Joan Rivers, take-no-prisoners commentator on life, and a true icon passed away yesterday.
I’ve always loved Joan. I heard an NPR interview with her years ago where she described using humor and wit to pull herself up by her bootstraps after her husband’s suicide left her financially decimated and alone. It not only inspired me, it filled me with awe and had me bawling in the car. Joan never shied away from the truth – whether it was about herself or others. And it was that bravery that made her so beloved.
It’s women like Joan who have allowed me to do what I do today: have a job where I snark full-time to make people laugh, because she was one of the few who forged that path by demonstrating that women are irreverent, sarcastic, and that complaining can be therapeutic as well as entertaining. The Oscars will be sadder this year without Joan to question what celebs are wearing and what they were thinking when they put it on. I will miss her greatly.
Andy Cohen, a close friend of Joan’s who has worked with her for years, reminisced about the amazing woman he knew and shared that when she passed they were in the middle of pitching a reality show they developed together this summer.
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“I love this ballsy, funny, generous, shrewd, unpredictable and loyal woman,” Andy wrote alongside an accompanying throw-back photo of the two of them. “I grew up in awe of her as she filled in for Carson and pinched myself when I co-starred in a pilot with her for Bravo in ’06.”
“She went on to appear on WWHL many times, showing up in the middle of the night with a great attitude and a slew of new jokes. And this summer Michael Rourke and I developed a show with her, starring her, that we were in the middle of pitching networks. She was so indomitable we all thought she would live forever. Joan was a trailblazer and an indelible part of pop culture.”
RIP Joan – we will all miss you dearly.
[Photo Credit: Instagram]
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