proper audio comedy albums put out in 2009.

Don’t get us wrong. We love Stephen a great deal. But we think it’s high time the Grammy committee started taking the Best Comedy Album category seriously and start incorporating the many stand-up albums that are put out each year into its nomination process. Only half of the nominated albums this year were actual stand-up albums.

UPDATE 11 pm EST:

So, thanks to our astute, speedy readers, we’ve been informed that the Colbert “soundtrack” was released on iTunes. However, we still have a moral issue with it. We’re sure releasing audio from a television special on iTunes fits in with the Grammy’s definition of what an “album” is. But in the end, what we’re talking about is under 26 minutes of audio taken from a project that was produced to be on television and sold as a DVD for consumers to watch.

That it was released quietly on iTunes — like we said, you can’t even buy it from the Comedy Central site, the people that put it out — and that was enough to get it nominated for a Best Album Grammy, shows a lot of indifference to the stand-up comedians who worked to put together an hour of original material meant for a true comedy album. And yes, Oswalt and Lopez both released DVD versions of their albums– Oswalt’s was just a bonus to his album. But both albums are widely and commercially available– they’re not just parts of larger projects with no tangible life of their own.

Anyway, it seems most people could care less, instead, turning their attention to the fact that Colbert whipped out an iPad onstage. See below.

This Sunday, the Grammys are going down in Los Angeles. As you probably know there’s an oft-ignored category for Best Comedy Album. You also probably know, that the Grammy peeps almost always ignore the dozens of great stand-up albums put out each year. Here’s a list of 9 they ignored this year, not counting Patton Oswalt’s My Weakness is Strong, which, by the grace of the comedy gods, was, in fact nominated.

But since Patton is up against mainstream comedy hams Kathy Griffin and George Lopez – he was nominated based on a vinyl release of his album (loop hole?); the real CD and digital version wasn’t even released when the nominations were announced – the trailblazing, incredibly talented comic doesn’t have a prayer.

On last night’s Lopez Tonight, George’s chat show on TBS, he and Griffin did one of those sassy back-and-forths about who’s going to win the Grammy. Check it out. Warning: Extra sassy!

The Grammys air on CBS, starting at 8 pm EST, if you want to torture yourself.

This album should win, but it won't, because the world is a horrible place.

Hey, comedy fans. It’s that time of the year again when powerful people somewhere nominate artists for Grammy awards, most of which, as we all know, are musicians. But there is the lowly, oft over-looked Best Comedy Album category.

Most years, the nominations in this category simply serve us as a reminder that the Grammy board knows and cares very little about the art of stand-up comedy. Yes, we said it. So, without further exposition, here are the comedy nods for this year.

• Back From The Dead
  Spinal Tap
  [The Label Industry/Artist2Market Distribution]
• A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift Of All!
  Stephen Colbert
  [Comedy Central Records]
• Internet Leaks
  “Weird Al” Yankovic
  [Volcano]
• My Weakness Is Strong
  Patton Oswalt
  [Degenerate/Warner Bros.]
• Suckin’ It For The Holidays
  Kathy Griffin
  [Music With A Twist]
• Tall, Dark & Chicano
  George Lopez
  [Comedy Central Records]

The awards ceremony will be aired live on CBS from the Staples Center in Los Angeles at 8 pm EST on Jan. 31. But we’re pretty sure they won’t be airing the comedy category. So it’s probably not worth watching, unless you want to see Katy Perry present an award in some breast-baring outfit or Linkin Park give a shout out to their mook fans. We’ll just let you know who wins. Unfortunately, it’s probably not going to be Patton Oswalt.

EPIX, a new premium cable channel announced that it will air a tribute show for the late comedian, Sam Kinison. Sam Kinison: Back from Hell will feature interviews and performances by Chris Rock, Kathy Griffin, Jay Leno, George Lopez, and Denis Leary among others.

“We’re excited to bring together some of today’s most talented artists to pay homage to Kinison. He was a ground breaker whose performances inspired so many,” said Mark Greenberg, EPIX President. Back From Hell will air on EPIX in February 2010. EPIX is quickly trying to secure itself as a serious stand-up comedy channel, having previously announced two other comedian specials: Lewis Black’s Stark Raving Black and Eddie Izzard’s Live from Wembley.

Anointment from the Poprah through her monthly book club can turn civilian writers into celebrity authors overnight.

So comedian and tormented D-lister Kathy Griffin is using the power of the petition to try to persuade Her Eminence, Oprah Winfrey, to bestow the literary equivalent of a papal blessing on her forthcoming memoir: Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin, due out Sept. 8 from Random House.

Griffin hopes gathering 50,000 signatures (she has more than 33,000 already) here will impress O enough to invite Griffin on Winfrey’s show and endorse the book, according to a report.

Yo, Kathy, you may need more than public acclamation to ingratiate yourself to Oprah, though. You don’t mock the Poprah — most notably by referring to Gayle King, O’s pal and colleague, as “Oprah’s boyfriend” — without consequence. So you may want to butter her up — literally. We recommend sending the doyenne of daytime divas cases and cases of croissants and cookies.

It’s a match made in bitchy comedy heaven. Comedy Central has announced that Emmy and Grammy nominated Kathy Griffin – she of the D list – will serve as Roastmaster for Comedy Central’s Roast of Joan Rivers, premiering Aug. 9.

Here’s what Griffin said about her upcoming dream gig:

It will be my distinct pleasure to honor a true comedy legend. The One and Only, The Great, Joan Rivers, I mean, not that Pam Anderson wasn’t a comedy legend or anything… Let’s just say it will be an evening of highs and lows. I will be roasting Joan with more gentleness and tenderness than her latest chemical peel and, on the other hand, I will give her a verbal pap smear and god only knows what I’m going to find down there.

It’s the first time Comedy Central has combined a female roast subject with a female roastmaster. Let the games begin.