Joan Rivers Dies at 81

[Stronger]

The world just got a little less funny.

Joan Rivers has died at 81.

"It is with great sadness that I announce the death of my mother, Joan Rivers," Melissa Rivers said in a written statement today. "She passed peacefully at 1:17 p.m. surrounded by family and close friends. My son and I would like to thank the doctors, nurses, and staff of Mount Sinai Hospital for the amazing care they provided for my mother."

Melissa Rivers added that she and her son, Cooper, who is Joan Rivers' grandson, "have found ourselves humbled by the outpouring of love, support and prayers we have received from around the world. They have been heard and appreciated. My mother’s greatest joy in life was to make people laugh. Although that is difficult to do right now, I know her final wish would be that we return to laughing soon."

Joan Rivers, who co-hosted the popular E! TV show "Fashion Police," had been hard at work recently, critiquing the outfits worn by stars at the MTV Video Music Awards and the Emmys with her usual acerbic wit. On Aug. 28, however, she was in New York City having surgery when she suffered cardiac arrest. She was rushed to the hospital, where she arrived unconscious and doctors kept her sedated. On Sept. 2, her daughter, Melissa Rivers, revealed that she had been placed on life support.

"My mother has been moved out of intensive care and into a private room where she is being kept comfortable," she added in a statement the next day. "Thank you for your continued support."

Rivers, who changed her name from "Joan Molinsky" when she entered show business, began her acting career in a play opposite Barbra Streisand before appearing on "Candid Camera." In 1965, the future talk show host made her first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show." and Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show."

"When I started out, a pretty girl did not go into comedy. If you saw a pretty girl walk into a nightclub, she was automatically a singer. Comedy was all white, older men," Rivers wrote in 2012. "I didn’t even want to be a comedian. Nobody wanted to be a comedian!"

Carson became a mentor to Rivers, and eventually, in 1983, she became his permanent guest host. However, in 1986, she left to host her own competing show on Fox, "The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers," though it only lasted a year. It also cost her friendship with Carson: After she accepted the job, the two never spoke again.

The show was also mired in personal tragedy. Rivers' second husband, Edgar Rosenberg, the father of her only child, her daughter, Melissa, committed suicide the same year she was fired from the show. At the time, she, too, considered suicide.

"Melissa wasn’t talking to me, my career was in the toilet, I’d lost my Vegas contracts, I’d been fired from Fox," she told the Daily Beast last month. "Carson and NBC had put out such bad publicity about me. I was a pariah. I wasn’t invited anywhere. I was a non-person. At one point, I thought, 'What's the point? This is stupid.'

"What saved me," she continued, "was my dog jumped into my lap. I thought, 'No one will take care of him.' ... I had the gun in my lap, and the dog sat on the gun. I lecture on suicide because things turn around. I tell people this is a horrible, awful dark moment, but it will change and you must know it’s going to change and you push forward. I look back and think, 'Life is great, life goes on. It changes.'"

Read the rest of the article here: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/joan-rivers-dead-81/story?id=25160389

[Living For Love]

It's so ironic considering how people were saying terrible things about her last month when she stated her opinion on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and how people are now mourning her death... Hypocrites.

[conniption]

This is so sad. She was such a funny and lively person.

[Cognizant]

It's so ironic considering how people were saying terrible things about her last month when she stated her opinion on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and how people are now mourning her death... Hypocrites.

Basically this.

[Vlerchan]

Is it not possible to disagree with someone politically and then be sad/sorry when they die?

I don't really have a comment beyond that: all I know of this woman was her aforealludedto Zionist rant.

[CosmicNoodle]

Is it not possible to disagree with someone politically and then be sad/sorry when they die?

I don't really have a comment beyond that: all I know of this woman was her aforealludedto Zionist rant.

Yup, so many people hold grudges just because of political orientation, and hold that grudge till the day they die, some people are small minded like that

[Hollywood]

A comedy legend, always a treat to listen to. We've lost some funny people this year.

[ComfortableInChaos]

To be quite honest, I've never liked the woman. I always thought she was trashy, fake, and just plainly rude. It's sad that she's gone and her family has to deal with that, but if I were old, I wouldn't talk as much shit as she did about people. She talked about how people's faces, hair, and dresses look when she had no room to talk. Now, I'm not going to completely bash her, but I'm just stating my opinion. I didn't like her. Yes, it's sad and to her family, I give all condolences because I know how it feels to lose someone close, but I always thought she was horrible.

[thatcountrykid]

Oh no! Who will the worlds women watch on day time gossip tv!?

I'm not really sad about this. Not cause I'm a heartless asshole but because, hey, she was 81. It was to be expected.

[HUSTLEMAN]

R.I.P. Rivers. She will have the most fashionable funeral ever.

[ksdnfkfr]

Had no idea who this person was. Never heard of her before srsly.

[Living For Love]

Is it not possible to disagree with someone politically and then be sad/sorry when they die?

http://i.imgur.com/z7Z5Omx.png

http://i.imgur.com/oMs36BR.png

"Disagreeing".

[Vlerchan]

"Disagreeing".
I'm not seeing your point.

I understand that some of the emotion-fuelled knee-jerk reactions were 'badly-phrased' but I don't see why that removes them from being able to show sympathy for a dead woman - esp. considering that Rivers actually went and posted a correction, explaining how she'd been taken out of context.

[Living For Love]

I'm not seeing your point.

I understand that some of the emotion-fuelled knee-jerk reactions were 'badly-phrased' but I don't see why that removes them from being able to show sympathy for a dead woman - esp. considering that Rivers actually went and posted a correction, explaining how she'd been taken out of context.

Well, isn't it ironic that people were talking crap about her after she said what she said and that now people are saying "Oh, I loved you so much, you were such a good person, rest in peace." and stuff? What I'm trying to say is that those people should think twice before judging someone for their opinion, because she's still entitled to it, right? It's so easy to judge someone on social media because no one simply knows who you are there. I bet most of them simply deleted the stupid comments they made and replaced them by a "R.I.P." on her profile picture...

[Vlerchan]

What I'm trying to say is that those people should think twice before judging someone for their opinion, because she's still entitled to it, right?
Yes. You are entitled to your opinion.

I've no idea why you'd think that you should be reserved from judgement for that opinion at the same time.

---

The point I was making is that even if these people are now sympathising with Rivers I don't see the problem, because it shows a maturity in people who won't let someone's politics get in the way of their ability to empathise. So, I get your point, I just don't see the problem in it. I'm also not sure that I believe that her strongest critiques, eg: the ones you quoted, would have made such a miraculous turn around though; they all seemed like some rather 'emotional' people.

[Living For Love]

Yes. You are entitled to your opinion.

I've no idea why you'd think that you should be reserved from judgement for that opinion at the same time.
Those comments I've shown you are not acceptable judgement, those comments are animalistic behaviour in its purest form.

The point I was making is that even if these people are now sympathising with Rivers I don't see the problem, because it shows a maturity in people who won't let someone's politics get in the way of their ability to empathise.
So, supposing there was a woman I really hated, and considering I spent all my life talking crap about that person. When that person dies, if I simply start saying how good, funny, adorable and charismatic person she was and how I'm going to miss her, what do you think that would tell about me?

[Vlerchan]

Those comments I've shown you are not acceptable judgement, those comments are animalistic behaviour in its purest form.
Earlier I used the terms 'knee-jerk' and 'emotion-fuelled'.

You've changed your point though. Earlier it was 'people shouldn't judge, one's entitled to their opinion' and now it's 'this judgement was wrong'.

So, supposing there was a woman I really hated, and considering I spent all my life talking crap about that person. When that person dies, if I simply start saying how good, funny, adorable and charismatic person she was and how I'm going to miss her, what do you think that would tell about me?
I would presume that you're lying.

But you're just trying to stretch this to its most extreme to suit yourself. In this case I commend the people who got over their petty political differences with this woman and empathised with her death. I don't believe this is as many people as you'd like to frame though because most people aren't this mature.

[Living For Love]

You've changed your point though. Earlier it was 'people shouldn't judge, one's entitled to their opinion' and now it's 'this judgement was wrong'.
I haven't changed my point. Everyone should always welcome constructive criticism, but the "judgement" those people made, it's just totally unacceptable. Insulting, for instance, is just a cheap method people use when they don't know enough about the subject to rationally discuss it.

I would presume that you're lying.

But you're just trying to stretch this to its most extreme to suit yourself. In this case I commend the people who got over their petty political differences with this woman and empathised with her death. I don't believe this is as many people as you'd like to frame though because most people aren't this mature.
I was either lying or being a total hypocrite for mourning her death considering all the things I had done to her in the past. It's what these people are: liars or hypocrites. I can agree with you that I might be generalising a bit, but that always happens when we're discussing things that happen online: it's impossible to know who's who. But people just like to go with the flow: if everyone's hating, I should hate too, if everyone's mourning, I should mourn as well.

[Vlerchan]

I haven't changed my point. Everyone should always welcome constructive criticism, but the "judgement" those people made, it's just totally unacceptable. Insulting, for instance, is just a cheap method people use when they don't know enough about the subject to rationally discuss it.
Are you using 'judging' in a wholly pejorative way? I'm using it to just mean "to form an opinion".

I agree that there's bad judgement and good judgement, the former not being very useful, and usually a sign of ignorance.

I was either lying or being a total hypocrite for mourning her death considering all the things I had done to her in the past.
I'm not sure how it might be considered hypocritical.

Being a hypocrite is telling you to not steal, and then stealing myself.

But people just like to go with the flow: if everyone's hating, I should hate too, if everyone's mourning, I should mourn as well.
Again, I don't see the problem in people not allowing politics get in the way of their ability to empathise. I agree that there's probably some that have been taken by herd mentality and and are just following along because everyone else is - that's the case with every celebrity death - but I then these type of people are going to be the ones who were as unmeaning in their denouncing of her as they are now in her praise, so do they really count?

[Living For Love]

Are you using 'judging' in a wholly pejorative way? I'm using it to just mean "to form an opinion".
I'm using 'judging' in this case as in someone saying "burn in hell, you idiot bitch" just because she has an opinion different than everyone's else.

I'm not sure how it might be considered hypocritical.

Being a hypocrite is telling you to not steal, and then stealing myself.
Insincere, false, fraudulent, hollow, deceptive, spurious, two-faced, whatever term you want to use. People do something today and then something totally different tomorrow just because they want to seem good people.

Again, I don't see the problem in people not allowing politics get in the way of their ability to empathise. I agree that there's probably some that have been taken by herd mentality and and are just following along because everyone else is - that's the case with every celebrity death - but I then these type of people are going to be the ones who were as unmeaning in their denouncing of her as they are now in her praise, so do they really count?
Yeah, probably they don't, because chances are they're not even being sincere. It just shows how more ridiculous they can even be.

[Vlerchan]

Yeah, probably they don't, because chances are they're not even being sincere. It just shows how more ridiculous they can even be.
As long as we can agree that choosing to empathise with someone who you disagree politically with's death isn't hypocritical, Insincere, false, fraudulent, hollow, deceptive, spurious or two-faced when it's actually meant, which is what my point was in relation to.

[Gamma Male]

Well, this is good news for minks.

[jayjay's toocool]

wait if she was in surgery how did she get rushed to the hospital? i liked joan

[Emerald Dream]

Let's stay on-topic please. This isn't ROTW.

[Stronger]

wait if she was in surgery how did she get rushed to the hospital? i liked joan

They probably stopped the surgery when they realized something went terribly wrong, I'd imagine.

[LoveLessOne]

its so sad! she was so good