Joan Rivers Wanted Her Funeral to Be a ‘Huge Showbiz Affair’
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Charles Sykes/Bravo(NEW YORK) — Joan Rivers detailed how she envisioned her funeral in her 2012 book, I Hate Everyone…Starting with Me, and described it as a “huge showbiz affair.”
In a chapter of the book titled, “Death Be Not Proud,” the 81-year-old comedienne provides the following instructions to her daughter Melissa:
“When I die (and, yes, Melissa, that day will come; and, yes, Melissa, everything’s still in your name), I want my funeral to be a huge showbiz affair with lights, cameras and action. I want craft services, I want paparazzi and I want publicists making a scene! I want it to be Hollywood all the way. Don’t give me 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. I want a wind machine so that even in the casket my hair is blowing just like Beyonce’s.”
The New York City medical examiner’s office has completed an examination of Joan Rivers’ body but wants to do additional study before determining the cause and manner of death.
Rivers went into cardiac arrest last week at a clinic before she was rushed to New York’s Mount Sinai hospital where she died Thursday surrounded by family and friends.
Her funeral is set for Sunday at New York City’s Temple Emanu-El.
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