Joan Rivers gets showbiz send-off


Joan Rivers is getting the "Hollywood" funeral she wanted, "a huge showbiz affair with lights, camera and action."

Kathy Griffin, Sarah Jessica Parker, Whoopi Goldberg, Donald Trump, Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters and Joy Behar were among the A-list to D-list celebrity friends seen arriving for the private service inside Manhattan's Temple Emanu-El Sunday.

The highlight was Howard Stern's vagina joke, Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera told CNN afterward.

"It was exactly the show Joan wanted -- hilarious, irreverent," Rivera said.

Rivers, 81, died Thursday in New York's Mount Sinai Hospital, a week after she suffered cardiac and respiratory arrest during a medical procedure at a clinic.

Joan Rivers: A pointed, pioneering comedian

She talked about her mortality and what she wanted at her "showbiz" funeral in her 2013 book, "I Hate Everyone ... Starting With Me."

She called for paparazzi and publicists "making a scene" outside the funeral, which she said should "be Hollywood all the way." In fact, Fifth Avenue was lined with more television crews, live reporters and fans than would gather for most Hollywood premieres.

Inside the temple, Rivers wanted entertainment. "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.' "

Instead of Vinton singing his 1964 hit, she had the New York Gay Men's Chorus and a song list including show tunes such as "That's Entertainment," "Nothing Like a Dame" and "What a Wonderful World." They closed with "Big Spender."


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