14 DAY TRIAL // Comedienne, author, and television personality Joan Rivers died last week from complications from botched surgery on her vocal chords, and her body was laid to rest over the weekend, in a star-studded ceremony held at the Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan.
A couple of years ago, Joan said she wanted to be buried with a ceremony that came as close as possible to a red carpet affair. She didn’t get just that, but she came pretty close, PageSix reports. Probably Meryl Streep wasn’t available to attend and “cry in five different accents,” but Joan got second best to that.
A star-studded funeral that was both somber and irreverent
Joan liked nothing more than to make people laugh, and she dedicated most of her life to seeing that happen. The ceremony that saw her laid to rest was meant to honor her life’s work and accomplishments and was conceived in such a manner as to be just the kind of thing she would have loved to attend herself.
Attendees included Howard Stern, Donald Trump, Rosie O’Donnell, Kathy Griffin, Whoopi Goldberg, Hugh Jackman, Barbara Walters, Michael Kors, Andy Cohen, Carolina Herrera, Ivanka Trump, Bernadette Peters, and Sarah Jessica Parker with her husband, Matthew Broderick.
Speeches were held, jokes were told, and songs were sung. Stern told the audience that Joan must be “somewhere chasing Johnny Carson with a baseball bat,” referring to their feud that saw her banned from NBC for decades, in between cracking jokes about her love life.
The New York City Gay Men’s Chorus performed, as also did Broadway star Audra McDonald, who sang “Smile.” Incidentally, the same song was also performed at the funeral of another legend of our times, King of Pop Michael Jackson.
Daughter Melissa held a very touching speech as well, in which she thanked her mother for being the one constant in her life and for the things she’d done for her and her son, Joan’s grandson, whom she always wished were gay. Joan listed that as one of her biggest “regrets” in life.
Major turnout to bid comedienne farewell
However, it wasn’t just the stars that came out to bid farewell to the legend that was Joan Rivers. As the photo available below can confirm, fans and paparazzi also showed up in hundreds to see the stars in attendance, but also to pay their respects to Rivers.
The video below is of Melissa taking a few minutes off to address those waiting in the street. You can hear crying coming from all sides of the person holding the camera, so probably these were fans, not paparazzi.
Melissa said she could not have made it through this ordeal without the love and support she received non-stop since her mother was rushed to the hospital and placed in a medically induced coma, from which she never woke up.
Joan Rivers would have loved the funeral, she would have had a blast
“I want Craft services, I want paparazzi and I want publicists making a scene!” Joan wrote of how she imagined her funeral in the book “I Hate Everyone… Starting with Me.” “I want it to be Hollywood all the way. I don't want some rabbi rambling on; I want Meryl Streep crying, in five different accents. I don't want a eulogy; I want Bobby Vinton to pick up my head and sing ‘Mr. Lonely’.”
“I want to look gorgeous, better dead than I do alive. I want to be buried in a Valentino gown and I want Harry Winston to make me a toe tag. And I want a wind machine so that even in the casket my hair is blowing just like Beyonce's,” she added.
She didn’t get a wind machine and Meryl didn’t show up, but the ceremony was exactly the Hollywood affair she wanted. There was even a red carpet, which was later buried with her. Joan Rivers probably had a blast watching the ceremony from above, you know it.
Huge crowd of media/spectators outside Temple Emanu-el in New York City for Joan Rivers memorial service. pic.twitter.com/OBTcsYf38j
— Ron Mott (@RonMott) September 7, 2014
