TV commitments blamed

A pilot she was working on has been unexpectedly commissioned – although a spokesman for the Leicester Square Theatre was unable to say what the project was.

Before Rivers brought her autobiographical play, A Work In Progress By A Life In Progress to the Edinburgh Fringe, she said: ‘I'm in a series called Z Rock coming to IFC [Independent Film Channel], doing a TV pilot, offered another game show and will be on Celebrity Apprentice.’

The live show transferred to London on August 29 until September 18, and Rivers had been scheduled to return in December and January, making a total of 75 performances to mark her 75th birthday.

More than £50,000-worth of tickets had already been sold for the Christmas run. Ticket holders will get a full refund and should contact their point of sale.

Producer Martin Witts said: ‘It is with great sadness that I have to announce that Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress By a Life in Progress will not have its full London run.

‘Audiences and critics have been unanimous in their praise and Joan and the cast never failed to get nightly standing ovations. We had initially hoped to just postpone the rest of the performances but can't get a commitment on exactly when this could be so we have decided to refund all tickets sold.’

Rivers will be performing in New York’s Cutting Room from November 4 to December 17.

Last month, the comedian compared internet giant AOL to Holocaust deniers, after axing her online show.

Rivers and her daughter Melissa had been commissioned to comment on the fashions at the Emmy awards show – but their remarks never saw the light of day.

Rivers claims she was censored because AOL felt her references to Nazi Germany (such as: ‘Julia Louis-Dreyfus — luckily she waxed her moustache. I know one of her neighbours, and if she leaves it for two or three weeks she looks just like Hitler’) were too offensive.

‘AOL are like Holocaust deniers,’ she said. ‘They want us to believe 6 million Jews spent World War II in Boca and Anne Frank was in an attic for two years looking for Christmas ornaments.’

However, the web company said the comments were not included because they were delivered to editors too late – and were too unfunny.

Colleen Curtis, one of AOL’s editorial directors, said: ‘It’s hard to imagine why Joan Rivers believes that AOL denies that the Holocaust ever happened, but it’s also hard to imagine that Joan really believes anyone would think her Emmy coverage was funny.’

Published: 2 Oct 2008