14 Must-Read Tales from The Book of Joan
It seems like only yesterday we could tune in and hear the not-so dulcet sounds of Joan Rivers gabbing away on E!’s Fashion Police. The legendary and groundbreaking comedienne passed away in September of last year, only eight months ago—not a long gestation period for The Book of Joan, a heartfelt tribute from her grieving daughter and business partner, Melissa.
The Book of Joan: Tales of Mirth, Mischief, and Manipulation
Hardcover $26.00
The Book of Joan: Tales of Mirth, Mischief, and Manipulation
Hardcover $26.00
Melissa is the first to make a joke of the book’s seemingly indecorous lightning-fast turnaround. She says an offer came in the day of her mother’s funeral. “My first thought was ‘Are you kidding me?’ But my second thought was ‘What would mother have done?’ So, naturally, my third thought was ‘Sell, baby, sell! This book would be a perfect Mother’s Day gift.'”
And it is. Including memorabilia like old report cards (first grade: “Joan’s voice is still loud and she tries to gain attention this way”), intimate family photos, and the Ivy Day speech Rivers was asked to deliver at her daughter’s college graduation, this breeze of a book feels like sitting down for a cup of coffee and a kvetch with the mad diva herself. Here is just a smattering of its many must-read tales.
- For the holidays one year, Joan gave her entire staff one free cosmetic procedure.
- She squirreled away cold, hard cash in empty Milk Duds boxes in her gigantic purses.
- Her grandson, Melissa’s son Cooper, used to call her “Nana New Face.”
- Denzel Washington might be the only star ever to render Joan Rivers speechless. The actor came up to her at the Oscars and started reciting one of her pre-show jokes back to her. He’d been watching the show while prepping. Rivers was floored.
- To hear Joan tell it, Tommy Lee Jones is the biggest Debbie Downer on the red carpet, and everyone knows it.
- When Joan performed while pregnant on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1968, broadcast censors would not let her actually use the term “pregnant.” Because that would be inappropriate. (Clearly they had not seen the rest of her act.)
- Joan and Jay Leno did not get along. Rivers had a long, complicated relationship with Leno’s predecessor, Johnny Carson. Carson mentored her, and she regularly guest-hosted the Tonight Show before the two had a falling out and she was blackballed from the show. Leno upheld Carson’s ban, making him persona non grata in the Rivers household. Melissa does not hold back in the book, sharing her mother’s critique of Leno’s “lowest common denominator” comedy and his failure to offer condolences after Joan’s passing.
- If you thought being blackballed from a TV show was bad, Joan Rivers, aka Joan Rosenberg, was informally banned from the country of Costa Rica.
- Joan and Katie Couric also did not get along, after a contentious interview on Couric’s talk show that Rivers felt was too aggressive for daytime TV. (Because, to quote Taylor Swift quoting Katie Couric, there is a special place in hell for women who don’t support other women.)
- Lastly, Ben Stiller. Joan was not a fan. Go figure. He seems like such a mensch.
- Saint Joan distributed her Joan Rivers Collection QVC “Bee Pins” to “Ubangi women” [sic] on her African safari.
- Something about Al Roker, which we are now dying to know. (Page 212. Spill, Melissa.)
- Joan once lost track of her hired driver in a busy parking lot and hitchhiked home from the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway.
- Serious true crime fans (Joan read In Cold Blood to Melissa as a bedtime story), Melissa and Joan both had favorite serial killers. You’ll have to read the book to find out who.
Melissa is the first to make a joke of the book’s seemingly indecorous lightning-fast turnaround. She says an offer came in the day of her mother’s funeral. “My first thought was ‘Are you kidding me?’ But my second thought was ‘What would mother have done?’ So, naturally, my third thought was ‘Sell, baby, sell! This book would be a perfect Mother’s Day gift.'”
And it is. Including memorabilia like old report cards (first grade: “Joan’s voice is still loud and she tries to gain attention this way”), intimate family photos, and the Ivy Day speech Rivers was asked to deliver at her daughter’s college graduation, this breeze of a book feels like sitting down for a cup of coffee and a kvetch with the mad diva herself. Here is just a smattering of its many must-read tales.
- For the holidays one year, Joan gave her entire staff one free cosmetic procedure.
- She squirreled away cold, hard cash in empty Milk Duds boxes in her gigantic purses.
- Her grandson, Melissa’s son Cooper, used to call her “Nana New Face.”
- Denzel Washington might be the only star ever to render Joan Rivers speechless. The actor came up to her at the Oscars and started reciting one of her pre-show jokes back to her. He’d been watching the show while prepping. Rivers was floored.
- To hear Joan tell it, Tommy Lee Jones is the biggest Debbie Downer on the red carpet, and everyone knows it.
- When Joan performed while pregnant on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1968, broadcast censors would not let her actually use the term “pregnant.” Because that would be inappropriate. (Clearly they had not seen the rest of her act.)
- Joan and Jay Leno did not get along. Rivers had a long, complicated relationship with Leno’s predecessor, Johnny Carson. Carson mentored her, and she regularly guest-hosted the Tonight Show before the two had a falling out and she was blackballed from the show. Leno upheld Carson’s ban, making him persona non grata in the Rivers household. Melissa does not hold back in the book, sharing her mother’s critique of Leno’s “lowest common denominator” comedy and his failure to offer condolences after Joan’s passing.
- If you thought being blackballed from a TV show was bad, Joan Rivers, aka Joan Rosenberg, was informally banned from the country of Costa Rica.
- Joan and Katie Couric also did not get along, after a contentious interview on Couric’s talk show that Rivers felt was too aggressive for daytime TV. (Because, to quote Taylor Swift quoting Katie Couric, there is a special place in hell for women who don’t support other women.)
- Lastly, Ben Stiller. Joan was not a fan. Go figure. He seems like such a mensch.
- Saint Joan distributed her Joan Rivers Collection QVC “Bee Pins” to “Ubangi women” [sic] on her African safari.
- Something about Al Roker, which we are now dying to know. (Page 212. Spill, Melissa.)
- Joan once lost track of her hired driver in a busy parking lot and hitchhiked home from the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway.
- Serious true crime fans (Joan read In Cold Blood to Melissa as a bedtime story), Melissa and Joan both had favorite serial killers. You’ll have to read the book to find out who.