Joan Rivers in Critical Condition- Not Conscious

[Lucky]

The 81-year old comedian and AIDS activist was found unresponsive this morning and taken to Mt. Sinai hospital. There has been no word on how she is doing, but a family sp[okesman says "it doesn't look good."

[AdamSmith]

New York Magazine reports:

Legendary comedian Joan Rivers was reportedly rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital on Thursday after she went into respiratory arrest while undergoing surgery on her vocal chords. TMZ says the 81-year-old comic stopped breathing during the procedure at a clinic on the Upper East Side.

The NYPD told TMZ that Rivers is currently in critical condition.

Update: 12:45 pm

Page Six is reporting Rivers has been upgraded from critical condition to stable condition. Rivers' assistant Graham Reed told the Daily News, "She's not conscious, but she's stable."

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/08/joan-rivers-hospitalized-in-critical-condition.html

[Guest lurkerspeaks]

Many wishes for a fast and speedy recovery.. Like her or hate her, she is truly a legend.

[Guest hitoallusa]

Oh my I hope she recovers fast..

[Guest hitoallusa]

Oh my I hope she recovers fast..

[AdamSmith]

What the NY Daily News is reporting:

Tart-tongued comedian Joan Rivers was placed in a medically induced coma Thursday as her daughter flew cross-country to her critically ill mothers side, sources told the Daily News.

Doctors expect to bring 81-year-old Rivers out of the coma this weekend to evaluate any damage caused when she went into cardiac and respiratory arrest during a routine doctors visit.

They dont know how long she was starved of oxygen, the source said.

Emergency medical help was dispatched to the building at 201 E. 93rd St. about 9:40 a.m., with the patient in cardiac and respiratory arrest at the scene, the FDNY reported.

Rivers was at the doctor to get a chronic problem with her vocal cords checked out, according to sources.

An assistant to the renowned comic was overheard saying that Rivers was inside The Mount Sinai Hospital after arriving a short time earlier.

Shes not conscious, but shes stable, said an obviously distraught Graham Reed, the comedians aide. Reed refused to provide any details when approached by a reporter.

The hospital released a brief statement confirming Rivers was at the facility.

Her family wants to thank everybody for their outpouring of love and support, said hospital spokesman Sid Dinsay. We will provide an update on her condition as it becomes available.

But another family source said the situation was dire.

We are scared, the source said. This is not looking good. No big medical decisions will be made until (daughter) Melissa arrives.

Melissa Rivers was flying back east from her California home.

The family source said friends were gathering Thursday inside Rivers apartment.

She would want us all to laugh, the source said. But at the moment, we are all praying.

Rivers is a longtime Manhattan resident. She appeared in good shape Wednesday night for a performance at the Laurie Beechman Theater on W. 42nd St.

She was incredible, sounded great, said one fan who attended the gig.

http://m.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/joan-rivers-hospitalized-stops-breathing-operation-article-1.1920028#bmb=1

[MsGuy]

Does this mean Fashion Police will be cancelled?

Or will they stage a fash-off among the side kicks to pick a new queen?

(I'm assuming Melissa inherits the red carpet shows.)

[Guest lurkerspeaks]

If I am not mistaken, Melissa is the executive producer for Fashion Police, so technically it already is her show..

IMHO, the only acceptable substitute to fill in until Joan recovers would be Kathy Griffin

[AdamSmith]

IMHO, the only acceptable substitute to fill in until Joan recovers would be Kathy Griffin

[ihpguy]

The highlight of my weekly TV viewing is Fashion Police. Without Joan, not sure that Kathy can handle the gig.

[MsGuy]

How about Lisa Lampanelli

Or maybe Roseanne Barr?

[MsAnn]

If I am not mistaken, Melissa is the executive producer for Fashion Police, so technically it already is her show..

IMHO, the only acceptable substitute to fill in until Joan recovers would be Kathy Griffin

I love Kathy Griffin, but I think Fashion Police might be a little beneath her. Let's just hope Ms. Rivers recovers, more for the sake of her family and friends.

[axiom2001]

Many wishes for a fast and speedy recovery.. Like her or hate her, she is truly a legend.

...my sentiments as well!

[axiom2001]

Lets cease the speculation as to who will replace Ms Rivers and pray that she recovers and recuperates soon!

[Guest lurkerspeaks]

MY speculation was for the interim until she is back and ready to return..

[AdamSmith]

What's a medically induced coma? Joan Rivers' treatment is explained
Medically induced comas are common, Dr. Rishi Malhotra, the director of Neuro Critical Care at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, told the Daily News. They help the brain recover after a major incident, such as comedian Joan Rivers' cardiac arrest.

BY Meredith Engel
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Friday, August 29, 2014, 1:10 PM

Joan Rivers is currently in a medically induced coma after going into cardiac and respiratory arrest during a routine procedure on her vocal cords Thursday.

It might be what saves her life.

"A medically induced coma is when we administer anesthetics or pain medications at a dose high enough to limit brain functions, either to give rest or stop something like shivering, which requires a lot of energy," said Dr. Rishi Malhotra, director of Neuro Critical Care at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.

Physicians induce comas regularly in a variety of patients, he added. They help people with brain injuries reduce pressure in their heads, and aid people on ventilators who are not breathing properly.

Medically induced comas are common for people who go into cardiac arrest - as Rivers did - so that doctors can use hypothermia to cool the body. Studies show that cardiac arrest patients treated with hypothermia are more likely to recover well. Shivering, which Malhotra mentioned, burns energy that the brain needs because cardiac arrest deprives it of oxygen.

Malhotra says medically induced comas can vary in duration, but someone who experienced cardiac arrest is usually in one for 24 to 48 hours. Rivers is set to be taken out of her coma this weekend so that doctors can assess how much oxygen she lost.

Though some people can experience low blood pressure when in a medically induced coma, Malhotra said that they are "generally well tolerated" and "are very commonly done to millions of people in the U.S."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/medically-induced-coma-article-1.1921528#ixzz3BsWT8ym4

[AdamSmith]

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work

Movie Review

By Roger Ebert

July 16, 2010

No one is ever too old. You may have that idea about Joan Rivers, who is 75 in this film and never tires of reminding us of that fact. Is that too old? It's older than she would prefer, but what are you gonna do? She remains one of the funniest, dirtiest, most daring and transgressive of stand-up comics, and she hasn't missed a beat.

“Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work” covers the events in about a year of her life. If the filmmakers didn't have total access, I don't want to see what they missed. In one stretch in this film she closes a show in Toronto, flies overnight to Palm Springs, does a gig, flies overnight to Minneapolis, and performs another one. Try that sometime.

She has the energy, stamina and aggression that a great stand-up needs. She assaults the audience. She pounds laughter out of us. If you've only seen her on television, you have no idea. I saw her in Vegas, and she had people weeping with laughter. I saw her at a memorial service in Toronto for a friend of hers, and she brought down the house. Was that wrong at a memorial service? Brian Linehan, her friend, wouldn't have expected anything less, and she knew it. If you need devout solemnity, Joan Rivers is not your girl.

The way she is funny is, she tells the truth according to herself. She hates some people. She has political opinions. Her observations are so merciless and her timing so precise that even if you like that person, you laugh. She is a sadist of comedy, unafraid to be cruel — even too cruel. She doesn't know fear. She seems to be curious about how far she can go and still get a laugh. That must feel dangerous on a stage with a live audience. Maybe she feeds on that danger.

This documentary began filming before she had her latest 15 minutes of fame on Donald Trump's “Celebrity Apprentice.” God help Rod Blagojevich if he'd been on the show that season. Rivers has had hours of those 15 minutes of fame. Her life is like a comeback tour. She is frank about her setbacks. She was Johnny Carson's resident co-host (and gave young Siskel & Ebert their first spot on “The Tonight Show”). She left Carson to begin her own nightly show on Fox. Carson never spoke to her again. NBC banned her from all of its shows until two years ago. The Fox show eventually failed, and it was discovered that her husband Edgar, the show's manager, had been stealing from her. He killed himself. She never forgave him — for the suicide, not the other stuff.

She was down. She was up. Her daughter Melissa says, “Her career was like me having a sister.” I wonder if Melissa appears with her on red carpet shows because it's a chance for some quiet time with Mom. She hardly mentions the red carpets for which she is now widely known. For her, it all comes down to this week: Does she have bookings? She looks at blank pages in her engagement calendar and says they're so white she needs sunglasses to read them.

What makes Joanie run? They say if a shark stops swimming, it dies. She's not a shark. She's a woman who for various reasons depends on making audiences laugh. They walk in knowing all of her problems, knowing her age, eagle-eyeing her for the plastic surgery, ready to complain, and she forces them to laugh, because she's so damned funny. I admire that. Bernard Shaw called it the Life Force. We see her in the film's first shot, without makeup. A minute later, “Joan Rivers” is before us. Her life is a performance of herself.

Yes, she's had plastic surgery. Well, why not? I think it's wrong for most people. But show business is cruel and eats its old, and you do what you have to do. She talks about it. She talks about everything. A portrait emerges of a bright little girl who walked onto stage and never wanted to get off. If she can't have a network show, she'll work a dinner club.

There's that need in a lot of comics. Once in the Merchandise Mart, I was riding down in an elevator with Henny Youngman. The doors opened at a private club on the second floor, and there was a big placard there pointing to the room for a wedding. Henny didn't miss a beat. He walked off, asked to be introduced to the father of the bride, and told him, “My name is Henny Youngman. I'll do 10 minutes for $200.”

I think “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work” is fascinating and has a lot of laughs in it. It's more than that. It's the portrait of a woman who will not accept defeat, who will not slow down, who must prove herself over and again. A brave and stubborn woman, smart as a whip, superbly skilled. You want to see what it looks like to rage, rage against the dying of the light? Joan Rivers will not go gentle into that good night.

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/joan-rivers-a-piece-of-work-2010

[AdamSmith]

On life support, TMZ reports:

http://m.tmz.com/#Article/2014/08/30/joan-rivers-life-support-hospital-melissa

[Suckrates]

Latest update from Melissa is that Joan remains on Life support...... NOT a good sign !

[AdamSmith]

Get well soon, Joan Rivers - an inspiration, whether she likes it or not

She is awful. But she's also wonderful, not in spite of but because of the fact she's forever saying appalling things

By ELLEN E JONES

Sunday 31 August 2014

independent.co.uk

When an 81-year-old showbiz legend was rushed to hospital on Thursday, nobody cracked any tasteless jokes. Not out of a sense of decency, but because the only comedian with the balls to do that is Joan Rivers, and this time Joan Rivers was the one attached to the ventilator.

This is the woman who called our beloved Adele "fat" and described Kim and Kanye's baby (a baby!) as "desperately in need of a waxing". Nor does she restrict her sharp tongue to celebrities. In a television interview Rivers complained about staying in her daughter's guest room by saying, "Those women in the basement in Cleveland had more space!" In the midst of the most recent bombings of Gaza she said Palestinians "deserve to be dead". There's no two ways about it; Joan Rivers is awful. But she's also wonderful and I think, not in spite of but because of the fact that she's forever saying appalling things.

As a bona fide survivor of 50 years in the biz and a pioneer for women, Rivers would be a prized addition to the feminist icon hall of fame, if only she'd allow herself to be inducted. But as she recently told an interviewer, Rivers finds the gushing praise of bright young fangirls actively repugnant: "I'm still breaking barriers and I can still take you sweetheart, with both hands tied behind my back." She saves her meanest barbs for other women, particularly other women in entertainment. It's telling that one of her fiercest feuds is with Chelsea Handler, a US comedian whose career path closely matches that of Rivers.

When I saw Rivers live last year (packed room, sold-out show) she was marching up and down the stage, telling jokes which made the audience laugh and gasp in equal measure. The closest she ever got to sisterly supportiveness is also a fair summation of her comic worldview: "Think like a second wife. You grab and you take. You grab and you take. And when you die, whatever you got out of him you have buried on you. If the next bitch wants it, make her dig for it."

Rivers makes you dig for it, all right, but underneath, there's a heart of gold. It's there in her 1997 memoir-cum-self help book Bouncing Back, in which she discusses how she overcame the suicide of her husband, bulimia, bankruptcy, public humiliation and industry sexism, and chucks in a few jokes for free. For people going through difficult times, it's a full of empathy, but as for sympathy? Forget it.

As Rivers herself would say, screw kindness, here's the truth instead. Women are so often, and in so many ways, told to be polite and nurturing that it's still a thrill to see a women who isn't polite or nurturing, who always misbehaves. I hope Joan Rivers gets well soon, lives to 110 and never stops saying mean things to people who definitely don't deserve it. That woman is an inspiration, whether she likes it or not.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/get-well-soon-joan-rivers--an-inspiration-whether-she-likes-it-or-not-9701613.html

[AdamSmith]

Joan Rivers: the queen of comedy reflects on her past

In a 2010 interview, Joan Rivers looks back at a low point in her life.

A butler in a starched white jacket opens the door of the palatial apartment in Upper East Side, New York, that is home to Joan Rivers. Supposedly the site of a former ballroom, the main room is decorated in fin de siècle finery, with swathes of pink silk murals and acres of gilt furniture. Two small dogs start yapping. This is, Rivers says, the way Marie Antoinette would have decorated her apartment if shed had the money.

In shuffles the self-anointed queen of comedy 47 years in the business and counting and ushers me into a ramshackle, but still grand, library with an open fire. Its been a long day, she says. If you wee, I will kill ya, she adds, addressing one of the dogs a rescued, incontinent Pekinese who, on closer inspection, is wearing some kind of canine nappy. A pillow on the sofa is embroidered with the words I need a man to spoil me, or I dont need a man at all.

Joan Rivers, has been described as one of the smartest, funniest and nastiest people on television. She has, she estimates, over the years offended almost everyone in the business with her prodigious swearing and shocking, outré humour: abortions, anal sex, mental illness, disability, 9/11 and the C word all fall within her considerable frame of reference. Jack Lemmon once walked out of one of her stand-up shows, declaring, this is disgusting. Her humour has been politely called the product of female angst but when she gets on stage, she says, she feels rage for every woman on the planet and its that rage that fuels her comedy.

Two years ago, she allowed film-makers Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg the duo behind earlier acclaimed documentaries The Devil Came on Horseback, about genocide in Darfur, and The Trials of Darryl Hunt, about a man who spent 20 years in prison for a murder he didnt commit to capture a particularly low period in her life, when work had almost entirely dried up. The film, called A Piece of Work and premiering at the Sheffield Documentary Festival on Wednesday, opens with uncomfortably close shots of Riverss surgery-enhanced face without any make-up.

Her long-time manager says to camera: Right now they see her as a plastic-surgery freak who is past her sell-by date, who is finished. But God help the next queen of comedy, because this ones not abdicating. She never will. There will be claw marks in that red carpet before she abdicates.

Of her infamous obsession with plastic surgery, she says she couldnt stand the hypocrisy of everyone in the entertainment industry doing it and then decrying it. So I became a big advocate for it. Then I became the poster girl. Then I became 'The Joker.

In person, everything about Rivers including the effects of those facelifts is softer and gentler. She is, of course, funny: tomorrow night she will be announcing her engagement to one of the rescued Chilean miners on television, she says. But there is little sign of the screaming banshee who yelled abuse at A-listers on the red carpet, where for eight years she hosted the Oscar arrivals. She still contributes to the E! Entertainment channels Fashion Police show, relishing the sartorial missteps of the stars.

The performers I know who are wonderful keep it for the stage, she says. You dont need to make an entrance because the lady on stage is your big, mouthy friend who is going to speak for every woman. When I am on E! for the Fashion Police I only care about being a critic. It loses me many friends. I have to say: 'Nicole Kidman, you are in a red dress with a white face. You look like a ketchup bottle. So she wont talk to me at the next party I see her at, but thats my job.

At 77, Rivers has lost none of her power to shock. You call it shocking, she says. I call it the truth and I just think you have to face the truth. Just say it and get it out of the way, and stop sugar coating it.

However what A Piece of Work really reveals about its subject is that beneath that offensively ballsy stage persona lies a crippling sense of insecurity about finding herself out of work and deemed irrelevant. We are given a glimpse inside her diary, page after page of empty white space.

But there are larger human truths in the film that go past entertainment-industry neuroses; growing old, the need to be loved, the fraught mother-daughter relationship. At one point, she is asked by a radio talk-show host: Dont you want to be loved for yourself? and Rivers replies: You just want to be loved, who cares why?

At another, she tells a booking agent over the phone: I am a comedy icon. I dont need, at this age, to walk into a room and have it be half full. Later, she openly weeps, saying: My career is as an actress. I am an actress playing a comedienne. Its over, its over No one will ever take me seriously as an actress.

This from the woman who has won an Emmy, been nominated for a Tony, written 10 books, appeared in nine films and more than 60 television series, made countless celebrity appearances and sold $750 million worth of jewellery on the TV shopping channel, QVC. Rivers cut her teeth with New Yorks theatrical elite. It was at a dinner party with Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg that Marilyn Monroe turned to Rivers then 17 and in her first year at university and said: Men, they are all the same. They are just stupid and they like big boobs. Rivers wrote the line down in her diary and it became the title of one of her books.

From there, she endured humiliation and deprivation for almost 10 years playing tawdry clubs, borscht-belt hotels, and Greenwich Village cabarets before appearing, in 1968, on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, the show that turned Carson into a figurehead for American comedy and which ran for 30 years.

When Johnny Carson said, 'You are going to be a star, my life changed that moment, says Rivers, snapping her fingers. Doors opened. Then you have to work like hell to keep them open. But they opened.

That period propelled her into the living rooms of America, and saw her performing her stand-up routine while seven months pregnant with her daughter, Melissa. That was unheard of, she says. Every reviewer said I should not be on stage. In those days it was very shocking. She spent 18 years with Carson, but when she decided to leave to start her own show, it caused a rift with her mentor who never spoke to her again.

In 1986, she and her husband, British television producer Edgar Rosenberg started work on The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers which helped launch the Fox Network. Immediately there were tensions between the owners, Rupert Murdoch and Barry Diller, and Rosenberg. Rivers then had a call from Murdoch saying: The tail doesnt wag the dog. Rosenberg was fired, Rivers decided to go with him, and her show was cancelled. Her husband committed suicide three weeks later.

As comedians, we are all laughing because life is so horrible, she says. Life is so difficult and I cope with it by making jokes about absolutely everything. I just wrote today on Twitter: 'Hitler: like him or not, he was a great dancer. Some people ask, how can you make a joke about that, or 9/11? I would have made jokes in concentration camps. You have two choices: laugh or die.

This is the way Rivers has dealt with every tragedy life has thrown her way. When my mother died and we were beyond close I remember sitting in the beauty salon the day of the funeral, and she always said to me: 'Look good in front of the relatives when I die. I said to the guy doing my hair: 'If you dont make my hair look good you will be doing my mothers by this afternoon. Thats how I get past everything, and I think its a wonderful mechanism to have.

Since the documentary, Riverss career has taken another upward swing, and for the first time in years shes turning down parts. Starting in January in the US, there is a new reality show, Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?, in which she appears alongside her daughter. And she is writing a Broadway play with a friend. I will work as hard as I do because I love it, she says. Its my drug. It feeds me. If you love what youre doing why in Gods name would you give it up?"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/starsandstories/8096974/Joan-Rivers-the-queen-of-comedy-reflects-on-her-past.html

[AdamSmith]

I have a nice personal memory. During a visit to NYC with Andre in 2009 (trip report here: http://www.boytoy.com/forums/index.php?/topic/3724-three-dinners-with-andre/), we went to a play at a small theatre in the West Village, and Joan was sitting a few seats away. At intermission Andre asked her if I could take a photo of them together, and she said, Of course. She was very gracious, none of the star-shunning-public-recognition crap.

But she was also her feisty funny self. After I snapped the pic (in his other hand he was holding a glass of wine from the lobby concession stand), she gestured to the drink and then her jacket and said, "Hey, did any of that spill on me? This thing was four thousand bucks!"

When she saw it hadn't, she chuckled and said "Good thing for you."

[AdamSmith]

One more appreciative review from 2010:

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/oct/25/joan-rivers-sheffield

[AdamSmith]

J. Edgar Hoover and I were very close. In fact, we were the same size. I used to lend him my clothes for special occasions. He looked especially fetching in a simple summer shift with matching cloche and open-toed-shoes.

From her book Diary of a Mad Diva

[MsGuy]

At intermission Andre asked her if I could take a photo of them together, and she said, Of course.

Hmm... likely you and Ms Rivers share a taste for cute brown-eyed boys with a touch of brass.