Late comedienne Joan Rivers has spread her wealth generously between family, friends, staff and charities – including a group that supports guide dogs.
According to Page Six Rivers’ will was filed on Tuesday named Joan’s daughter, Melissa, as the executor of the estate and is due to inherit her mother’s tangible property.
The former show biz veteran – who passed away unexpectedly at age 81 in September following a throat procedure – is believed to have had accumulated a $150 million dollar fortune at the time of her death which will be bequeathed to family members, close staff and charitable causes.
“We didn’t know,” Laurie Waxler, the wife of Joan’s nephew Andrew Waxler, told Page Six of the inheritence.
Adding: “She was an incredibly generous woman.”
Scott Currie, who was the loud mouthed comedy Queen’s publicist, said his undisclosed inheritance doesn’t erase the sadness he has felt since Joan’s death.
“Nothing can ever make up for the loss I feel every day,” Currie told Page Six.
“She was such a big part of my life for over 25 years. She was an incredible lady.”
Rivers’ also directed funds to the same charity she competed (and won) The Celebrity Apprentice for, the New York-based God’s Love We Deliver – a non-profit organisation which delivers meals for people who are too ill or infirm to leave the house to get food.
According to a copy of the will obtained by Page Six money will also go to California’s Guide Dogs for the Blind, the Jewish Guild for the Blind in Manhattan, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Jewish Home and Hospital Federation of Manhattan and The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
The will documents also make a brief mention of a possible lawsuit for medical malpractice against the Yorkville Endoscopy Clinic, where Joan had an upper-gastric endoscopy and a laryngoscopy which saw her go into cardiac arrest on Aug. 28 – she died on September 4 after being removed from life support.
After an official investigation last month by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services the clinic was cited for several infractions, including a failure to monitor Joan’s vital signs.
Following the inquiry Melissa Rivers’ attorney released a statement saying the 46-year-old was “terribly disappointed” by the findings and “outraged by the misconduct and mismanagement now shown to have occurred before, during and after the procedure.”
Rivers’ has been posthumously nominated for a Grammy for her Spoken Word Performance of her audiobook and latest memoir, Diary of a Mad Diva.
The feisty comedian was beloved by many for her sharp wit and her no-nonsense approach to comedy.
Despite her often controversial remarks the Brooklyn-born comic once said that her provocative edge was the key to her lengthy career.
“I succeed by saying what everyone else was thinking.”
Here are some of the comedy queen’s most famous one-liners.
Joan Rivers on her career: “I succeed by saying what everyone else was thinking.” Late comedienne Joan Rivers’ has spread her wealth generously between family, friends, staff and charities – including a group that supports guide dogs.
On weight: “I hate thin people; ‘Oh, does the tampon make me look fat?'”
On family: “Grandchildren can be so f-cking annoying. How many times can you go, ‘And the cow goes moo and the pig goes oink’? It’s like talking to a supermodel.”
On ageing: “I now consider it a good day when I don’t step on my boobs.”
On housework: “Why should a woman cook? So her husband can say ‘My wife makes a delicious cake’ to some hooker?”
On safe sex: “My best birth control now is just to leave the lights on.”
On getting older: “I must admit I am nervous about getting Alzheimer’s. Once it hits, I might tell my best joke and never know it.”
On her face: “I’ve had so much plastic surgery, when I die they will donate my body to Tupperware.”
“I wish I had a twin, so I could know what I’d look like without plastic surgery.”
On British badboy, Russell Brand: “Russell Brand has announced that he plans to write a series of children’s books. First up: ‘Horton Hears a Heroin Dealer.'”
On fitness: “I don’t exercise. If God had wanted me to bend over, he would have put diamonds on the floor.”
On not taking yourself too seriously: “Never be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century.”
“With age comes wisdom. You don’t need big boobs to be feminine. Look at Liberace.”
On her quest for love: “My love life is like a piece of Swiss cheese: most of it’s missing, and what’s there stinks.”
“You know why I feel older? I went to buy sexy underwear and they automatically gift wrapped it.”
On multi-tasking: “My breasts are so low now I can have a mammogram and a pedicure at the same time.”
On her own funeral in her 2012 book I hate Everyone… Starting With Me: “When I die (and yes, Melissa, that day will come; and yes, Melissa, everything’s in your name,) I want my funeral to be a huge showbiz affair with lights, cameras, action. I want Craft services, I want paparazzi and I want publicists making a scene; I want it to be Hollywood all the way. I don’t want some rabbi rambling on. I want Meryl Streep crying, in five different accents. I don’t want a eulogy; I want Bobby Vinton to pick up my head and sing ‘Mr. Lonely.’ I want to look gorgeous, better dead than I do alive. I want to be buried in a Valentino gown and I want Harry Winston to make me a toe tag. And I want a wind machine so that even in the casket my hair is blowing just like Beyonce.”
On life: “I enjoy life when things are happening. I don’t care if it’s good things or bad things. That means you’re alive. Things are happening.” RIP Joan Rivers.
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