Breaking News: Joan Rivers Being Brought Out of Coma

Just in from the NY Daily News, Joan Rivers is being brought out of the medically induced coma that she has been in since Thursday. The paper reports that the process could take until Tuesday, and that the full extent of whether or not Rivers has suffered a loss of cognitive or physical function is not yet known.

Friends, including Margie Stern and Jay Redack did visit the hospital, but had no comment on the star's condition or prognosis.

While Mt. Sinai hospital has not issued any updates on the legendary comedian's current condition, daughter Melissa Rivers did issue a Sunday statement that "Thank you for your continued love and support. We are keeping our fingers crossed".

BroadwayWorld previously reported that Rivers was rushed to the hospital on Thursday after she stopped breathing during a reported procedure on her vocal cords.

Rivers made the rounds in New York during the 1950s, 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 1970s 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 five more best-selling books, maintains her own jewelry line on QVC, served as host of the series "How'd You Get So Rich?" on TVLand, and filmed a special for Bravo. In 2009, she was the winner of Donald Trump's "Celebrity Apprentice". In 2010, she returned to The Fashion Police show on E! and was featured on the big screen in the acclaimed Sundance Award-winning documentary Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work. In 2011, she launch the reality TV series Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best? on Oxygen, which is now in its 4th season.

Her Broadway credits include Fun City, Broadway Bound and Sally Marr...and her escorts, for which she received a Drama Desk Nomination as Outstanding Actress in a Play and a Tony Nomination for Best Actress in a Play. Her solo show, Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress by a Life in Progress, played at Los Angeles' Geffen Playhouse before moving to Edinburgh Festival Fringe, followed by a run at the Leicester Square Theatre in 2008.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride