Kathy Griffin made $75 million making people laugh. But the phone's not ringing

Kathy Griffin's uncle was a bagman. Her cousin was a priest who wore blue eyeshadow. Her favorite writer when she was a girl in Chicago was columnist Mike Royko. He hung up on her twice. But she never shut up, she just kept talking, telling stories, especially to the Bowens, who lived next door. They served cookies while Griffin dished family secrets and her mother, who enjoyed an occasional highball, watched in alarm.

Griffin has made a career out of speaking her mind. Her stand-up acts burst and flash like mortar rounds. But it's quiet these days in her big house in the Bel-Air hills. There is no work. Griffin has always worked. She's old-school, played Madison Square Garden and Carnegie Hall. She has two Emmys in her foyer. She made $75 million making people laugh. But the phone's not ringing and the silence skims bone.

It's been two years since she raised a Halloween mask smeared with ketchup that depicted the severed head of President Donald Trump. The picture went viral. It shocked everyone from Sean Hannity to Anderson Cooper. She was vilified by the right and abandoned by Hollywood. The tabloids compared her to a terrorist. Strangers spat at her;