Celebs Turns Out For Joan Rivers Funeral

Broadway stars Hugh Jackman and Audra McDonald performed as did the New York City Gay Men's Chorus. The eulogy was delivered by Howard Stern.

Joan Rivers: My Funeral Plan

"When I die (and yes, Melissa, that day will come; and yes, Melissa, everything’s in your name), I want my funeral to be a huge showbiz affair with lights, cameras, action. I want Craft services, I want paparazzi and I want publicists making a scene! I want it to be Hollywood all the way. I don’t want some rabbi rambling on; I want Meryl Streep crying, in five different accents. I don’t want a eulogy; I want Bobby Vinton to pick up my head and sing 'Mr. Lonely.' I want to look gorgeous, better dead than I do alive. I want to be buried in a Valentino gown and I want Harry Winston to make me a toe tag. And I want a wind machine so that even in the casket my hair is blowing just like Beyoncé’s. - Joan Rivers, from her 2013 book I Hate Everyone...Starting With Me.  Hit the link for more.

Joan Rivers: Early AIDS Activist

From Karen Ocamb at Frontiers Magazine: "Joan Rivers was not only pro-gay - she was out in front raising money for people with AIDS very early on - when many were still terrified of the disease. She was featured on the cover of Frontiers Magazine promoting an AIDS fundraiser at Studio One in March 1984 that raised $45,000 for APLA, L.A. Shanti and Aid for AIDS."

Here in New York City, for many years Rivers was a volunteer for God's Love We Deliver, which provides meals to homebound HIV/AIDS patients. While some of us, myself included, have taken great issue with unfortunate comments made by Joan Rivers in recent months, her decades-long dedication to people living with HIV/AIDS must not be forgotten.

PHOTO: In May 2014, Rivers, God's Love We Deliver president Karen Pearl, and NYC Councilman Corey Johnson celebrated the organization's 15 millionth meal.

Joan Rivers Dies At Age 81

NBC News reports:

Joan Rivers, a pioneering female stand-up comic and the queen of "Can We Talk?" gossip, has died. She was 81. Rivers was undergoing surgery on her vocal cords at a clinic in New York City on Aug. 28 when she stopped breathing and had to be transported to Mount Sinai Hospital. Her daughter, Melissa Rivers, and her 13-year-old grandson, Cooper, who lived with her in Malibu, Calif., rushed to her bedside. Raspy-voiced and brassy, Rivers was always self-deprecating, foul-mouthed and politically incorrect. A master of reinvention, she endured in show business because of her tenacious work ethic — which she credited to her "immigrant mentality." Comedians typically push the envelope, but Rivers proved time and again that she didn't even see the envelope. To her fans, she was as shocking as she was endearing.

Rivers' family is reportedly considered suing the clinic for placing an elderly person under outpatient anesthesia.

Joan Rivers In Medically-Induced Coma

Doctors at Manhattan's Mt. Sinai Hospital have placed Joan Rivers in a medically-induced coma after the comic suffered cardiac arrest yesterday while undergoing outpatient surgery on her vocal cords.

A picture of health only the day before, Rivers accepted a bouquet of flowers from a fan as she finished her stand-up performance at around 9.30pm on Wednesday. The entertainment legend even posed for pictures with a fan on the way out of the Laurie Beechman Theatre, only to suffer respiratory failure less than twelve hours later during surgery on her throat. Her daughter, Melissa Rivers, dashed from LA to New York and arrived at the hospital at around 8pm and was ushered to the 11th floor luxury room in which her mother is now said by doctors to be in a stable condition. She released a statement thanking everyone for their messages of support and gave a brief update on her mother's condition. 'I want to thank everyone for the overwhelming love and support for my mother,' Melissa Rivers said in a statement. 'She is resting comfortably and is with our family. We ask that you continue to keep her in your thoughts and prayers.'

Rivers has been the target of widespread condemnation in recent weeks after referring to the First Lady as a "tranny" and saying that Palestinian civilians "deserve to be dead" for having elected Hamas. 

Joan Rivers In Critical Condition

Numerous outlets are reporting that Joan Rivers is in critical condition after she stopped breathing during outpatient surgery on her vocal cords. TMZ has some details:

We're told an emergency call was placed to 911 at 9:39 AM ET and the caller said, "We have somebody in either cardiac or respiratory arrest." Joan Rivers was rushed to a hospital in New York City moments ago after she stopped breathing during a surgery on her throat,  TMZ has learned. We're told Rivers was undergoing the throat procedure in a clinic (specifically on her vocal chords) when she stopped breathing during the surgery. Sources say 81-year-old Rivers was rushed to Mount Sinai hospital in New York. We're told her daughter Melissa is on her way to New York.

UPDATE: More from ABC New York.

The New York City Fire Department transported a woman matching her description to Mt. Sinai Hospital earlier this morning after receiving a call that the woman was in cardiac arrest at an Upper East Side clinic, Yorkville Endoscopy, an FDNY source said. The law enforcement source confirmed the woman was Joan Rivers. TMZ earlier reported that Rivers was having surgery on her vocal chords at the clinic. No other details were immediately available and her rep had no other information when contacted by ABC News.

Tea Party Outlet: Michelle Obama Should Post Selfies From A Men's Urinal

Tea Party outlet PJ Media says Michelle Obama should be proud to be a transgender woman and should post selfies from a men's urinal.

Credit Joan Rivers

Tea Party hero and conspiracy theory crackpot supreme Alex Jones yesterday declared that the First Lady is a transsexual.

Joan Rivers talked about it the other day, and now it’s an international news story. The question is, ‘Who is Michelle Obama? Is she really a woman? Is she a man?’ Now, I’m not drawing any conclusions here. but I know this — it’s fair to question anything and everything this administration says. I can’t think of an administration in history that’s been caught with such a perfect record of everything they say and do being a lie or a fraud. These people are the authors of such tyranny that they shouldn’t whine and complain when the public doesn’t believe anything they’re saying — especially when every time I look at ‘Michelle’ or ‘Michael’ Obama, the First Lady, or First Tranny, something doesn’t look right. She doesn’t look like any black woman I’ve ever known. She’s got shoulders that are wider than a man’s, which physiologically doesn’t happen. You can put three heads on a man’s shoulders, and two heads on a woman’s shoulders — that’s a known anatomy.

In his typical fashion, Jones says the First Lady has a "chromosomal disorder" because of all the genetically modified food that Americans are forced to eat due to a super-secret international conspiracy. Or something. The clip below then ends with Jones pitching iodine supplements.

Joan Rivers: Calling The First Lady A "Tranny" Was Actually A Compliment

"I think it's a compliment. She's so attractive, tall, with a beautiful body, great face, does great makeup. Take a look and go back to La Cage Au Follies (sic). The most gorgeous women are transgender. Stop it already ... and if you want to talk about 'politically correct,' I think this is a 'politically incorrect' attack on me because I'm old, Jewish, a woman and a 'hetty' -- a heteosexual ... and I plan to sue the reporter who, when he turned off his camera, tried to touch me inappropriately on the ass - luckily he hit my ankle. Read the book ... if you think that's silly, wait to (sic) you see what I say about FDR and Eleanor!" - Joan Rivers, in a statement sent to CNN.

Joan Rivers: President Obama Is Gay And Michelle Obama Is A "Tranny"

Via the Advocate:

In a brief video reportedly shot earlier this week in New York, 81-year-old Joan Rivers calls First Lady Michelle Obama "a transgender," joking that this makes Barack Obama the first gay president. After being asked about the U.S.'s likelihood of having either a woman or a gay president in the near future , Rivers replied, "We already have that with Obama. You know Michelle is a tranny." The unidentified journalist tries to clarify, asking, "I'm sorry. She's a what?" "A transgender," Rivers replies. "We all know." Conservatives have long made jokes insinuating that the First Lady is actually a transgender woman, but it's not often that a liberal-minded comedian — let alone one who credits much of her success to her devoted LGBT fan base — make this type of uninspired joke.

Lame. Unfunny. Unacceptable. And of course, Rivers' comments are being reported on with high glee all over Teabagistan thanks to the above headline by closeted homosexual Matt Drudge.

Writers To Joan Rivers Show: Pay Up

The writers of Fashion Police, which is co-hosted by Joan Rivers and produced by her daughter, Melissa, have filed a claim against against the  E! Network for $1M in back wages according to a complaint filed with the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement.

The complainants say that "Fashion Police" ignores state laws that require an employer to pay hourly employees their regular wage rate for all time worked in an eight-hour period. In addiition, the law requires paying overtime for employment beyond eight hours in any workday or more than 40 hours in any workweek. "The most I've been paid for a show has been for eight hours of work," said writer Eliza Kinner in a release issued by the Writers Guild of America, West. "In reality, I put in anywhere from 12 to 32 additional hours on each show -- time I should have been compensated for.

The complaint has the backing of the Writers Guild.

Cops Remove Joan Rivers From Costco After She Protests Their Ban On Her Book

After signing autographs for fans, today Joan Rivers handcuffed herself to a Costco shopping cart in protest that the discount giant has banned her new book due to naughty language on its jacket. Police were called to remove Rivers from the premises.

"Costco, who sells condoms by the pallet, who sells Paula Deen books and - which is not good for their customers' health - they decided to ban my book," the 79-year-old Rivers said. "This is a First Amendment violation. You're banning a book because it says a funny quote by Marie Antoinette? Where is this going to lead us to? "This is a store that sells 300 rolls of toilet paper at the same time, and I say any customer that buys 300 rolls of toilet paper deserves a funny book to sit on the toilet and read."

Rivers later told local news that she's especially outraged that Costo would ban her, since she is single-handedly keeping their sex toys department in business. Rivers' book, I Hate Everyone (Including Me), has topped the New York Times bestsellers list for several weeks.

NOTE: Like many, Rivers doesn't appear to understand the First Amendment. Still, it was quite the effective stunt.

Joan Rivers On Glee

"You know that cute Asian boy who plays a freshman? In real life he's a thirty-year-old man and he's upside down on a mortgage in Burbank. The only way Lea Michele is in high school is if she's part of some bizarre religious cult and she's come back to school with bombs strapped to her boobs. The only true character on Glee is the fat girl because in real life she is a fat girl. On Glee all the homo kids are smiling and giggly and they spend every day singing in the halls. When I went to high school, the homos spent most of their days hiding in their lockers, crying!" - Joan Rivers, in her new book, I Hate Everybody Including Me.

Joan Rivers For New York Marriage

Joan Rivers: I'm Banned By Fox

Tweet Of The Day - Joan Rivers

Joan followed up that tweet with a message that she was headed to God's Love We Deliver for her "favorite part of the holiday," delivering Thanksgiving meals to homebound HIV/AIDS patients. Below is Kylie's performance in the parade.

(Video tipped by JMG reader Fritz)

Quote Of The Day II - Joan Rivers

"If you’re going to be a romantic idol and try to get every teenage girl to love you, then you’d be an ass to come out and say you’re gay. That’s why Ricky Martin was so smart — he did what he did, he made his millions, and then he said, 'Guess what, everybody? I’m gay, I’m having this life, and here are my children.' It didn’t matter anymore because he didn’t have to bring in 16-year-old girls." - Joan Rivers, in the Advocate.

Joan Rivers On Dying

"I’ll tell you how I want to go. On stage in the middle of a set. I just want to fall off the stool in the middle of a one-hour routine. I have written instructions that I am not to be resuscitated unless I am capable of doing 60 minutes of stand up. Oh wait. I should fall off the stool after 31 minutes because they don’t pay you unless you do at least 30 minutes." - Joan Rivers, in a great interview with our own Father Tony for South Florida Gay News. The documentary Joan Rivers - A Piece Of Work is in theaters now.

Quote Of The Day - Joan Rivers

“If I were going to make up an alias, I wouldn’t pick Rosenberg. I’d pick Jolie or Pitt…Do terrorists wear Manolo Blahniks? I can tell you Donna Karan does not make anything that hides a bomb…I tried the tears; they didn’t work. I tried reasoning. I couldn’t bribe because I didn’t have any money. I said ‘I’m going to have a heart attack over this,’ so the woman called the paramedics.” - Joan Rivers, who says she was bumped off a flight over security concerns because the gate agent found the name on her passport to be fishy: Joan Rosenberg AKA Joan Rivers.

80's Flashback

Sylvester, Someone Like You, 1986. Not my favorite Sylvester track and definitely not one of his better live vocal performances, but this clip is worthwhile for the post-song chat he has with Joan Rivers, who was subbing for Johnny Carson on New Year's Eve. Rivers fawns over Sylvester's jewelry and he drops the bomb (on national TV! In 1986!) that he is married to a man named Rick. (Rick died several months later.) He also uses his famous expression: "I'm not a drag queen! I'm Sylvester!" The back-up singers for this performance, Charlene Moore (silver dress) and Jeanie Tracy (who was Sylvester's end-of-life caretaker), have both commented several times on this YouTube clip, mentioning that he was already not feeling well in late 1986 and had a sore throat, hence the sketchy vocal. Nevertheless, his Sylvester-ness shines through.