TV: Joan Rivers Talks Books, Broadway & More

Comedy icon Joan Rivers met her fans at the Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Square, as she signed copies of her two newly published titles. BWW TV was there to spend the evening with the entertainment legend!

Rivers' new books are MEN ARE STUPID...AND THEY LIKE BIG BOOBS...A WOMAN'S GUIDE TO BEAUTY THROUGH PLASTIC SURGERY and MURDER AT THE ACADEMY AWARDS...A RED CARPET MURDER MYSTERY.

An informational social commentary, comedy, memoir, and practical, info-packed journey into beauty treatments including plastic surgery, Men are Stupid...is written for every woman who wants to improve herself, giving the average woman a step-by-step guide on how to look and feel gorgeous - delivered with Joan's quintessential sense of humor.

In Rivers' new novel, Murder on the Red Carpet, it's Oscar night in Hollywood and the famous mother-daughter interview team is on the red carpet, mikes in hand. Everything is glitz and glitter as the stars arrive, but things turn quickly from fabulous to scandalous as a just-back-from-rehab starlet drops dead.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Joan Rivers "made the rounds" in New York during the '50s, appearing in a few off-off Broadway plays (including one where she played a lesbian opposite an equally unknown Barbra Streisand), surviving sleazy agents, tawdry clubs, and hostile audiences. A 1965 booking on "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" led to her hosting one of the first syndicated talk shows on daytime TV, "That Show with Joan Rivers" in 1968. In the '70s Joan wrote the TV-movie The Girl Most Likely To (starring Stockard Channing) and then wrote and directed her first feature film Rabbit Test, casting Billy Crystal in the lead. In 1983 Joan became the permanent guest host on "The Tonight Show." Later, she headlined in Las Vegas, sold out Carnegie Hall, produced a Grammy nominated comedy album, and wrote two best-selling books. In 1989 the Tribune Corporation launched Joan in her own syndicated daytime talk show. She won an Emmy and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1994 she wrote and starred on Broadway in Sally Marr and Her Escorts, for which she received a Best Actress Tony nomination. Since then, Joan has written three more best-selling books, maintains her own jewelry line on QVC, provided fashion commentaries for E! and The TV Guide Channel, and filmed a special for Bravo. She will be a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice 2 beginning March 1st. Later this year, she will also host the new reality TV series How'd You Get So Rich? on TV Land.

BW TV Video interview by Eddie Varley, edited by James Sims.