Joan Rivers is still hustling to sell her book, Diary of a Mad Diva. And to do that, she needs to bad-mouth other celebrities. She managed to do that somewhat brilliantly when she dropped some gossip about Kristen Stewart’s threats to sue her over some jokes about Kristen banging married directors. And now Joan has returned to one of her favorite enemies, Chelsea Handler. Chelsea and Joan have never liked each other. Joan called out Chelsea for sleeping her way to the top, because that’s what really happened: Chelsea had an affair with the then-president of E!, who have her a show, and then as soon as she got the show, they broke up. When Joan was being interviewed by HuffPo (you can see the video here), she was asked about Handler and what it was all about. Joan’s answers were surprisingly thoughtful and good gossip:
Joan Rivers thinks Chelsea Handler “made a mistake” in the way she handled her departure from her talk show on E!. During a conversation about Rivers’s book Diary of a Mad Diva, HuffPost Live’s Marc Lamont Hill asked the veteran comedienne about Handler’s exit from the network, which is also home to Rivers’s show “Fashion Police.”
Handler explained last month that she decided to leave her show because “it really didn’t feel great” and she was tired of talking about celebrities like the Kardashians and Justin Bieber. Rivers denied rumors that Handler was fired, but she added that network executives weren’t exactly pleased with the show’s performance.
“She wasn’t fired. The numbers — allegedly, I don’t need to get into a pissing match — were going way down, down, down, so I don’t think there was renewal talk,” Rivers said.
Still, she thought the “Chelsea Lately” host could have handled things differently.
“They’re lovely at E!, and they’re nice at E!, and I thought she left badly,” Rivers said.
There’s certainly no love lost between Rivers and Handler. Rivers said Handler took offense when Rivers questioned Handler’s claims about her place in the legacy of late-night television.
“She came out saying things like, ‘I’m the first woman ever to do a late-night show.’ She did this one day, and I followed her on the dais and I said, ‘I guess everyone’s forgotten the [Johnny] Carson show.’ She never spoke to me again,” Rivers recalled.
Rivers was, of course, the guest host who filled in for Carson on “The Tonight Show” until she left to do her own talk show on Fox, prompting a ban that kept Rivers off NBC’s late-night programming for 26 years. Attempts to put the beef with Handler behind them have failed, Rivers said.
“I went to her, I was at a party, I said, ‘Let’s take a picture together because it’ll make the papers.’ She walked away,” Rivers said. “I thought, ‘Oh, you stupid girl.’ It’s a small business, we should all be friends.”
Ah, Chelsea’s numbers were down and E! didn’t want to renew her contract, but they let her act like she was leaving of her own accord? I think that’s a possibility, and it would go a long way to explaining why Chelsea was seemingly biting the hand that feeds her by trash-talking C-list celebrities, then immediately falling into another job that would have her doing the same thing. What gets me though is that Joan is so right about E! treating their talent fairly, and to me, it seems like Chelsea’s behavior is a cautionary tale of how NOT to leave a lucrative, cushy job. And Joan has been around long enough to know that Chelsea’s would-be future employers wouldn’t want anything to do with that stupid drama.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.
I don’t dislike Chelsea, but it’s about time that somebody say something about that and specially about her rudeness. She is also not fair. You know what I mean.
Talk about fait. Google joan and writer’s union. Chelsea fought for the people who worked for her show and they had fair wages and insurance. Joan pissed on her writers wanting writer’s union wages and benefits. And called them names for even wanting to be paid for hours worked.
chelsea is notoriously great to the people on her show. i believe i’ve heard she set up college funds for kids of her show’s staff.
chelsea had her own show on E and dated ted harper for a long time. then she got chelsea lately show and dated him for several years while she had the show. maybe she was sleeping her way to the top but seems unfair to assume he is dumb enough to have been that manipulated for so many years when he is recorded several places as wanting to marry her and have children together
nk868
Correct. Chelsea set up small starter college funds for her employees children shortly after they were born. Very nice.
Everyone else though she is terrible to. Pretty much if you’re not an employee that works closely with her on that show you’re fair game to be exploited and abused.
And there were a handful of men that were rumored to want her back and marry her with children and a life, but let’s be honest here. Those men had terrible track records in kids and relationships. It was more seen as a last try to get her back and in now way a sincere statement. 50cent was one of these men and later on was known to have said he wasn’t thinking well to spend his life with her. That it was a desperate statement to get her back.
That’s all really great, but the bottom line is she still can’t conduct an interview worth watching.
I feel like Chelsea could turn into Joan Rivers really easily.
Yes! Passing the torch!
This is a pot meet kettle situation all the way. They are the same person separated by a few decades of time.
I gotta disagree… Joan Rivers is one of a kind.
Yeah, I love Joan and she is much funnier. You have to respect her work eithic as well. I just bought MORE magazine with Chelsea on the cover. Wow, lots of photoshop in the mag, compared to the picture above!
I love Joan. Making fun of celebrities is her job and I give her credit for treating them all the same. Unlike Kathie Griffin who used to make fun of all of them but now has backed off and only makes fun of reality “stars” and the vulnerable stars like Linsey Lohan or Britney. Don’t like that she picks on the vulnerable ones. Can’t stand Chelsea Handler. She goes way too far on Angelina Jolie. I love that Angelina never responds and may not even know who Chelsea is or what she says.
Joan is clever and funny.
Chelsea is mean spirited and goes for the easiest, most crude joke for a laugh. Her guests were always infinitely more funny than she was.
Totally. I always have mixed feelings about Joan Rivers because she can be so incredibly mean and tasteless yet she’s a talented comedian. And Joan is genuinely funny and clever.. Handler is only sometimes-funny and rarely clever.
Agreed.
And TOK said everything I was going to say.
They are both beyond obnoxious and tasteless, but I will give Joan one thing-she knows this biz inside and out, and has been around forever and is cray rich. Chelsea is acting like a big spoiled brat. She should know she isn’t the star-she is the interviewer of the star. Dumbass.
Joan is positioning herself as someone who mishandled her money and is “poor” by Hollywood standards now; at least, that was the thrust of her last documentary–which indeed bore the stink of desperation.
Depends on what the definition of “poor” is. She has been hawking on QVC and whatnot for years. I’m sure she is solvent.
Chelsea is too full of herself, she would never work as hard as Joan has. Joan literally does everything, every job.
Good for Chelsea. We need somebody like Joan.
Joan left E! to go to the TV Guide Channel…TVG tired of her diva antics and did not renew her contract. Luckily for her, E! took her back. She can hardly call out Handler for her behavior and then act innocent of the same behavior. She is as mean-spirited as Handler, and her comedy is of the same vein.
I agree. Joan is riddled with awful flaws, for all the ceilings she may have burst and all her tenacity. I give her kudos for that, but that’s about all.
Carson did not think much of Bride of Chucky’s professionalism when she didn’t even give him a heads up about doing her own show.
She rules when it comes to tasteless and nasty.
Why should she have done that? I’ve never understood why Carson was so pissed. Why he was so vindictive. Someone who works for you got a better gig. You should be happy for them. Instead he was pissed and tried to ruin her. For leaving and not telling him, she gets pissed on. Jay Leno did some shady crap to get the Tonight Show (eavesdropping on meetings) and he gets pats on the back.
As for Chelsea, she’s a nasty piece of work. I don’t think she is in the same league as Joan. Yes, Joan is rude to celebrities, but IRL, she’s a different person. Chelsea is the same person onscreen as off. Its not a personae. And her hating on Angie because she’s friends with Jennifer is so middle school. What grown woman does that? I’m not going to hate someone just because my friend hates her. Jeez.
“I’ve never understood why Carson was so pissed. Why he was so vindictive. ” I don’t think that much of Carson after hearing more about him. As for Chelsea, I’ve never seen one show and judging from the comments here, I don’t think I would care for her “humour.”
Chelsea will NEVER have the career that Joan has had…she should be bowing down to Joan, who was one of the first female comics that broke the “boys only club”, because without Joan, Totie Fields and a few others, it would have been much more difficult for Chelsea and today’s female comics. But then, we all know that Chelsea is an a$$whole!
Joan Rivers is an asshole too and she’s been at it longer than CH. She says anything for attention, very very offensive and unapologetic. Between her and Handler, it’s a lose-lose situation. It’s also funny how she ‘broke barriers’ for female comedians yet she shits on women 24/7 and couldn’t give a toss about them. She’s the last person to put people in their place.
Exactly. Are there any celebrities she hasn’t called fat or slutty? She’s a nasty, bitter piece of work.
ITAWY on Joan.. but I will say that Joan comes from a different time in comedy. I think really for the most part in Joan’s jokes.. gross as they are that she is “being funny” and actually sees it as Joking.. I don’t agree but I honestly think that is how she is.
Handler is different. She is not joking to me. Especially now she is beyond vulgar. And as much as I don’t like either; I will take Joan over her any day of the week.
Yep, interesting stuff on Jezebel re Rivers’ nasty jibes about the Obamas….exposing about 29 different faces of ‘bigotry as humour’.. Most glum-making.
Ok yeah I don’t disagree, but she’s a comedian.
How many male comedians tell tasteless, crass jokes and get away with it?
Please understand that I’m not trying to make this into an “it’s a double standard!” argument, my point is simply that as a comedian, her job is to make people laugh–often at the expense of others and at the expense of political correctness. She’s really no different from the average male comedian in that regard.
I’m also not convinced that because she’s a female comedian, she’s bound to some sort of sisterhood that makes women off-limits as the butt of her jokes.
I haven’t read about the Obama stuff Chris is talking about. Off to google…
Nothing is off-limits with Joan, she is just another one of those nasty comedians who preys on others for a laugh. Sure, many comics do this, but there are those who are cruel, she is one. She makes fun of the overweight, she made crass jokes about the Cleveland kidnapping/rape victims. Maybe that is funny to her…I just don’t get that humor.
Phylliss Diller managed to be very successful, as did Carol Burnett and Lucille Ball. These were funny women who paved the way for women in a positive way. Rivers changed her entire appearance becauseshe felt it was what she needed to do to be successful. She was never happy on the inside, how can one expect her to be happy towards anyone outwardly? It is sad.
TOKitten
As you may see, it’s nothing out of the ordinary, apparently……though, yikes!, imo. It was reading the subsequent discussion that amazed me, never knew Joan R was quite that baad. But I didn’t grow up with her, as it were, so am more easily shocked.
exactly. joan isn’t even funny. watch fashion police and it’s all joan trying to drop “offensive” bombs and they all fall flat… the rest of the ‘police’ have to fake laugh. it’s awkward and why i stopped watching despite wanting the fashion recap.
THIS.
Joan has taken her “humor” way too far lately. I used to be a fan but not anymore. She’s turned into a nasty, spiteful old woman. When she called Obama gay & Michelle a tranny recently ,,, totally uncalled for.
I remember Joan subing for Johnny Carson she was hilarious and me and my dad would stay up watching (even though mom was yelling at us to go to sleep) lol! Her Fox show I don’t remember except it failed pretty early on. Chelsea was funny at first then just got annoying and not funny. I love Joan but damn that face. 🙁
+1.
Finally, I like something that Joan Rivers has said. I can’t stand that Handler chick. I am actually disappointed in Netflix for signing her on.
Joan has an excellent point. Don’t burn your bridges. After my divorce, I was working two part time jobs, one much more lucrative than the other, more fun job. The lucrative people told me they had enough work to take me on full time for two years, so I quit the fun job. Two weeks later, the case settled and the lucrative job told me sorry, we have to let you go. I wanted to say you have totally screwed me and don’t tell me these settlement discussions just started and you didn’t know this might happen and now I have no job at all. But I said thank you for this opportunity, and it has been a pleasure working with you all, etc.. In two weeks, they called me back and said they had a much better, permanent full time position and I was hired if I wanted it. I worked there for the next 18 years, and it taught me a valuable lesson. Barring egregious wrongdoing, leave on the best terms you can, even if it would feel better telling them off.
That is a really excellent point and a great story.
Good for you, and good for pointing it out! I had a very similar experience. The high road is always the way to go.
@GoodNamesAllTaken
Yes, never burn bridges and never leave shutting the door… You never know in life.
Concerning Handler, I never found her to be funny or intelligent, so it doesn’t surprise me she burnt her bridges there. For once I agree with Joan Rivers lol
So so smart, Goodnames. When I got laid off I left with a handshake and a smile as well as a “thanks for the opportunity to learn so much these past years.”
Not enough people understand the importance of leaving on a high note and not burning bridges.
I guess Joan forgot, that she too bit the hand that fed her, at E!
And E! pretty much banned her for years from their network. She had to take her sad ass over the TV Guide channel, to do their red carpet show. Because no one else would deal with her or that daughter.
Then years later… Joan kissed enough ass over at E! and got another chance with them. So Joan needs to go have a seat. And stop acting like she has not sh*t talked her way out of a job before.
And that face just looks painful. Her cheeks look like they are about to cut off oxygen flow to her nose.
Maybe that’s why she learned her lesson “do not bite the hand that feeds” and can dish out that advice. I don’t like Handler at all and am on the fence about Joan, but perhaps her experience has taught her that lesson and clearly she learned from it.
It wasn’t E who banned Joan. Joan was being ignored by Celebrities they didn’t want to deal w her. E wanted to keep Joan, But move her inside with commentary she wanted carpet time with celebs so she left.
The last time I saw Joan on the Red Carpet was at the Oscars. And everyone was ignoring her. She was at the point where she was giving away mints to luring stars over. Nicole Kidman stood right next to her. It was funny because Joan was begging for an interview, and Nicole never turned around. Joan could have an excellent high rated show, without the nasty insults. And she always, always hurls unneeded insults, written by her writers. And writers she won’t pay, hence the lawsuit.
IIRC she said some nasty but really funny things about certain celebrities and they started ignoring her. I didn’t help that she was so old school that she didn’t know a lot of their names. When she started fumbling on their names, she was moved off the carpet.
@Tracy,
I think Nicole was going through her, “I’m too good for everyone because I’m fake sleeping with Tom Cruise” phase. I was not a fan of her during that time. So when Joan made fun of her, I laughed. Hell, I laugh whenever Joan pokes them. The same thing happen to Ricky Gervais after his Golden Globes. I was in stitches, the celebrities, not so much.
Chelsea Handler’s MAIN MAIN problem is she actually thinks she is the people she hangs around. She thinks her image is A list because she hangs around other actresses that are A/B (name recognition) listers. She has a big head now and thinks she is way more important than she is. And the problem with people like her is that she is only popular based on the names she can bring to her show. Problem with the names that she has brought to her show is that none of them have helped to increase her show ratings. When she has Gwyneth, Aniston, Reese, Charlize or even Sandra on the show she has not gotten a HUGE ratings bump. People are not tweeting about those appearances. It is not must see TV..
She has also not helped their BO numbers by going on her show. So she is not helping them professionally. More so she makes people side eye all of them for their friendship with her.
I find her very unfunny. So her new show will be nothing new. I don’t see anyone with any real gravitas going on her show. Those kinds of people don’t need a Chelsea Handler to help them promote anything.
I like Chelsea as a comedian but she’s a terrible interviewer. I would just turn off the tv or switch to cartoons when the interview segment came on. Maybe others were doing the same and so the interviewees didn’t matter. She should have forgotten about the interviews and just expanded the time for the panel of comedians. She did that in some shows and I would stay for the whole half hour.
melissa mccarthy was on recently and clearly friends with her
I agree with Joan’s assessment of Handler’s unprofessionalism. Hollywood is a very small town – Chelsea should have posed with Joan for that shot. Even Ben Affleck said that he learned not to hold a grudge in the industry. Chelsea needs to be a better sport – other than her nasty shtick (book or stand up), she’s got nothing going for her. Say what you will about Joan, she’s a savvy businesswoman and has nothing to prove.
Team Joan. She earned her career through hard work.
Chelsea is annoying and not ever funny.
Sorry but IMO any channel that pushes the Kardashian’s don’t deserve my attention. I stopped watching when they came on.
You may or may not be a fan of Joan River’s comedy. But, there isn’t a job in show business that this woman hasn’t done successfully. Stand-up, TV hosting, film director, author, producer and more recently her jewelry and clothing lines. Much of this at an age where the rest of us would be into a full decade at the rest home. And she’s stayed current with the technology, the style of the times. She’s not a nostalgia act. I respect her for that.
The Aniston bob has done more for Chelsea than Jen. Her hair’s never looked so good.
I don’t always like Joan but I respect what she’s done over the long haul of her career. She’s a tough ass broad and unlike Handler she’s an equal opportunity loud mouth. Handler should have shown Joan the utmost respect but of course kissing her a$$ wouldn’t get her anywhere.
I don’t really like Joan and her brand of humour but she is 100 times better than the vile, disgusting, racist and disgrace to womankind Chelsea.
As far as I can remember Joan had never attacked children nor has she said anything remotely racist in the name of humour. Chelsea on the other hand did, does and will always say/do those things.
Plus Chelsea slept with the very married with children tv producer to get this show and she had the audacity to call Angelina Jolie a homewrecker.
PS: I am so pissed with netflix for signing a contract with Chelsea that I so close to create a twitter account and create the hashtag #boycutNetflixfForSigningRacistChelseaHandler
I don’t like either of these two and E! joined with the dark forces to build the Kardashian Empire, so F*** ’em all.
there we go. a post I can agree with 🙂
Me too!!!!!
Yes ma’am!
Agreed!
You can say what you want about Joan (and a lot of people do) but that woman is SMART! She’s been around the block and made a name for herself in a boys club. Chelsea is indeed very stupid to not sit up and pay attention if she wants to continue her career.
Yeah, I’m not so crazy about who she has become, but when she started out, things were brutal. Her own parents told her she wasn’t funny and she embarrassed them. She was told time after time after time that women weren’t comics, that she was too ugly, that she wasn’t funny. I mean for years. I would have curled up in a little drooling ball, but she kept fighting and she made it. I have to admire her for that. I just wish she wouldn’t use that now to make such cruel and inappropriate jokes about rape, fatness, etc., but she overcame a lot.
Ok but Joan’s a hag and I’m sure her suggestion for a photo had ulterior motives. I wouldn’t have trusted her either. Chelsea isn’t much better though.
I prefer Joan over Chelsea, and I can appreciate Joan’s drive. Joan also has a great relationship with her daughter and grandson. Never saw FP. I remember JLaw bashing it for calling her and other women fat though. I do hate it when “new talent” with burgeoning careers fail to acknowledge the earlier pioneers only to pretend that they are the ones who are laying the groundwork. No. One should acknowledge, accept, and respect those who’ve plowed the ground before them, even if this “new talent” doesn’t particularly care for that pioneer’s particular brand of work, one can still learn something and will, undoubtedly, benefit from the road has been paved.
Not sure why people can separate Joan the Person from Joan the Comedian but have so much trouble doing the same with Chelsea. The idea that Chelsea slept her way to the top is an outdated way to trivialize women, would have thought everybody here would be beyond that by now. I’ve watched both Joan and Chelsea for years, and on this site Chelsea gets consigned to hellfire for saying the same kinds of things that Joan gas always done. They are both comedians who take risks, some of those risks work out and others don’t. They aren’t safe comedians beloved by the politicians like Bob Hope. Sometimes they are very funny, sometimes they fall flat. If you don’t like to listen to either of them, there’s always the off switch.
Is all this really about Angie? People here are still appalled by an Angie routine Chelsea did on a college tour. The kids ate it up so she used it for the whole tour. The transcript sounded much worse than as delivered, as is typical for such comedy. But I watched a lot of Chelsea Lately and really saw nothing like that on the show. If there was any mention of Angie and her crew, it was minor. So why are people still defining Chelsea by one routine that was used in a tour? Baffling. Yet Joan is forgiven for everything.
I think Chelsea is just tired of doing the same thing over and over. Haven’t watched the show for a while due to other things happening, but it seems as though she’s having a lot of guest hosts in the past year or so. Chelsea just might have all the money she needs (she seems relatively frugal) and can now afford to just do what she wants rather than staying with a sure thing.
No, it’s about how Chelsea is a huge, lying hypocrite who was bought and paid for by Aniston. She only started saying those horrible things about Angie after Aniston invited her to her 40th birthday party and subsequently signed with Aniston’s PR. Before that, Chelsea said way worse stuff about Aniston than she did about Angie or Brad. Upside of Chelsea abandoning her “ugly desperate loser Jen jokes” and then doing Aniston’s dirty work, all of that trash reminded the world how awful and nasty and bitter Aniston is/was and served to highlight why Brad, Vince, John, Paul, and all those other guys left. Plus, if your going to be gross, you’d better be funny and Chelsea isn’t… She’s too busy being a hypocrite.
Was just thinking that Joan is wrong about it being a small business. When she started out, it was. All movies went to theaters (no DVDs or vcrs or whatever). There were about three tv networks. When I was a kid, in the era of fuzzy b&w tvs and LPs, there were so few national level comedians and singers that everybody knew their names. That wasn’t because they were spectacular but because there were so few national level opportunities. Now there are hundreds of tv networks. People can buy copies of movies and tv shows and can sample songs and download whole albums instantly. YouTube! Entertainers can run their own web sites. It’s a whole different world, and definitely not a small business anymore. If Joan had started out today, she would be just one face in a huge crowd but still would have been able to find an audience because there are so many opportunities, many of which do not depend on the few corporate players of her youth.
I met Joan Rivers some years ago. She is such a gracious humble lady in person. I really liked her!
I’m always surprised when people with big jobs get fired but they instead are ‘asked for their resignation’. If you’re fired your next employer should know, otherwise they aren’t getting an honest look at your past experience. I worked at local news in the city where I got my degree and the news director was asked for his resignation only for us to find out the place he worked before did the same thing-he had a history of getting fired but no one knew about it until after he was already hired elsewhere and began acting up. why do they give them this benefit?
So they won’t be sued.
I guess it could be related to those certain cases wherein the employer isn’t obligated to provide some kind of severence package to someone who isn’t technically fired. I don’t know. I would think that a person with such a poor work history would have difficulties in obtaining reference letters, but I’m clearly the blind leading the blind on this one.
Chelsea is just plain dumb. That’s why her show is boring.
Pot. Kettle. Joan is awful.
I used to watch Chelsea Lately all the time but suddenly her political views and excessive expressing of those views started bothering me and now I never watch it anymore. She just became very annoying and some of those people at the round table were just plain dumb.
But she does take care of her crew, that’s very cool.
Joan Rivers is a legend. Enough said.
Kudos. I feel exactly the same as you do. Well written and expressed but she would be annoying to know outside of the media.
Chelsea lost my respect when she was rude to Piers Morgan. She showed a side of her
which was neither funny or intelligent. Joan Rivers is in a class by herself. She is much smarter and talented than Chelsea could ever dream to aspire to.