More Kathy Griffin shows canceled as backlash over severed-head video grows

At 9am PST, Kathy Griffin will deliver a press conference to explain the motivation behind her now controversial photo shoot holding a decapitated head of President Donald Trump.

Griffin, who for a decade hosted CNN's New Year's Eve coverage alongside Anderson Cooper, was sacked by the network this week.

Griffin and attorney Lisa Bloom will hold a press conference on Friday to discuss the controversy.

Bloom said in a prepared statement that Griffin was acting out a "parody of Trump's own sexist remarks" in the photo.

Griffin, who asserted that she has been contacted by the Secret Service, said the Trumps are "trying to ruin my rights forever".

"Kathy Griffin and Donald Trump are not equals".

Griffin apologized within hours but has been fired from her most high-profile job as co-host of CNN's New Year's Eve celebration.

She has never threatened violence against anyone, Bloom said. When she took over the show, Melissa Rivers, Joan Rivers' daughter, gave her a public blessing to replace her mother telling Griffin, "I truly feel you are the only person my mom would bless for this throne".

Griffin and Bloom believe the comedian has received harsher backlash because she is female. "I went too far", she said in a video posted to Instagram late Tuesday. "I'm going to be honest, (Trump) broke me", said Griffin, 56, a two-time Emmy-winning performer known for her deliberately provocative brand of humor.

Griffin and her snapper sidekick have previous infamy.

She also described herself as a provocative woman who has often had to deal with older white men in positions of power. Five of her upcoming performances have also been canceled.

"She likes publicly posing naked, even doing the Ice Bucket Challenge entirely in her birthday suit, talking to the camera, legs splayed, proclaiming that 'I will do anything for the cause".

In her initial video apology on Twitter, Griffin said "the image is too disturbing".

"I'm going to make fun of him more now", she said.

The goodwill towards Griffin was typified by Lena Dunham telling The Hollywood Reporter in 2015: "It bums me out that someone like Kathy Griffin was relegated to Fashion Police".

Often, Griffin qualifies her jokes with this justification: She doesn't really mean it.

The former My Life on the D-List star spoke about how the death threats she has been receiving online are "constant, detailed and specific".

The Community Arts Theatre in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, posted on its website that the show had been dropped "due to the recent controversy surrounding Kathy Griffin and the concern for the safety and security of our patrons and staff".