Joan Rivers

Infobox actor
name = Joan Rivers


imagesize =
caption = Joan Rivers performing in her show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2008.
birthname = Joan Alexandra Molinsky
birthdate = birth date and age|1933|6|8
birthplace = Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
deathdate =
deathplace =
othername =
yearsactive =
spouse =
homepage =
academyawards =
emmyawards = Best Talk Show Host, 1990
tonyawards =

Joan Rivers (born Joan Alexandra Molinsky; [ [http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-7652403_ITM Comic queen Joan Rivers bites back with sharp, funny new show. | The Miami Herald (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service) (March, 2004) ] ] [ [http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/entertainment/2006/05/14/2006-05-14_can_she_talk____joan_rivers_.html CAN SHE TALK! Joan Rivers muses on her daughter, Cher and fun Down Under ] ] [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B04E4DE1738F937A35750C0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2 OSCAR FILMS/THE SHOW; Taking No Prisoners at the Edge of the Red Carpet - New York Times ] ] June 8, 1933) is an American comedian, actress, talk show host, businesswoman and celebrity. She is known for her brash manner and loud, raspy voice with a heavy metropolitan New York accent. Rivers is the National Chairwoman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and is a board member of God's Love We Deliver. Like the ground-breaking Phyllis Diller, Rivers' act relied heavily on poking fun at herself. A typical Rivers joke about her appearance was "I used to stand by the side of the road with a sign: 'Last girl before freeway.'"

Biography

Early life and career

Rivers was born Joan Alexandra Molinsky in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Russian Jewish immigrants Beatrice (née Grushman) and Meyer C. Molinsky, who was a doctor. [ [http://www.jewishjournal.com/arts_in_la/article/joan_rivers_life_audacious_as_always_20071228/ Joan Rivers’ ‘Life’—audacious, as always | Arts In L.A. | Jewish Journal ] ] [ [http://www.filmreference.com/film/84/Joan-Rivers.html Joan Rivers Biography (1933?-) ] ] She was raised in Brooklyn, New York and her family later moved to Larchmont in Westchester County, NY. She attended Connecticut College between 1950 and 1952, and graduated from Barnard College in 1954 with a B.A. in English and anthropology. Before entering show business, Rivers worked as a fashion consultant at Bond Clothing Stores. [Riley, Sam G. (1995) "Biographical Dictionary of American Newspaper Columnists", Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 265 ISBN 9780313291920.]

In the 1960s, Rivers made television appearances as a comedienne on the popular shows "The Tonight Show" and "The Ed Sullivan Show", as well as hosting the first of her several talk shows. Later in that decade she made a brief but notable appearance opposite Burt Lancaster in the film, "The Swimmer." She was also a regular gag writer and performer on TV's "Candid Camera".

1970s

In the 1970s, Joan Rivers appeared often as a guest on various television comedy and variety shows. One notable appearance on "The Carol Burnett Show" had her spoofing Valerie Harper in "Rhoda" (Rivers' character was named "Rhonda"), to the delight of the audience. From 1972 to 1976, she was the narrator for "The Adventures of Letterman", an animated segment for "The Electric Company".

In 1978, Rivers directed and wrote the film "Rabbit Test" starring her friend Billy Crystal, an "avant garde" movie about a man who gets pregnant, but it had disappointing results at the box office.

Rivers was the opening act for singer Helen Reddy on the Las Vegas Strip during the 1970s. She would eventually become a headliner in her own right to standing-room crowds continuing into the 1980s. Rivers also recorded a popular record album of her live stand-up act entitled "What Becomes a (Semi) Legend Most?"

1980s and 1990s

Rivers continued to gain acclaim on television as she was often guest host of "The Tonight Show" throughout the early 1980s.

In 1986, Rivers hosted her own evening talk show, "The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers", on the then-fledgling Fox Television Network; her talk show was one of the launch shows for the new network. The show lasted about a year. In 1983, Rivers had become the permanent guest host for Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show". Carson was so upset by her decision to leave "The Tonight Show" without discussing it with him that he banned her from his show, even after Rivers' show failed. Rivers reportedly tried to call Carson on the phone personally after the Fox deal was announced; when he answered, she talked to him, but Carson hung up on her. The two never did reconcile before Carson died in 2005.

Soon after the cancellation of her series, Rivers saw a published interview claiming that her husband Edgar Rosenberg, who was a producer on her show, had tried to drive her insane during his illness. According to the interview, she was reported to have commented, "...I think things are just about finished with Edgar" and referred to her former boss at the Fox Network as "Barry (expletive) Diller." Rivers then went public with the news, saying in tears that a "Ben Hacker" had fabricated the story with what she called "vicious lies." A suit was filed against "Hacker."

In 1988, Rivers guest-starred on the "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" Christmas Special, along with other stars, which included Oprah Winfrey, Charo, and Cher. In some sense, it was Rivers' way of repaying Paul Reubens (creator of the character Pee-Wee Herman, and the show) who was the very first guest on her talk show when it premiered in 1986.

Not long after this, Rosenberg committed suicide, devastating Rivers. In her book, "Bouncing Back", she describes how she developed bulimia and contemplated suicide. Eventually she recovered with counseling and the support of her family. Eventually she returned to television with her own daytime talk show, "The Joan Rivers Show", which ran from 1989 until 1994. Her enormous stock of bored husband jokes could no longer be used. A Rivers favorite had been: "When Edgar and I were first married, we'd play 'catch me, catch me!' and we'd run around the house. We still play 'catch me, catch me!' but now we walk."

Beginning in 1997, Rivers hosted her own radio show on WOR in New York. In 2003, Rivers and the station mutually decided to part ways.

2000s

From 2005–2007, Rivers was a host for the "TV Guide" channel, often co-hosting red carpet specials before awards shows with her daughter, Melissa Rivers, from whom she was estranged briefly after her husband's suicide. She was replaced by Lisa Rinna starting with the 2007 Emmy Awards telecast. [ [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070418/ap_en_tv/people_joan_rivers_lisa_rinna_4 Yahoo! News] ] She previously worked for the E! Entertainment Television network in a similar role. In the movie "Shrek 2", she cameoed as a computer-generated version of herself, hosting the parody "ME! Medieval Entertainment Television" channel.

In 2004, she appeared as a guest on the first episode of the BBC One stand-up comedy programme "Jack Dee Live at the Apollo". She would eventually guest host the fifth episode in the 2007 season.

When in New York, where she lives, Rivers appears weekly in workshop productions at the small venue "The Cutting Room". She donates proceeds to the charities God's Love We Deliver (for which she is a board member) and Guide Dogs for the Blind. Rivers is an avid and unapologetic user of plastic surgery to enhance her looks, however this has occasionally resulted in ridicule and self-deprecation. This was played up in a Geico television commercial in which she delivers the lines "Am I smiling? I can't tell!" and "I can't feel my face!" She appeared in two episodes of the show "Nip/Tuck" during its second and third seasons. During her first appearance, she wanted to find out what she would look like without all the plastic surgery she has had and was horrified by the result. During her second appearance, she wanted to invest in a post-surgical health spa.

She is also an avid collector of jewellery. Rivers also appears regularly on television's The Shopping Channel (in Canada), and QVC (in both the U.S. and the U.K.), selling her own line of jewellery under the brand name "The Joan Rivers Collection", which in fact is one of that network's best-selling lines. Rivers was a guest speaker at the opening of the "American Operating Room Nurses' 2000 San Francisco Conference".

Rivers is a grandmother to Edgar Cooper Endicott, who was born in 2000 during her daughter Melissa's brief marriage (1998–2003) to John Endicott.

While touring in the UK, Rivers appeared on BBC Radio 4's "Midweek" programme and became involved in a heated on-air argument over the issue of race with broadcaster Darcus Howe. [ See the [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4360054.stm BBC News Transcript] .]

Together with Melissa, Rivers appeared in a special feature on the season one DVD set of "The Golden Girls", commenting on the sometimes-odd fashion styles worn by the characters in the sitcom.

Both Joan and her daughter Melissa are frequent guests on Howard Stern's radio show. Joan frequently appears as a panelist on UK game show "8 Out Of 10 Cats".

During an interview with Celebrity Week in October 2006, Rivers remarked that Mel Gibson "is an anti-Semitic son of a bitch. He should (expletive) die!” [ [http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/10/13/150124.shtml?s=ic Joan Rivers: Mel Gibson Should Die ] ]

She has also insulted Chris Burney, the guitarist in the band Bowling for Soup, calling him "fatso" and renaming his band "Bowling for Crap". Later that year she voted Bowling for Soup the worst-dressed musicians.

Joan Rivers is a supporter of animal rights and an active member of PETA. [ [http://www.peta.org/feat/JoanRivers/ PETA featuring Joan Rivers.] ]

Joan had a cat, Edgar (named after her deceased husband); after the cat had died, Joan had it stuffed and kept in the foyer of her apartment for three years.

As of April 2007, Joan Rivers has been fired from the "Red Carpet on TV Guide". TV Guide chiefs decided they wanted a friendlier face greeting the stars and asked TV actress Lisa Rinna to take over the show. [ [http://imdb.com/news/wenn/2007-04-20/#celeb6 Movie & TV News @ IMDb.com - WENN - 20 April 2007 ] ]

On "The Simpsons" episode "Make Room for Lisa", Homer Simpson asks an employee at Kharma-Ceutric, an alternative medicine shop, "What's keeping Joan Rivers alive?" to which she replies, "Foetal Grindings". Rivers was satirised in three other episodes as well.

On August 16, 2007, Rivers began a two-week workshop of her new play, with the working title "The Joan Rivers Theatre Project", at The Magic Theatre in San Francisco. [ [http://www.magictheatre.org/pages/highlights.shtml Magic Theatre - San Francisco ] ]

On December 3 2007, Rivers featured before Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh in the Royal Variety Show 2007 at the Liverpool Empire Theatre.

In January 2008, Rivers became one of 20 hijackers to take control of the Big Brother house in the UK, in a spin-off show entitled "". She did so for one day, bringing her usual sniping wit with her.

On June 17 2008, Rivers used two expletives while talking about Russell Crowe (though possibly meaning Mel Gibson as expressed in an interview with Richard & Judy) as a guest host on the live gab-fest "Loose Women", a British daytime talk show. She was asked to leave during a commercial break. Joan joked about it, saying the incident reminded her of her wedding night—because she was asked to leave in the middle of that, too. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOpquHD4HJQ YouTube - Joan Rivers swears on Loose Women ] ]

On June 24 2008 Rivers appeared on NBC’s show "Celebrity Family Feud". She competed with her daughter, Melissa, against Ice-T and Coco.

Cameos and parodies

Rivers had a cameo in the film "Shrek 2" (though for the UK version she was dubbed by Kate Thornton) [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0861550/bio] . She also appeared in the "Simpsons" episode Viva Ned Flanders as a desperate infomercial host and in the "Futurama" episode "That's Lobstertainment!" as a talking head. She appears in Drawn Together as Clara's talking vagina, called a "Vajoana", as the result of Clara getting too much plastic surgery. She appears in the season finale in season 2 and in season 3 of Nip/Tuck as herself. She lent her voice to the Mel Brooks film "Spaceballs" as Dot Matrix, a parody of herself. She has also appeared in a Geico Insurance commercial making satirical comments about her many plastic surgeries.

Controversy

On June 17, 2008, Joan Rivers was removed from the set of the British ITV lunchtime talk show, "Loose Women" after swearing live on air. She described the actor Russell Crowe as a piece of "f....". She made an error. The show was completely live, not tape recorded and/or had a 7 seconds delay and appeared to believe that the producers would "bleep" her swearing and said to the camera "get ready to bleep," but the show is broadcast live. The co-hosts immediately apologized for Rivers' little outburst and during the commercial break she was asked to leave the set and not invited to come back for her final segment.

A spokesperson for the show says, "Guests are always briefed that it is a live daytime show and are reminded not to swear or use inappropriate language. An editorial decision was taken that Joan Rivers should not appear in the final part of the programme. We would like to apologise to Loose Women viewers for the inappropriate language used on today's show."

Rivers, for her part, finds it all quite funny. "I said: 'I apologize.' Everyone apologized. It was hilariously funny," she says. However, on June 19, Rivers revoked her apology [ [http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcasting/a102045/joan-rivers-revokes-swearing-apology.html Rivers Revokes Swearing Apology] Digital Spy, June 19, 2008] , saying the whole thing had been blown out of proportion. She said, "Lemme get this straight. Bin Laden's top man has been released. The price of petrol is through the roof. There's inflation, depression. And people are hysterical because I said f..? I was having a great time and everybody was laughing. Then these people - these idiots - came running onto the set and ripped me off my seat and dragged me off. They were saying 'Let's go, let's go, let's go'. I thought I was being arrested. At my age I should be able to say what the hell I want. I think saying, 'Go f*** yourself' is a very pleasant way of saying good morning to someone you don't like. So I want to say to everyone that Loose Women was an honest mistake because I truly thought I'd be bleeped. Now. Get. Over. It!"

Joan adds that this was the first time she had been removed from a TV show in 40 years and she was "thrilled". Also while still on the air after learning that she was not bleeped, Lynda Bellingham, one of the co hosts, on the show said "A mother explaining to her four year old... these words are" (Referring to Joan's Russell Crowe statement) - Joan then wasted no time by saying "These words are words that Mommy said about a man and now she has to wear a big vest". [ [http://www.theage.com.au/news/tv--radio/btvb-joan-rivers-booted-off-live-tv-for-russell-crowe-slur/2008/06/18/1213468465729.html Joan Rivers booted for Russell Crowe slur - TV & Radio - Entertainment ] ] [ [http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kHI6m_xM4_A YouTube - Joan Rivers Swears Live on British TV ] ]

It is noteworthy that the following day in a pre recorded interview on the Richard & Judy show she again apologized, not for swearing but for not saying Mel Gibson instead. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqJhu4vEhb0 YouTube - Joan Rivers on Richard & Judy After Swearing on Live TV ] ]

“Well, I've worked with stupid actresses - I've worked with Angelina Jolie - she saw a sign that said 'WET FLOOR' one time, and she did!," she said.

"I mean she's attractive, but not a bright girl. Stunningly beautiful but stupid, she would have asked Stevie Wonder, 'What's your favourite colour?'" she says.

Awards

Joan Rivers has been awarded the 1975 Georgie Award as "Best Comedienne", the Clio Award for "Best Performance in a TV Commercial" in 1976 and 1982, and the 1990 Daytime Emmy Award as "Best Talk Show Host."

In a 2005 Channel 4 poll to find "The Comedian's Comedian", she was voted amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.

Rivers co-hosted a segment of the Australian 2006 Logie Awards. She was given a specially commissioned pink Logie award, threw it over her shoulder and remarked "It's the ugliest award I have ever seen." Months later (in June), footage of the spectacle featured in an episode of Web Junk 20 and on YouTube.

Books

* "Having a Baby Can Be a Scream"
* "The Life and Hard Times of Heidi Abramowitz"
* "Enter Talking" (1986)
* "Still Talking"

Filmography

*"Once Upon a Coffee House" (1965)
*"The Swimmer" (1968)
*"Rabbit Test" (1978) (also director and writer)
*"Uncle Scam" (1981)
*"The Muppets Take Manhattan" (1984)
*"Les Patterson Saves the World" (1987)
*"Spaceballs" (1987) (voice)
*"Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special" (1988)
*"Look Who's Talking" (1989) (voice)
*"Public Enemy #2" (1993)
*"Serial Mom" (1994)
*"Napoleon" (1995) (voice)
*"Goosed" (1999)
*"The Intern" (2000)
*"Whispers: An Elephant's Tale" (2000) (voice)
*"The Making and Meaning of 'We Are Family"' (2002) (documentary)
*"Hip! Edgy! Quirky!" (2002)
*"Shrek 2" (2004) (voice)
*"First Daughter" (2004)
*"The Last Guy on Earth" (2007)

Television work

*"The Joan Rivers Show" (1969) (canceled after 2 months)
*"The Electric Company" (cast member from 1972 - 1977) (voice)
*"An Audience with Joan Rivers" (1984)
*"Joan Rivers and Friends Salute Heidi Abromowitz" (1985)
*"Joan Rivers: Can We Talk?" (1986) (canceled after 15 episodes)
*"The Late Show" (host from 1986 - 1987)
*"The New Hollywood Squares" (center square from 1988 - 1989)
*"The Joan Rivers Show" (1989 - 1993)
*"How to Murder a Millionaire" (1990)
*"Lady Boss" (1992)
*"Tears and Laughter: The Joan and Melissa Rivers Story" (1994)
*"Can We Shop?" (1995–present)
*"Another World" (cast member in 1997)
*"Jack Dee Live at the Apollo" (cast member in 2004, guest host in 2007)
*"The Joan Rivers Position" (2004-2006)
*"An Audience with Joan Rivers" (2006)
*"Joan Rivers: Before Melissa Pulls the Plug" (2006)
*"Dawn French's "Girls Who Do Comedy": Joan Rivers" (in-depth interview BBC 2006)
*"The Graham Norton Show" (2007)
*"Straight Talk" (2007)
*"Shrink Rap" (2008) - With Dr. Pamela Connolly - More4
*"Celebrity Family Feud" (2008)
*"" (Celebrity Hijacker) (2008)
*"Loose Women" (2008) - thrown off for swearing.
*"The Graham Norton Show" (2008)
*"Celebrity Apprentice 2" (2008)
*"Z Rock" (2008) - Aunt Joan
*"" (2008) (voice)
*" Arthur)" (2008) (voice) - Bubby

Theater work

*"Joan Rivers: A Work In Progress By A Life In Progress" (February 2008, Geffen Playhouse)
*"Joan Rivers: A Work In Progress By A Life In Progress" (August 2008, Underbelly, Edinburgh Comedy Festival)
*"Joan Rivers: A Work In Progress By A Life In Progress" (September 2008, Leicester Square Theatre, London)Joans run at the Leicester square theatre was supposed to last until January 2009, but has been cancelled until further notice. Reason unknown. This has been confirmed by the Leicester Square theatre.

References

External links

* [http://www.joanrivers.com/ Official website]
* [http://www.emmyswithjoan.com/ Emmyswithjoan.com - live coverage of the 2007 Emmys]
*
*tvtome person|id=1064|name=Joan Rivers
* [http://www.eonline.com/Facts/People/Bio/0,128,13333,00.html E! Entertainment Bio]
* [http://www.edcomfest.com/shows/Joan_Rivers_A_Work_In_Progress_by_a_Life_In_Progress Joan Rivers at Edinburgh Comedy Festival]