Kathy Griffin welcomed on Leno, ends Tonight Show ban

It was an historic occasion yesterday last Thursday on NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, didn't you know? The lady who lives to be banned -- and re-banned in the case of The View -- Kathy Griffin appeared as Jay Leno's guest. What's the big deal?

Well, if you recall the first season of Kathy's show, Bravo's My Life on the D List, the comic was rather brutally insulted by Jay when he called her ugly, and in the subsequent episodes of the show, Kathy revealed that she was put on The Tonight Show's "do not invite list."

And yet, the other night, there was Kathy in the prime seat, chatting it up with Jay, dissing celebrities as is her wont, and generally looking like the D List is now just the title of her show, not her true show business status.

Do you think Jay and his bookers had a change of heart about Kathy Griffin? I do. I think Kathy's popularity has grown in leaps and bounds in the last three-plus years that Bravo's been airing her unscripted goofiness. (It's reality only because that's the genre in which we stick shows like My Life on the D List. It's unscripted comedy, really.)

Kathy's also earned a level of respect in the business since winning the Emmy. Could it be that the oh-so-sensitive celebrity culture has finally caught on to the fact that Kathy is just kidding around? Oprah could earn major fans by inviting Kathy onto her show, lifting that ban. But first Oprah has to be able to take the jokes about Gayle King being Oprah's boyfriend.