The Fascinating Joan Rivers

Joan Rivers is without a doubt, the funniest woman on Earth. There's no competition. She's hilarious. She is sharp and has a very quick wit, even in her latter 70's. She doesn't act or look like your typical "old person".

Joan Rosenberg, Joan's real name, has had a very long and amazingly successful career. She has done so many things and has never slowed down. The thing that she has wanted to accomplish but hasn't, is perhaps her own sitcom or to star on the big screen. In an interview, Joan lamented that someone (with no talent) such as Paris Hilton has her own TV show but not Joan (who has enormous talent).

However Joan has a TV show starting 2009 on TV Land called "How'd You Get So Rich" and she also hosted her own talk show in the 1980s and had famous guests such as Lucille Ball and Nancy Reagan. (A snippet of her hosting "The Joan Rivers Show" with Lucy as a guest is shown on this page) So what does Joan mean she wants her own show when she had and has one? (I think she totally should have her own show. If anyone should, it's her)

A documentary about Joan called "A Piece of Work" is showing at the Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews. It takes a brutally honest and funny look at the real life of Joan Rivers. I can't wait to see it.

A bio of Joan Rivers-

Joan Alexandra Molinsky was born June 8th 1933 in Brooklyn New York. She is Jewish. Joan has said she had a happy childhood. Her father was a doctor and her mother was a doting housewife. Joan has one sister who is a lawyer. Joan's father was a funny man so she says being funny is in their DNA. She knew she wanted to be an actress from the time she was a little girl.

Joan graduated from Barnard College in 1954. She had an agent and worked various jobs until her big break in show business came. Her agent, Tony Rivers suggested she adopt a stage name of Joan Rivers instead of Molinsky, so she did.

Joan married James Sanger in 1955 but was annulled after only 6 months when she fount out he didn't want kids. Joan married Edgar Rosenberg in 1965. They had one daughter, Melissa together in 1968. Melissa Rosenberg adopted her mothers stage name and goes by Melissa Rivers as well. They were married until he committed suicide in 1987 because of the humiliation of getting fired from the Fox network. This was obviously an incredibly painful and difficult time for Joan and Melissa. After many tears, pain, bulimia, and counseling, Joan finally bounced back, and bounced back big time.

In an interview, Joan has stated that her one regret in life was not having more kids, but she wasn't able to have more kids after suffering through miscarriages and a tubal pregnancy.

In the late 1950's, Joan starred in a play with Barbara Streisand. In the 1960's Joan worked as a stand up comic in various New York clubs and appeared on The Tonight Show when it was broadcast from New York and was hosted by Jack Paar. She also got a role on Candid Camera as bait and a writer, made several TV appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (a later nemesis), and released comedy albums.

Joan made many appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (who has been known to be a mean, nasty, racist in private) and he held a grudge against Joan because she got her own show which happened to run at the same time slot. He never forgave her and banned her from ever appearing on the Tonight Show again and held a grudge (against many people) until his last breath. There's rumors that when Jay Leno took over The Tonight Show, he wasn't allowed to have Joan on either as stated in a contract.

In 1984 Joan published her first book called "The Life and Hard Times of Heidi Abramowitz." In 1986 Joan became the first and only woman to get a late night talk show. No woman has ever managed to break into this "boy's club" ever. The brand new Fox network planned to give Joan "The Late Show With Joan Rivers." It premiered in 1986. (Shown on this page) Then Fox decided to fire Joan's husband Ed Rosenberg as producer. Joan was angry at their decision and challenged the Fox executives, so they fired the both Joan and Ed, and trashed their plans for her late night talk show. (Stupid, stupid, Fox) After getting firing by Fox, Edgar Rosenberg committed suicide.

In 1989 Joan got a daytime talk show which ran for 5 years called "The Joan Rivers Show."

In 1990 Joan won an Emmy award for her daytime talk show and got a Hollywood Star of Fame.

In 1994 Joan and Melissa started hosting the Golden Globe Awards pre-award show for E!. In 2003 mother and daughter left E! to cover the red carpet for TV Guide. Joan is famous for asking celebrities walking down the red carpet, "Who are you wearing?" and giving hilarious scathing reviews for the poorly dressed stars.

Lately Joan is known for being a best seller on QVC with her own jewelry line, being the winner of the second Celebrity Apprentice, and hosting How'd You Get So Rich? on TV Land.

At the age of 76 currently, Joan never stops. She still travels around the world performing stand up comedy and making droves of people burn off tons of calories through laughing, giving interviews on lots of shows all over America and England, being a guest host on "The View" and "Larry King Live", doing "How'd You Get So Rich?",selling her best selling jewelry line on QVC, and promoting her latest book, "Men are Stupid and Like Big Boobs." Joan is also famous for her many plastic surgery procedures, making fun of herself regularly in her comic acts, for being super driven, and her amazing energy and stamina.

Joan Rivers is fascinating, having more energy and stamina than a 20 year old. One can only wonder, what will she do next? Age hasn't slowed down Joan, if anything, she's going stronger than ever.

OH! And EDIT! How could I forget??? She was also on "HOLLYWOOD SQUARES." I remember watching this at my grandparents house when I was little and they always watched game shows-everyday-every single one of them. That was when I first heard of Joan Rivers. I didn't know what she was famous for, but I knew she was a staple on Hollywood Squares.

Everyone who knows Joan, knows that she's just as driven as she is hilarious. While most anyone else her age would be retired and taking it easy, Joan is going as strong or even stronger than ever. She's still traveling all over America making people laugh at packed comedy shows. And that's just one of the things she's doing.

Joan has been on about every news show and talk show there is to be funny and to talk about the latest thing going on in her life. She has been promoting her new book, "Men are Stupid and Like Big Boobs" which is all about plastic surgery with some humor in it. She has talked about the documentary about her "A Piece of Work", promoting "How'd You Get So Rich?" and has went on shows to talk about her airport fiasco where an idiot in Costa Rica wouldn't let her board the plane at the last minute simply because her passport had her real last name and stage last name.

Joan was a fan favorite of "The Celebrity Apprentice" on Donald Trump's top rated show. She is famous for her feud with "poka player" Annie Duke and her verbal spats with her. Joan became mad when Annie said one thing privately but changed her tune and said something else in front of Donald Trump in the board room. Joan felt Annie was setting up Melissa to take the fall and nobody messes with Joan's daughter. In a famous fight, Joan dramatically put up her arm and screamed "You're a poka playa! A POKA PLAYA" at Annie, calling poker players white trash with no last names who have money with blood on it. Joan also called Annie "Hitler" and a snake. In a boardroom spat, Annie said she liked Joan and Joan rolled her eyes. Donald Trump asked, you really don't like her do you? And Joan said no and she was not interested in fake compliments.

When Joan and Annie were the last 2 players left and Annie tried to talk with Joan, Joan threw up her hands saying she didn't want to hear it and only argued with her peers and Annie was not her peer. On interviews after The Celebrity Apprentice Joan has not apologized for her words and still does not like Annie and has said she doesn't want to talk about her because she doesn't deserve the attention.

Joan has also made the news for putting a dating profile on the site Match.com. Joan was set up with different men from a news channel, but it's not known if she actually dated any of them or not.

Joan is now on Facebook and Twitter and has a website. Joan's website lists all her upcoming events whether on TV or stand up comedy shows. You can view her website at www.joanrivers.com