Kathy Griffin

Kathy Griffin

Kathy Griffin's New Year's Eve show stunt this year, when she co-hosted the event with Anderson Cooper, was stripping down to bra and panties on the air, and on "Late Night with David Letterman" on Thursday night, she duplicated the stunt live (tape for airing, of course), in front of the studio audience --- after being dared to do so by David Letterman himself.

Kathy Griffin explained to "Late Show" host David Letterman why it was appropriate to take her clothes off. She said that every year she tries to up the ante, "because, you know, I've done it for five years now and I've been fired four years in a row,”

She said she didn't tell anyone, not Anderson Cooper or CNN, or anyone. When on Letterman, they also showed the clip of the event, which will refresh the memory of those who missed it Cooper's reaction, which was basically "are you kidding me?"

Meanwhile, on New Year's Eve, while Kathy Griffin was trying to explain the "why" to Cooper, he reminded her of the "no nudity" rule for their events together. As she noted, she wasn't nude; she was still wearing a black bra and panties. Those who might have wanted to see more would have been disappointed to note Griffin was only shown from the waist up (except for moments of jumping up on-air).

Griffin then told Letterman "I mean, David I'll do it, I'll do it right now." Given a "Go" by Letterman, she proceeded to strip. Letterman, playing along, then decided to help her with some of the hooks on her dress.

He also proceeded to admire Griffin's derriere, saying "Wow!" and "Oh, my!" as well. She could not strip as far as she did on New Year's Eve. She told Letterman she "didn't wear underwear because she didn't want a panty line." Whoops. She did wear a bra, once again black.

Letterman then had to help her back into the dress.

Watching the video, at her age --- 51 --- Kathy Griffin has an impressively toned body. Comments around the Web were not kind, though, which is sad, because there are women much younger than her with less viewable bodies.

Interestingly, while there was also criticism of Griffin's strip-tease, you can see as much if not than that on network television, and a lot of simulated sex and making out, as well. We didn't really find what she did all that outrageous, and certainly shared Letterman's impression of her body.