As fans of her Bravo show, "Life on the D List," know, Griffin had gotten into trouble for being too acerbic on the red carpet. One joke, that Dakota Fanning was in rehab, prompted Fanning's reps to threaten to sue E!

Kathy Griffin does not understand the difference between humor and slander. What she said wasn't funny. Why is it funny to claim Dakota Fanning is in rehab? Why is that a humorous assertion?

That's not acerbic -- that's a publicly damaging lie that could harm Fanning's ability to get work in the future. After Griffin said that, Fanning was practically obligated to sue -- to get it on the public record that it WAS a lie.

Because otherwise, how would people know how much of that assertion was just Kathy Griffin begging for attention, and how much was insider gossip to which she was a party? How would they know that Kathy Griffin just made that up in her head and there was no truth behind it whatsoever?

Kathy Griffin also claimed on Ellen that Brian Wilson's mental illness was caused by years of drug abuse. That's not true. He has schizophrenia. It's not caused by drug abuse. Why is it funny to claim otherwise?

For something like that to be funny, there should be a grain of truth to it. There should be some kind of truth to the allegation. But there is no truth whatsoever to the idea that Dakota Fanning is a drug addict or Brian Wilson's mental illness was caused by drug addiction.

The latter lie is especially despicable given the number of people suffering from this awful illness and the number of the people trying to care for them. Those people don't deserve to treated like that by her.

... only an inbecile would, after seeing a comedian (no matter how relentlessly untalented) make such a comment would think "Wow, Dakota Fanning much really be in rehab." Defamation of character requires that the statement be presented in a manner where it is intended to be believed.

Just because it's a lame joke doesn't mean it isn't a joke. Yes, it is unnecessarily mean to make a lame joke about a child, even a (somewhat) famous one. But it doesn't make Kathy Griffin a liar or her statement defamation; it makes her an a-hole and the statement pathetic.

Drew Barrymore did go into rehab when she was quite young. Why would "only an imbecile" believe Griffin's statement about Fanning? It's not that unusual to see kids end up in rehab in these days. There was nothing about Griffin's statement that marked it as being beyond belief.

And Kathy Griffin doesn't say these things in the context of a standup routine. She drops these little bombshells as part of her pretense of giving insider celebrity gossip. She really is begging for a lawsuit when she does things this way.

Especially when her lies are aimed at people whose earning potential is tied to their reputation in a town that moves on gossip.

Griffin is really asking for it. You can't mess with people's careers like that.

And by the way, "name withheld", being verbally violent doesn't make you right. It just makes you verbally violent.