Probe into circumstances of Rivers’ death

Joan Rivers, the acid-tongued comedian who crashed the male-dominated realm of late-night talk shows and turned Hollywood red carpets into danger zones for badly dressed celebrities, died yesterday. She was 81.

Daughter Melissa Rivers said she died at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, surrounded by family and close friends.

“My mother’s greatest joy in life was to make people laugh,” Melissa Rivers said. “Although that is difficult to do right now, I know her final wish would be that we return to laughing soon.”

The New York state health department is investigating the circumstances surrounding her cardiac arrest during an outpatient procedure. Spokesman James O’Hare said the department is looking into “the whole matter”, declining to discuss specifics.

Rivers — who made “Can we talk?” a trademark of her routines — never mellowed during her half-century-long career. She moved from longtime targets such as the weight problems of Elizabeth Taylor, of whom she said “her favourite food is seconds,” to newer foes such as Miley Cyrus, and continued to appear on stage and on TV into her 80s.

“I have never wanted to be a day less than I am,” she insisted in a 2013 interview. “People say, ‘I wish I were 30 again.’ Nahhh! I’m very happy HERE. It’s great. It gets better and better. And then, of course, we die,” she quipped.

With her red-carpet query “Who are you wearing?“, the raspy-voiced blonde with the brash New York accent also helped patent pre-awards commentary — and the snarky criticism that often accompanies it, like cracking that Adele’s Grammy wardrobe made the singer look like she was sitting on a teapot. !In 2007, Rivers and her daughter Melissa, were dropped by the TV Guide Channel. But they found new success on E! with Fashion Police, which Rivers hosted and her daughter produced.

“The trouble with me is, I make jokes too often,” she told the AP in 2013, just days after the death of her older sister. “I was making jokes yesterday at the funeral home. That’s how I get through life. Life is SO difficult — everybody’s been through something! But you laugh at it, it becomes smaller.”

She had faced true crisis in the mid-1980s. Edgar Rosenberg, her husband of 23 years, committed suicide in 1987 after she was fired from her Fox talk show, which he produced.

Rivers had originally entered show business with the dream of being an actress, but comedy was a way to pay the bills.