The 'Fashion Police' star storms out of the interview after telling the anchor to 'shut up' and then dropped 'unflattering four-letter words' off camera.
- Jul 6, 2014
AceShowbiz - Joan Rivers lost her cool during a pre-taped interview on CNN to promote her new book, "Diary of a Mad Diva". The TV personality defended herself when the anchor Fredricka Whitfield criticized her "mean" show "Fashion Police" and her jokes that seemed to have no boundaries. She eventually flipped out when the interviewer mentioned that she wore fur on the cover of her book.
"It's not mean," Rivers said of her E! show. "I tell the truth. I'm sure I say the same things your viewers say to their friends sitting next to them on the couch." The 81-year-old comedienne went on, "These ladies make $28 million a picture ... Do you really think that Nicki Minaj cares I didn't like her dress?"
When Whitfield prodded about her tendency to joke about things that were usually "off-limits," Rivers argued, "Life is very tough, and if you can make something easier and funny do it. I don't know what your life has been like but I know a lot of people who have gone through hell. Winston Churchill said if you make someone laugh, you give them a vacation. And maybe you take the worst thing in the world, make it funny and give them a vacation from horror."
Things got worse when Whitfield quizzed Rivers about her choice of fashion on the front page of her book. "This whole interview is becoming a defense interview," she fired back. "Are you wearing leather shoes?" When the anchor said "yes," she quickly replied with "then shut up." She added, "Come to me when you're wearing a paper belt."
"I'm going," Rivers said while pulling out her earpiece. "All you've done is negative. ... I've made people laugh for 50 years. I am put on earth to make people laugh, my book is funny, I wear fur that was killed 15 years ago, I work for animal rights." She almost yelled when saying, "Stop it with 'you do this and you're mean!' " She slammed the anchor, "You are not the one to interview a person who does humor! Sorry!"
After the interview, Whitfield said she thought Rivers was joking the whole time and wondered if the walk-out was a just stunt until the comedienne still wearing her microphone "dropped some rather unflattering four-letter words" off camera. "So, yeah, she was serious," the anchor said.
