rivers' edge: joan rivers

7/28/2019 Rivers' Edge: Joan Rivers

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oan Rivers has left L.A. be-hind. "l'm happier in NewYork," she says, without a sec-ond's hesitation" in that famil-iar whiskey-sour voice. o'Iommuch more carefree." It's thecity's o'serendipity," as shecalls it.

"You walk out your door,you don't know who you'regonna meet, whatos gonuahappen. L.A., you get in yourcar. you drive to you r appoi nt-

ment, you have your appointment, youget back in your car, you drive home.You knaa your day. In New York." sheobserveso a little awe-struck, 'oyoureally. . . never. . know. You don'tknow even if you're gonna get there, ifyou're in a traffic jarn. So. I like itmuch better. Just the intellectualstimulation is all New York. L. A. is solaid back. I find New York to be a bigvillage. I talk to everybody and theyall talk back to me. I know every door-man. I know all the Cristede's de-Iiverymen, I feel aery comfortable inNew York. And I never do atrywhere. "Not that New York hasn't done itsfabled bit to stymie that. "My apart-ment is like St. John the Divine." sheriffs. "They've been building tl-rat forI l0years. I think I have the same con-tractor After laving out a siz-able sum for an apartment on FifthAvenue, Rivers still has the sameproblem as any New Yorker who has

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ByFrank

Lovece


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HER SHARP WIT HAS HELPED HER CUT THR(IUGHTHE T(IUGH TIMES. N(lW, SHE TELIS US,

SHE IS AT H(IME IN NEW Y(}RK ANI! WITH HERSETF


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And Rivers discovered-or rather, rediscov-ered-that nobody makes it in New York without afight.ooNever mind clout and celebrity," she says flatly.oolt's'She's a widow, and she's a woman,'and so theydon't take me seriously. It comes down to, o'Why'd youput that in?''Well, we put it in'cause we thought itwas better there.' 'So why didn't you oslc me?' " shesays in an angry stage whisper, oo ol'm paying thecheck.' "Then, suddenly, it's showtime again. Rivers ad-mits to having "the nicest painter who will neuerleave. He comes over weekends, too." She starts toenumerate her renovation problem: "I have the loud-est air-conditioner in the history of America' I havethings that don't dry, things that are rotting, floorsthat are broken . . . ." Sowhy did she buy the place?"Because it had suchpotential. ."

Since the late 7 Days did a story on Rivers and herco-op board, she says, "W'e've made a lot more peacenow. It's just that everybody in the building wants tobe nice but everybody has different ideas of whatnice is. Everybody thinks they're right, and that'sridiculous, because I'm right! I just do things myselflately. I wanted my hallway painted, and I'm notgonna go up in front of the board and beg. I just

JOAN RIVERSlike, cutting a corner and cutting a corner and doingtheleastamount of work." Afterrenovations began todrag on, and she started complaining about it on hershow, just-plain-folks frorn Iowa and elsewhere be-gan sending her pictures of their own renovationhorrors.

bought the paint, my own roller, and painted it." Shewas dressed in her 'ochic painting outfit,'o of course."I have an outfit for everything, thank youo'o shejokes. "My chic painting outfit is totally differentfrom the gardening outfit." Rivers loves gardening.It's "very relaxing. You can stay outside, stand like afool, andwater.o'

ivers returnedto her NewYork roots inl9BB, after 15 years inLos Angeles, to createher syndicated JoanRiuers Shout. The day-time show is moretrademark caustic thanher shortlived late-night show on Fox. Inits first year it has gar-nered four DaytimeEmmy Award nomina-tions, including one forJoan herself as Out-standing Talk Show

Host. Though up in the ratings, the show, producedby Tribune Entertainment, is shifting this fall fromWCBS to WNBC in the New York metropolitanmarket.

Rivers doesn't mean to do schtick off-stage. Sheprobably doesnot even know she's doing it. It's likeCroucho Marx once complained-no matter howhard he tried to be brusque or impatient in public,people always found him funny.ooStrangers expect me to be funny and snippy andsnappy,o' she remonstrates. ool go to somebody'shouse for dinner, and they're waiting for one wise-crack after the nexto and what they get is what you'reseeing, and they're aery disappointed. They say,'WeIl, Joanwill talk. She'll be funny at this end of thetable.'And then I go in and I don't do a damn thing."Then, with perfect timing: ool'm not invited back to alot ofplaces."

What she's doing dining with strangers is 'owhat asingle lady does, unfortunately, in New York: You getinvited and you go." She was photographed at this orthat soir6e with a New York realtor for a while, and,she says, ool saw one other man I had a very seriousfling with. And that's''over with. Unfortunately. Butiros rner with, and that's that." So: Joan's available."H"y," she cracks, oogive 'er a try!"


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One could do worse. She's success-[ul, smart, funny, and neurotic - in away that is like pheromones to a NewYorker.

t herWest 57th Street officesjust down from CBS Broad-cast Center, it's the lateshow starring Joan Rivers. A meetingwith some producers and bookers hasbegun late and is running later. In theouter office, a writer patiently waits ahalf-hour past the appointed time tointerview her. And over at her FifthAvenue triplex, contractors are wait-ing as well.

If all the world's a stage, then JoanRivers is il Pagliaccio. If comedy is in-deed the obverse of tragedy, themuch-beleaguered comedienne maybe the funniest woman alive.In a career that spans three dec-ades, from the end ofthe fifties to theedge of the nineties, River's has sur-vived a decathlon of personal andpublic crises. There was the climb toestablish herself as a comic; her well-known public fray with her mentorand, she thought, her friend, JohnnyCarson; the suicide of her manager/second husband, Edgar Rosenberg;and her battle with Fox Broadcastingthat ended her Late Show,the putativeanchor ofthe fledgling network, sevenmonths into her three-year, $10-mil-lion contract. In the gratingly cheeryworld of press-kit bios, hers beginswith the quote, ooMy whole career hasbeen just hard, hurting, little steps."But she has survived. "Not tragic.Not tragic," she insists today, in thecompact office she shares with her be-loved Yorkie, Spike. She's just taken acall from her 22-year-old daughterMelissa, a California college grad,with whom she has a close girl-girlrapport. Rivers hangs up with mo-mentary serenity on herface.It surfaces again later when shetells you, 'oI have a very good life, aaery good lifc. And I have a lot of-a few," she amends-oovery good,

loan Rivers(corlrrNuro rnoru pecn 52)

friends. I neverstay gloomy at home atnight; there's always someone I canhave fun with. And the rest," shesays, shrugging, 'ofollows or itdoesn't."Rivers recalls last June's TonyAwards, where she was a presenter.She had caught sight ofher bust in themonitor and said 'o'Whoa! I look likeBernadette Peters! What has hap-pened here!"'

:MY APARTMENTIS LIKE ST. JOHNTHE DIV|NETtRIVERS RIFFS.6THEY'VE BEENBUILDING THATFOR I loveens.I THINK I HAVETHE SAMECONTRACTOR. '

The exasperation, of course, ismock. Rivers, both in her act and inher 1986 autobiography, Erter Talk-ing,has gone on and on about storieslike: "Another time at the beach I waswearing a little robe and when I took itoff to go swimming, the blind datesaid, oOh, my God."' To describe her-seH from childhood to college daysshe uses words like fat and ugly."That's heridea," her mother once in-dignantly told a reporter. No doubt theanguish of going dateless much of thetime was realo but too, what comedianever got mileage out of claiming to begood-looking?

Joan Molinsky was born in Brook-Iyn, and when she was nine, her doc-tor father and housewife motherjoined the upwardly mobile exodusout of the city. They settled in Larch-mont, New York. "In Westchester,"Rivers once riffed in her act, practi-'cally between clenched teeth, o'theydon't say your name, they say what yougave: 'This is service-for-12.' "Next to running away and joiningthe circus, being an actress was the

best way to break from the service-for-12 set. By 1965 she had made her wayto Johnny Carson's Tonight Shout,where he anointed her on the air.ooGod, youore funny," he said. "You'regoing to be a star."

've been able to stay alive in thebusiness for a long timeo" shemuses, on the question of whether

she's a success. o'There's a big differ-ence between being a success and be-ing in the business for a long time.And I've been up and I've been downand I think I'm on the ascent again.

"One of the reasons I did ComirRelief was because I said, 'That'senough! I'm not the grand old lady ofcomedy here! I'm as current as anyone of you!' o'

She has done everything, but onlyone time each-directed one movie(Rabbit Test, 7978), co-created oneTV series (Husbands, Wiaes and Loo-ers, 1978), and starred in one TVmovie (How to Murder a Millionaire,1990) and one cable speci al(JoanRia-ers [and FriendsJ Salute HeidiAbroma-witz,l9BS). She has written, however,three best-sellers: Haaing a Baby CanB e a Scream (197 4), The Life and, HardT imes of Heid.i Abromowitz (l 984), andthe autobiography.

ivers tells a story: ool was inmourning and we went toGreece, my daughter and I.And, like, my husband was dead l0

days, and we were sitting in a caf6, andthis kid came up to me and came on tome, and said, 'I want to go to Paris.Are you going to Paris?' I said, 'No! Coaway!'He's, like, I should take him toParis! Is he out of his mind?!" Doing athroaty voiceo she says o''I would lo-oueto gotoParis with you!' "No, she decides. Joan Rivers, athomgin New York and with herself, isnotlookingforatrophyguy. vFrank Louece is a syndbated columnistandauthon


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TRTHE MAGAZI lV|HE POW[jE OF D-0l+JER CORRIDORJoarr Rivers,with her Yorkie.Spike, r'earsKarl Lagerfeldfrom BarneysNew York.Srylist: DavidDangle, Hair:Robert Chiu.Makeup: MarkSanchez.Photographedfor TRUMP'S byKen Nahoum.

THE ORTGTNALS/ 14They Do It With Style, Su-bstance, and CharacterThis month:Dominick Dunne, chronicler of New York's social scene, has peoplelooking for the cl6s inhis romans by Jeffrey FerryBarack Obama is the first African-American to be placed in chargeof the prestigious oHarvard Law Review' by Maureen Dezell

POWER TE AMt44Partners By DesignFinally, after eight years ofrenovations, Ellis Island is ready toaccept a new wave of visitors. Architects James Alexander andJohn Belle, responsible for putting things right in the two mainbuildings, plan to be on hand next month when President Bush

dedicates this American museum of immigrationby Linda Lehrer

ON THE COVER/sORivers'EdgeHer sharp wit has helped her cut through the tough times. Now, shetells us, she is at home in New York and with herself by Frank Lcnece

SUITABLE ATTIF.EI32Elements That Work at WorkFoot Fall/A preview of the approaching season's shoes

.COUNTER CULTURE/36Colleetibleso Edibleso Wearableso and Stare-at-ables:The Best Shopping This Month36 New Yorkby Joni Miller 38 Boston by Antlreu Rrox4O Washingtonby Marion S. Jacobson

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rivers' edge: joan rivers

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