BY GREG HERNANDEZ (© 2007 Los Angeles Daily News)

Kathy Griffin arrived at the Château Marmont in West Hollywood the other day in a good mood "because the lunch is free." One of the celeb guests at More Magazine's Women in Film luncheon, she was there a bit early - flanked by her two assistants. I asked if she was in the mood for a little on-the-record chat. She said, "Sure! Let's go find a place to sit."

She has just signed on for season four of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List, she told me.

"We start filming New Year's Eve and will be back on the air in June. This year, we're doing 10 episodes instead of six. We have a lot of stuff planned for the season. It is going to be action-packed."

Since Kathy is now an Emmy winner and her TV show is a hit on Bravo, I wondered if she could still legitimately claim to be on the D-list.

"I know I'm still D-list," she said emphatically. "Like for this event, they told me I could only bring one person. You know Annette Bening could bring 10 people if she wanted to. So I'm reminded on a daily basis of how D-list I still am." She added, "The only thing that makes you feel A-list is being involved in some sort of a scandal, which I've dreamed of my whole career. I've tried to be scandalous. ... I was in Time; I was in Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly, and the best part is — all with pictures of me holding the Emmy. So whatever you think of anything I do, the point is, you saw a picture of me holding an Emmy."

Kathy was a guest-host on The View the day after Rosie O'Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselbeck had a 10-minute on-air argument that led to Rosie's leaving the show three weeks ahead of schedule.

I wanted to know if Kathy took sides: "Yeah, I would be team Rosie. I love her. I think she's a hero, and I think she's smart and provocative and evocative and does her own thing. Honestly, I think there's nobody like her. I think she's really great."

Did she want the permanent co-host gig that went to Sherri Shepherd?

"I don't think that show would be appropriate for me," she said. "But I enjoy doing that show very, very much. I get a huge kick out of Barbara. You know, I would probably be getting into trouble a lot. I don't think I could censor myself that much."