Joan Rivers: A Piece of Gristle
James Wolcott calls Joan Rivers, or at least the documentary about her, “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,” “a disagreeable piece of gristle.” That made me laugh, so I read the rest of JW’s blog posting about her. My favorite passage: ‘It’s never enough for Rivers. She’s been in the entertainment spotlight (apart from a few eclipses) for almost half a century, buried most of her detractors, been on magazine covers galore, did all those red-carpet Oscar interviews for years, is perhaps the most famous female comic who’s ever performed, lives in this ghastly mini-Versailles of an apartment in NY, wears sable, and yet still feels she’s being denied accolades and respect–her proper due. Who in this world does get their due? Most get little or nothing, a chosen few get too much, no one told you getting out of the Middle Ages would easy. Rivers is still busily working at an age most comedians are dead, and you can look it up, as Casey Stengel said, yet you’d think she’d been deposed as Princess of Monaco from the way she carries on.’
