MovieChat Forums > Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (2010) Discussion > Felt sorry for Melissa

Felt sorry for Melissa

posted 13 years ago by Mintie8632
4 replies | jump to latest

It must be rough having a mother who is so competitive, so insecure, that she can't let her own kid outshine her once in awhile. Paradoxically, it's also a very un-Jewish attitude.

Don't know her, but from the documentary, Melissa comes across as articulate and insightful (if also a willing participant in the kind of meretricious spectacle that made her mother famous.) I think she has an interesting book in her future, if she hasn't written it already. (I'm too lazy to check.)

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] conway3000 10 years ago

Melissa Rivers is a Ivy League graduate. She has her own career due to her mother's help.

[–] sunnydaze_8 10 years ago

I think it has to do with inherited wealth. Joan did not grow up wealthy and therefore as first generation wealth felt she had to hustle every day until she died. She didn't trust that if she stopped she could be comfortable and remain wealthy for the rest of her life. Melissa is second generation wealth and therefore has a more relaxed approach about people and life in general. Melissa can afford to not try so hard on Celebrity Apprentice because she was confident with her place in society albeit from Joan's hard work. If you really look at Melissa's track record most if not all of her success has to do with her mother. I understand that Joan has left her $150 million. See that's why Melissa didn't need to win Celebrity Apprentice but as Joan said her strategy was to get back on NBC and I agree with her. In the end she won because winning on Celebrity Apprentice ON NBC meant and end to more than thirty years of blacklisting from NBC.

[–] tmaj48 10 years ago

I'd always thought that Melissa was just riding her mother's tacky leopard-print coattails all these years. After watching this movie, however, it occurred
to me that possibly Melissa was the one pushing her mother to constantly perform.
Other children might be suggesting to their elderly parents that they might want
to take it easy, enjoy some hobbies in their spare time, etc. Yet Joan Rivers was
always traveling around and obsessed with filling up her appointment calendar with
performing dates. Could it be possible that Melissa was pushing her a little too much, the way a lot of elderly performers were persuaded by their inheritance-hungry children and caregivers into doing one more show, movie or appearance when
they were in mental decline? (Frank Sinatra, for instance, who was pressed by his children into concert dates after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's and had trouble remembering song lyrics on stage, or the feeble, ancient Groucho Marx, who was signed
to do a series of embarrassing photo shoots in which he appeared in bed with various celebrities, reportedly the idea of his legal guardian Erin Fleming).

I m not crying, you fool, I m laughing!

Hewwo.