Joan again and forever
I called Joan Rivers a national treasure a couple months ago. She was that. The joke always came first. Who it was going to offend, always... somewhere after that. She would get hammered for her perceived insensitivity. The media could get nasty, opinionated. It would be like her wedding night. But there was a flip side to that part of her personality There was the woman she met at Overeaters Anonymous. The lady was crying, "They made me buy two seats on the airplane." But Joan told her, "Yeah, but you get two meals." And she perked right up.
She let other celebrities have it in her act and on her fashion show. To Joan, style was like herpes, either you have it or you don't. But the celebrities would get angry. Kim Kardashian and Kanye West wanted nothing to do with her. She said on her show that their baby was in "desperate need of a waxing." She piled on Mel Gibson, but then he drives a car with a bumper sticker that reads "My other car is an oven."
Oh, grow up!
Joan was 81, but of course she didn't look it thanks to modern surgical science. She said she was worried that when she died, God wouldn't recognize her. But it was her energy level that most belied her age. In reality, she spent the latter part of her career auditioning for "all the old lady commercials." She lost out on the Depends ad-- but she did do one hell of an audition. She was in the business long enough that when she started in Greenwich Village, she opened for Juanita and her Amazing Vibrator. A lot of the future stars were there at the beginning-- Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Barbra Streisand. Joan tried to be a singer at first, but when she sang, Barbra's eyes crossed the other way. She stayed vibrant into her ninth decade, but it was her ninth decade. She had grown old enough that she could get a mammogram and a pedicure at the same time.
Can we talk? Some comedians stop being funny as they age. Joan got funnier. There was such a purity to that act of hers-- audacious and unapologetic. (I like Lena Dunham's word: "terrifying.") In these times of uptightness and fearfulness, she was a premium. And when your wife feeds on fashion and "red carpet" television, she becomes an absolute godsend. She made those shows entertaining. I don't know what I'm going to do now.
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Huge 4-game series tonight in Milwaukee. The Cards have gone from 2 down to 3 up on the Brewers in one week. When football season is starting everywhere else, you know that the deepest, truest part of the baseball season has arrived in St. Louis.
posted by CM @ 7:39 PM
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