PASADENA, Calif.–Joan Rivers was her usual blunt and funny self at press tour. The 76-year-old comedy legend was here to promote her new U.S. cable series How’d You Get So Rich (coming Aug. 5 to TVLand but so far not on TVLand Canada’s schedule).
On the show, Rivers barges into mansions and asks people how they made their fortunes. One guy opened up his safe and let her count his money. “Oh God, I had an orgasm. First time ever since Melissa,” Rivers cracked.
Melissa is, of course, Rivers’ daughter, the one who stormed out of Trump’s boardroom after being fired last spring on “Apprentice”—prompting mommy to march out right behind her in support. The mother-daughter hissy fit may have been reality TV’s most riveting moment last season.
Rivers appeared to quit “Apprentice,” but came back and eventually won the title. “I knew I was going to come back,” Rivers says. She felt an obligation to help her team mates—Clint Black and Jesse James—defeat her hated rival, professional poker player Annie Duke. “First you take care of your family,” says Rivers, “and if your family is okay, then you take care of your team.”
Rivers doesn’t like Duke, but has nothing against poker players. “I wouldn’t have liked her if she played f—ing bingo,” Rivers said.
After trashing Jay Leno (read my report filed for The Canadian Press from here this week), Rivers said she was rooting for Wanda Sykes to crash the late night boys club when “The Wanda Sykes Show” premieres Saturday nights on Fox in the fall. “Good luck to her, she’s very tough she may just do it,” said Rivers. “It’s a Lesbian Club, too,” she pointed out, singling out Ellen Degeneres and Rosie O’Donnell—declared Lesbians like Sykes—as proof women can succeed as talk show hosts. “You gotta be very strong,” says Rivers.
A few nights previous to the press session, busy Rivers was roasted by her comedy peers, Comedy Central plans to air the event Aug. 9 in the U.S. “The roast went amazingly well,” says Rivers, who enjoyed getting ribbed by everyone from Carl Reiner to Brad Garrett to Kathy Griffin. “Everybody had a great time.”
Rivers roast will not be simulcast on CTV’s Comedy Channel, which instead is rerunning a bunch of seen before roasts in August. More and more Canadian specialty channels seem to be waiting several months until the price drops on these U.S. cable gems before picking them up. We’d love to hear Rivers thoughts on that.
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