Still Talking by Joan Rivers & Richard Meryman

Author:Joan Rivers & Richard Meryman [Rivers, Joan & Meryman, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780517158531
Amazon: 0517158531
Publisher: Random House Value Publishing
Published: 1995-11-13T08:00:00+00:00

150 JOAN RIVERS

In New York Joanne had invited us occasionally to large parties. It was heady being there with Mayor Lindsay and Truman Capote. But when wife number three, Joanna, took over in Los Angeles, those invitations stopped.

She was pursuing the “A” list. I stayed on the Christmas-card list and once a year received a phone call. “Joan, this is Joanna Carson. How are you?

Joan, I saw you the other night on the show. You were wonderful.” Right away I would be feeling guilty-Oh, hell, I should have invited them for dinner Thursday night.

I’d say, “Oh, Joanna, thanks. You know, I’ve been so busy with Melissa and … “-thinking maybe we could have them to our house for dinner on Wednesday. “Joan, the reason I called, I’m president of SHARE and would like you to perform at our annual fund-raiser. ” That happened for five years. After the third year I was always busy.

I believe my relationship with Johnny was permanently shaped by his feeling, on some level, that I was his creation and so could be taken completely for granted. Indeed, I played that role, catering and kissing and thanking-and staying loyal beyond reason.

After I became the permanent guest host, I was offered talk shows opposite Carson by two huge conglomerates, Orion and Viacom-but I had sworn never to go up against Johnny. ABC wanted to make me the queen of daytime TV, and in the days before 1985, when Oprah came on the scene, it might have happened.

I was wooed by the president of ABC, Tony Thomopoulos, in a secret meeting and offered obscene money. After stuffing myself on Danish pastry, I declined.

Johnny had been the one person who said, “Yes, she has talent. Yes, she is funny.” He was the first person who knew what I could become. He handed me my career. I could not make myself leave that man. There was still an umbilical cord. He was JOHNNY CARSON, and he believed in me more than I believed in myself. I always thought that somewhere behind his shell, he was the one person in the business who understood me and really wished me well.

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