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UPDATE: Melissa Rivers Shares Joan Rivers 'Remains on Life Support'

By: Sep. 02, 2014
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As BWW reported earlier today, a scheduled taping of E!'s FASHION POLICE has been canceled as doctors assess the condition of comedian Joan Rivers who according to reports, was brought out of a medically induced coma yesterday.

At 10:17 this morning, Melissa Rivers, Joan's daughter, tweeted a brief statement on her mother's condition, revealing that she currently remains on life support:

On behalf of my mother and our family, we are extremely grateful for all the love and support we've received. At this time she does remain on life support.

I know my mother would be overwhelmed by the continued outpouring of kindness and I want to thank everyone for keeping us in their prayers.

Melissa Rivers

E! News reported exclusively today that a source shared the comedian is making small, but positive, steps. "It's a slow process, but she's on the road to recovery." They added, "She's getting better. Don't believe all this ridiculous speculation."

Rivers stopped breathing while undergoing a minor throat procedure on Aug. 28 in New York City. She was then rushed to the hospital where she was placed in the medically induced coma. Rivers had performed a comedy show at a Times Square theater Wednesday night and was reportedly in good health when she went to the clinic for the procedure.

According to Variety, a representative for Mount Sinai Hospital could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

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

Source: Twitter




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