Joan Rivers’ plans for an elaborate, over-the-top funeral may not be exactly what she will get, but it may be close.
The comedian detailed in her 2012 book “I Hate Everyone … Starting With Me” that she hoped for “a huge showbiz affair with lights, cameras, action” and “Hollywood all the way.” Instead of a rabbi talking, Rivers asked for “Meryl Streep crying, in five different accents” and “a wind machine so that even in the casket my hair is blowing just like Beyonce’s.” The actual event Sunday may be slightly more muted. Funeral services at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan will be private and neither the temple nor Rivers’ personal publicist would give further details or divulge a guest list. It was not even known what time the funeral would start. But cameras and a media presence was very likely.
In the hours before the funeral, barricades lined several blocks of 5th Avenue and a crowd of fans and media stood watch across the street.
Rivers, who died Thursday at 81, was a trailblazer for all comics, but especially for women. The raspy-voiced blonde with the brash New York accent was a TV talk show host, actress, a fashion critic, and she sold a line of jewelry.
