She grew up in the glare of Hollywood’s spotlight as the daughter of comedy legend Joan Rivers — but Melissa Rivers has built her own legacy as a TV host, producer, author, and the sharp-witted voice behind Fashion Police. In this candid, funny, and heartfelt conversation with Steve Kmetko, Melissa pulls back the curtain on red carpet chaos, celebrity fashion feuds, and the unspoken rules of Hollywood style. Melissa opens up about her years producing Fashion Police, the behind-the-scenes reality of award season, and what it was really like navigating fame alongside her mother. She also gets deeply personal about loss, grief, and the life lessons she’s carried forward — including her work in suicide prevention and philanthropy. From red carpet couture to raw conversations about resilience, this episode is as bold, stylish, and unfiltered as Melissa herself. If you love celebrity stories, iconic fashion moments, and unvarnished Hollywood truth, this is one interview you don’t want to miss. #MelissaRivers #JoanRivers #FashionPolice #RedCarpet #CelebrityInterview #HollywoodStyle #AwardSeason #BehindTheScenes #HollywoodStories #PopCulture #StillHereHollywood #SteveKmetko #CelebrityPodcast #ComedyLegends #EntertainmentNews
Steve Kmetko
Yes, I'm still here. Hollywood. And coming up on today's episode,
Melissa Rivers
During the height of the red carpet and fashion police, people would get. And as I used to say, when you're making $20 million a movie or a million dollars in episode and you're getting everything for free and you're wearing dresses that are made for you that are, you know, 20,000, $30,000 couture gowns, and it's a award season, we don't like one of them after all the parties and all of this, that we don't like one of your dresses. You probably take yourself way too seriously. I just said whomever, he's marries all of grandma silver and jewelry and all my parents' art. If it comes with you, it goes with you. This is not for your first wife to keep. We are not going to court to argue over your great-grandmother's silver that she smuggled out of Russia. And to this day, people come up to me and burst into tears, which is very odd. It got very hard in the beginning. Because I was having to comfort all these people and all these strangers all the time.
Steve Kmetko
You hear the term like father, like son a lot. But come on, what year is it? Like mother like daughter is often much more fitting, especially for today's show because there was one mom daughter team that ruled television for a while. The mom was one of the most famous comedians in the history of standup the daughter, a chip off the old block. Not with comedy per se, but with an unvarnished honesty that related to viewers. This is Still Here. Hollywood. I'm Steve Kmetko. Join me with today's guest producer and host and friend Melissa Rivers. I was going to sit down and write questions and then after we talked yesterday, I thought, you know why, right? I just want to have a conversation. So I don't have anything formal written down.
Melissa Rivers
Well, I can start us off. Okay. Because I just remembered this actually. I always think, I always think about this. You were the first one who had the information. You made the announcement when Cooper was born. Oh, I did. You said the e family tree just grew another branch today. Oh, how about that? Because We told E obviously first, first, and I still remember that.
Steve Kmetko
And tell me now, how old is Cooper?
Melissa Rivers
23. And then he said, Joan has survived and Melissa's doing fine too. He said something like that. Like, you know, it was something very funny. And I remember he went and Melissa's fine too.
Steve Kmetko
It was probably written for me.
Melissa Rivers
It doesn't matter,
Steve Kmetko
But I'm not that clever.
Melissa Rivers
But it was, I still, you know, the weird little things you remember and it was when the set was all white with the goldfish.
Steve Kmetko
With the goldfish. And we don't, neither one of us knows what happened to the goldfish.
Melissa Rivers
No. One year though at the Grammy's, it was Todd Newton and I in our one-on-one room, and they had a whole wall of goldfish all in little Bowls. And then at the end of the night, everyone's like, well, what do we do with the goldfish? And so like, I think I took home two. Todd took some home because they were also, Because of the lights being so hot, some of them weren't having a great day.
Steve Kmetko
Yes, I know that feeling. So, you know, one of the things I would like to know, tell me what you're doing now. I know you're doing a podcast yourself.
Melissa Rivers
I'm doing a podcast called Melissa Rivers Group Text. And it basically started out as more opinion driven and conversational and now it's basically conversations with celebrities.
Steve Kmetko
Are you enjoying it?
Melissa Rivers
I am. I didn't think I was going to be, and I think I went through a phase where I didn't, and now I really do. And I don't know if it's because I figured out what my audience likes. I don't know if it's, I'm just getting different kinds of guests, but I do know, and you should know this too, I've had one foot on either side of the interview process or as I say, the red carpet for. So I find that people can have a different kind of conversation with me in the sense of there's nothing that they, I mean, sure there's stuff people can surprise me with, but I feel like I, there's such a familiarity that I can ask things and laugh at things that no one else could say or do, just because everyone's aware I've lived this sort of weird double life.
Steve Kmetko
Well, and you've seen it all up close.
Melissa Rivers
You know, my mom went into labor on stage, so it's like, everyone's like, how long have you been in the business? I go, I suppose in utero. I don't know if that counts.
Steve Kmetko
You know, I seem to remember your mother being pregnant and doing her acts. So, I that was a good, that was a correct memory I had. What was it like being Joan River's daughter?
Melissa Rivers
I get asked that all the time as well. And I never know how to answer it because it's the only mom I ever knew. People say, well, you know, what was your life like? Did you want to, it is like, it's not like I went to the neighbor's house and lived there for a couple weeks and came back and went, well, I choose this. My parents made such an effort. I always think of it as the separation of church and state. The, it was always the career. It was a family effort. And my parents actively worked to make a very traditional home life. So there was like the fake life and the real, the fake life. And the real life. So people say, what was it like? I'm like, you know, was, was there a whole different half of our life? Of course. But my parents always had their, our, their offices in our house, so I was always exposed to it. But at six o'clock the phones went off and we sat down to dinner every night to the day my mom died. Her phone at her apartment was answered. Rosenberg residence. It's such a split, right? You never think of it like that, right? And then people always ask, was your mother funny at home? I'm like, yeah. It was hilarious when I was getting grounded. Ooh, give me those keys.
Steve Kmetko
You know my father was a Baptist minister and his boss had a little more clout than mine. But I used to I used to get jealous because he always seemed to have time for his parishioners. Every night of the week he was at a hospital or a meeting or something like that. Did you ever get jealous of your mother's career? Because it took a lot of time and she was I saw it up close. She was a very hard worker.
Melissa Rivers
Yeah. It was kind of like having a sibling. I don't think I ever felt any kind of sibling rivalry, but I think it's because my parents made it that way. They made sure that there were clear lines. My mom would fly through the night to make it to a softball game. My dad would travel a full day back from Europe to make it to a school play. And I think because they made such an overwhelming effort, I, you know, finally you're a teenager, you're like, you can stop coming to games like enough. You're embarrassing me. You're the only parents who are at every game. Go away and please do not come home on the weekends. Because I'm in high school and I want to have fun and please be gone. I think I never felt jealousy. My mom always used to say the most frustrating thing for her was I never got credit, nor will ever get credit for what I've accomplished and what I've done, especially in those E years.
Steve Kmetko
Yeah. But you know what, when I go through Facebook or Instagram now there's always frequently mentions of your mother and how much people miss her.
Melissa Rivers
Always. I still have people who come up to talk to me and burst into tears. And when Steve, my fiancé and I first dating, I think it was the first time we ever went to the movies together and we were walking into the theater and all of a sudden I hear, oh my God. And it's someone who had worked at e who I didn't remember or knew, sees me and bursts into tears. And then he is like, oh my God. And Steve, it was like, our fourth date looks at me. He goes, does that happen? I'm like, yeah, it does. And to this day, people come up to me and burst into tears, which is very odd. It got very hard in the beginning. Because I was having to comfort all these people and all these strangers all the time. And what would be the word? Not trying, but, and not debilitating. But it did hit a point where that was like,
Steve Kmetko
Exhausting.
Melissa Rivers
Exhausting. And I would stop going out and airports became minefields.
Steve Kmetko
It's nice though to hear you have a respect for it when you could easily be resentful.
Melissa Rivers
Yeah. But because it was always so clear, my mom's career was always referred to as the career. It was never her career, my career. And like when I started, when we started working together, it was still the career. So I think it was always instilled in me that to have that kind of success, you have to have a team. You no one can fly solo. And I think that in my head it was another entity. It was another family member.
Steve Kmetko
When you lost your father. How did you get through that suicide's? You were, you were a sophomore in college, right?
Melissa Rivers
I was going into my sophomore year in college. Suicide's complicated and a big advocate for suicide prevention. I'm the co-chair of the board of Didi Hirsh Mental Health Services and Suicide Prevention, which is, you know, this year I think we became a hundred million dollar agency, which is very exciting. I do not know why I'm allowed to have all this responsibility because luckily I have a co-chair who's very, very serious and runs everything, you know, on the schedule and checking stuff off. And I'm like, okay, next up. So, it seems to work. How do you get through it? Grief is, grief is grief. That's what I always say to people. But different kinds of grief come with different kinds of baggage. And suicide comes with a lot of very complicated questions, you know? But I come from a family where you, you know, just keep going.
Steve Kmetko
It was also public though,
Melissa Rivers
And at the time things like that were not public. It wasn't TMZ, it wasn't 24 hours news cycle. It wasn't any of that. And that, I think was the hardest part for me, was the complete and total for the first time in my life, feeling like I was stared at all the time and felt like people would kind of point and whisper and people not knowing what to say to me. And some days I couldn't get out of bed and some days I could. And I, I went back to school three weeks later and I think that forced me into some days I could take one step. Some days I couldn't. My grades weren't the best that year. And socially it became very awkward. Because again, everybody knew. But you just go, what do you do? You can't lay down, can't give up. 19 years old. And my family, as you know, we're not quitters. No. We're like fricking cockroaches, you know, it's going to take a lot to really get us to stop. But what's interesting is something that was one of the most horrible things in my life has turned into something that has given me such purpose on a philanthropic side.
Steve Kmetko
Did you ever wish that you'd had the opportunity to talk to your father?
Melissa Rivers
Of course I did.
Steve Kmetko
Did you go through a period of all the things I wish I'd said kind of thing?
Melissa Rivers
I am not then I think I would've made some different decisions. And I think, you know, you're the lack of maturity. I wish I had said certain things. I wish I had had made a couple different phone calls. I wish when he left for Philadelphia that I wasn't sound asleep. And he just came in and said, goodnight. Buy them off. Obviously I have known I would've done something differently. But back in the time, mental health was not a big topic. It was still something to be embarrassed about and shameful and all those things. And then people started talking about mental health and now people actually talk openly about suicide. So we've come a long way.
Steve Kmetko
Grief is a hard thing to get through and everybody goes through it differently.
Melissa Rivers
And that's why I says they never judge any people, judge anyone when they're going through grief. But sometimes you have people that stay grieving so long that you want to pick them up and go, okay, time to time to get it together. Because the person who died would not want you sitting here in a puddle.
Steve Kmetko
I had a sister who came out to visit me here in Los Angeles in 1990 and went swimming in my pool while I wasn't home. She was alone. She had an asthma attack and drowned. I came home from work to find her. And that's rough. It was real rough. And every year when it rolls, that date rolls around. Even through a year, things happen. And you wish they were here to talk to her.
Melissa Rivers
I find that much more with my mom because I was an adult and a mother and had been so, and through so much more in life. And what gets me crazy is there's just certain things that I don't have her to share with. I don't. And, and the jokes and the history and the people that i'll boots, you'll be like, well, you're not going to believe who I ran into. And having those inside jokes of, you know, one of our last conversations, she ran into someone that day and she's like, well, I ran into so and so now let me tell you, they were wearing something that I thought to myself, how do I not say you're a little long in the tooth for this. And like, I'd be the only person who knew the person and got why it was funny. Or, you know, that's what gets me crazy, that I can't pick up the phone and go that son of a and they're trying to jerk me around or you know, my mom used to be like, I'd call, you know, she'd call me and be like, I hate everyone today. You know, where I would call and just be like, not your turn. You know,
Steve Kmetko
I love the phrase long in the tooth. I use it about myself all the time.
Melissa Rivers
Yes, we all do long in the tooth. Li perhaps has aged out of a crop top.
Steve Kmetko
Yes.
Melissa Rivers
It was like one her friends was like, and some crop tops. She's like, what the, you're, you know, in your seventies, I don't care how good your abs look and that it touches the top of your pants. Don't put your arms over your head. Nobody wants to see it.
Steve Kmetko
I went to see your mother shortly before she passed. She was at my alma mater in Chicago. At Columbia College. She came to address the student body.
Melissa Rivers
Well, that's always a solid choice.
Steve Kmetko
She was so funny. When do you miss her most?
Melissa Rivers
I think, it's different with my dad. When something big happens, I'm like, God it, he should be here. I miss my mom most for those inside jokes, for the fabric, the history, the fabric of the history of your life that we could reference a relative and know exactly why it was funny or exactly what it meant, you know, or in business or someone you know. Because You would always call me like, can you believe this? You know, is that's what I miss. That's when I miss her the most. Not so much when things are bad, but when things are good. Or that she'd be the only person who understood why something was so funny. That's, those are the times that are hardest for me. Well, and her not planning my upcoming wedding. Because You know, that was like her thing. My first wedding. I'm just like, go do it. I don't care.
Steve Kmetko
So, and that was a production.
Melissa Rivers
Yeah. Well, and I'm in, I have discovered that giving up the power on that was probably one of the smartest decisions I ever made. Because,
Steve Kmetko
Like you had a choice.
Melissa Rivers
Yeah. But you know, she would come with choices, this, this or this, and I don't like this one and this one. Which one do you want? You know what I mean? She, and now like, you're having to make all these decisions. And I'm like, I don't know. I don't know what I'm going to want next year. I can't tell you what I want tomorrow.
Steve Kmetko
So you're planning a wedding right now? Is it coming up fast? Next March. Do you have a little march?
Melissa Rivers
Next March.
Steve Kmetko
Next March. Oh, you have a little time,
Melissa Rivers
But you don't. That's what's so crazy. Like, you already have, like, if I have to send in one more deposit check and Steve and I try and go every other, and somehow he hasn't figured that we're at two for one because he is a lawyer. So was like, can you read the contract? You know, can you just take care of it? And finally this last one, he's like, you got to do this one. I'll read the contract, but you have to send the check for this one. You know? And everyone's like, he's the blushing bride, not me. You know?
Steve Kmetko
Can I ask where you met?
Melissa Rivers
We met at an event. And you know what it takes some gumption to walk up to me and chat and then say, would you like to have dinner? Like most people don't do that. My, my guy friends all my life have been like, you're so intimidating. I'm like, are you kidding me? But I realize that now. And I'm like, you know, that's impressive. But I told you our, he almost didn't get a second date because he was wearing really bad shoes. Really bad shoes.
Steve Kmetko
And that makes a difference. Huh?
Melissa Rivers
Look who you're talking to. You know what I mean? Come on, let's be serious. It was like, oh good, good, good, good, good. You know,
Steve Kmetko
Well, I just saw you posted something online on Instagram. And he was wearing vans I have, which were very nice.
Melissa Rivers
Thank you. I have, he's very old school. La Hancock Park grew up here, conservative family. And I have expanded his wardrobe and like I have said to him, I will not take you out of your comfort zone. I might make it a little bigger and modernize it. Like he has only worn like Brooks Brothers suits his whole life. And all they do is the shorten the sleeves and shorten the bottom. I'm like, could you look a little less boxy? So he bought some new suits and like, I had them fitted to him and he's just like, I've never done this. And suddenly everyone's like, God, you look really nice, you working out. And I'm, and I've gotten rid of those horrid shoes. I have totally upped his shoe game. Sometimes I just go out and get them and bring them home.
Steve Kmetko
Hmm. Tell me about Cooper.
Melissa Rivers
Oh God. Mommy's little Angel. He's great. He just graduated from Berkeley. Then a college athlete.
Steve Kmetko
What was his major?
Melissa Rivers
Media studies.
Steve Kmetko
Oh.
Melissa Rivers
Which we always joke is like a Netflix degree. Like you're not really sure what it means, but it's all the new, his specialty is like all the new media. So I just think it's sort of the next iteration of when you say, I have a degree in communications.
Steve Kmetko
That's me.
Melissa Rivers
Exactly. Like, but now they call it media studies. And his thing, his, his concentration was in new media, so that's very interesting. But he's, he's working in the music business. He's a second assistant to an agent and they don't call it second assistant anymore. I don't know what they call it. But he comes home and he's like, I'm the, you know, I'm the, I go, so you're the second assistant. And he's like, well I guess I go, do you know what that means? He goes, no. I go, you're the. And like two days later he comes home and goes, you're right. I'm just the. I'm like, welcome to the world. My little friend, he comes home face down. Like he can't believe his hours, Annie, because it's the music business. He has to work a lot of nights and he's learning fast.
Steve Kmetko
Aren't you glad you have a certain amount of knowledge about the business?
Melissa Rivers
Yes. You know, so, but his whole thing was, I'm never going to be in the entertainment industry, then I'll be in the music business. So it's just a matter of time before he's like, I'm going to produce TV shows. But no, he loves being in the music business and he is very good. He has a good ear as they say. And now he's learning all about how to book tours. Yeah. He's an adult. He has a full fledged functional, for the most part, adult human being and not that screwed up. So I'm kind of proud of that.
Steve Kmetko
Any. Yeah, you should be in this town. Any possibility, he might make you a grandmother one day,
Melissa Rivers
I'm sure at some point, you know, but what I've always said, because, well, I'm just me, I just said whomever, he's marries all of grandma silver and jewelry and all my parents' art, if it comes with you, it goes with you. This is not for your first wife to keep. We are not going to court to argue over your great-grandmother's silver that she smuggled out of Russia is like a library. You can borrow it while you have him. But other than that, it's coming home. And he's like, mom, you're so terrible. I'm like, trust me on this. It's just a lending library.
Steve Kmetko
That's a good way of looking at it.
Melissa Rivers
Yeah. You know, I think it'll disappoint potentially a misses at some point. But again, not my problem.
Steve Kmetko
Let me go back one second for a little bit. Do you have any advice for people going through grief?
Melissa Rivers
Oh, absolutely. First of all, no one tells you how to grieve. Don't let anyone box you in to a corner. I always say, what I've discovered is the dying person's the star of the movie, but they have the easiest role. It's everyone left behind. It's everyone dealing with everything. I, one of my friends have a loss. I always text them immediately and say, I'm here for you. I am on your side, whatever that means. I'm not much of a candy coder. I'm like, it sucks. It's awful. It's terrible. You're going to be miserable. It is going to pass.
And if I'm not going to keep reaching out for the first month, if you need me, I'm here. But starting a month from now, I'm going to start blowing you up. Because what people I think don't realize is it's not the first month. Because Everyone's still there. Dealing with grief really sets in the second month when nobody's calling to constantly make sure you're okay. And I think again, you could just, all you can do is try and put one foot in front of the other. And for people who are going through grief, I always think about, and again, this is generalizations. This is not someone who loses a child. This is not those kinds of things. This is like adults, losing adults. Does that person really want you to be miserable for that long? Do you it becomes, and, and you I always try and impress upon people.
It becomes bittersweet. And for me personally, the first year after losing either parent was easier than the second year. The second year is when it became real for me. And when you're going through grief, first of all talk, anyone who does not talk to a therapist, get into a group. Any that do not isolate. Let people be nice to you. This is the time in your life where you can guilt free, have people do things for you and, and help you. And I like to tell people it's one foot in front of the other. And some days you can't make it out of bed and one day you can make it to the bathroom and the next day you can make it to the front door. And then maybe you can't get out of bed for two days. You just have to allow yourself a reasonable amount of time.
But I firmly believe when we lose someone, they don't want our lives to end. And you're doing their memory a disservice if you don't at some point get it together. I've had friends who can't get out of it. And then I've sat them down and been like, enough, enough. Your husband or your mother or your father or your sibling is not looking down or up, depending upon what your beliefs are. Wanting you to be miserable for the rest of your life. And I think that's such a hard mindset. And as I say to people, I don't candy coat when I hear it and someone's like, I go, let me just tell you right now. It sucks. It's terrible. It's awful. It's miserable. It's wrong all, you know, don't tell me they're in a better place because I'm in a place. Yes. Are they in a better place? Because They're out of pain. Yeah. Well now I'm not in a better place. And just, I always tell people, I'm like, don't candy coat it. It sucks. It's up. And I think very often my advice to people is own that. Own it. It's okay. It's okay to say this is awful. And I think too many people and trying candy coat, when friends talk to them, they try and like, oh, it's like, no, this is horrendous.
But own that and get through it. And that's where people get stuck. And that's why you need support groups and that's why you need therapy. And that's why you need friends. I hope like me who say, I'm here. I love you. This sucks. You reach me if you need something, I'm here 24/7, but just know in a month from now I'm going to be blowing you up. Because that's when you need people when everybody goes home.
Steve Kmetko
I think that's very good advice,
Melissa Rivers
I think on both sides.
Steve Kmetko
Hey I'm curious.
Melissa Rivers
I hope that was helpful.
Steve Kmetko
Yes, it was. I think so. And that's all that matters.
Melissa Rivers
By the way.
Steve Kmetko
I'm the only one you're talking to right here.
Melissa Rivers
Excuse me. It's your show.
Steve Kmetko
Hey, do you ever have people who you and your mother may have dissed a little bit on the red carpet? Did they still, are there people who still remember?
Melissa Rivers
Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure.
Steve Kmetko
But they don't come up to you and say,
Melissa Rivers
Well, during the height of the red carpet and fashion police, people would get. And as I used to say, when you're making $20 million a movie or a million dollars an episode and you're getting everything for free and you're wearing dresses that are made for you that are, you know, 20,000, $30,000 couture gowns and it's a award season and we don't like one of them after all the parties and all of this that we don't like one of your dresses, you probably take yourself way too seriously. Like seriously, it's like, you know, get over yourself. I don't like, I look back on pictures and go, how the hell did I wear that? Or what was I thinking? I've been skewered a million times. But that's part of it. I'm sure people out there, but I don't, when I see people, they're usually very lovely. And that was fascinating when my mom died Katy Perry posted, what's the point of wearing all these ridiculous outfits if Joan's not here to comment on them? And I think people realize that too late,
Steve Kmetko
But at least they're realizing it now.
Melissa Rivers
Yeah. My mom used to say, just wait till I die. I'm going to be the second coming. And that's been the truth. But unfortunately, she was not treated that way when she was alive all those years on the red carpet. We were invited to the Vanity Fair Party twice in all those years. And one of the years that we didn't get invited, my mother was in the magazine that year. Always outsiders. I'm still an outsider. I am. I just, you know, I don't get invited to all these things. I never did. My mother never did. I've never been inside the Academy Awards.
Steve Kmetko
We'll be back in a moment.
Melissa Rivers
Award shows are just so, everyone's so careful now. None of the red carpets are fun anymore.
Steve Kmetko
No, they don't. Not the same.
Melissa Rivers
Nobody wants to. and nobody wants to say anything. You're not allowed to say, who are you wearing?
Steve Kmetko
Yeah. Neither have I. People always say, or the what was it like going to the academy anymore?
Melissa Rivers
Or the Golden Globes or the Emmys or the, I, you know what? I do know that they're very boring the few times I have been there in my life. Just like, you know, it's only interesting if you're up for something and most people present and get out. The Golden Globe parties, I don't know if you remember this, were the most fun because it was all in one hotel, so you'd be riding in the elevator with everybody. But I don't think they even do that anymore.
Steve Kmetko
No, I think they've split them up and they're in different places now. The studios have their,
Melissa Rivers
But it was so fun. The gold.
Steve Kmetko
Yeah. There were.
Melissa Rivers
And I still think the Golden Globes are still the most fun.
Steve Kmetko
Robin Williams said that to me once I interviewed him. What was he up? He was nominated for,
Melissa Rivers
Goodwill Hunting.
Steve Kmetko
Goodwill Hunting. And, and I asked him which award show? Because he was nominated for everything that year, which award show was the most looking forward to? And it was the Golden Globes.
Melissa Rivers
Well also, I think the Globes was early enough in the year that people had just come back from vacation. So casts didn't hate each other yet everyone was still like, happy to see each other. But the Globes was always the most fun. It just, it just a different looser vibe. And it still is that, but award shows are just so, everyone's so careful now. None of the red carpets are fun anymore.
Steve Kmetko
No, they don't. Yeah. Not the same
Melissa Rivers
Nobody wants to. and nobody wants to say anything. You're not allowed to say, who are you wearing?
Steve Kmetko
That's right. That's right. Because it's sexist or something.
Melissa Rivers
And it objectify.
Steve Kmetko
Yeah, it objectify. That's it.
Melissa Rivers
But my whole thing with that, and it's always been this event because there are a few actresses that started the whole ask me more thing. If you're getting a dress for free, something tells me there's kind of an unwritten contract that the designer is giving you a $30,000 dress to wear. They want you to say their name like, last time I checked. That's, it's a deal. So you're not upholding your end of the deal as far as I'm concerned. If you bought it yourself, you don't need to say anything if someone's made it for you or lent it to you. Kind of kind of rude if you don't.
Steve Kmetko
Yeah, yeah, it is. But you know, we're looking at it from a different viewpoint.
Melissa Rivers
Well, you mean when it used to be fun that viewpoint that too when, when it was loose and fun and everybody wasn't, when it was loose and fun and every wasn't one wasn't terrified and publicists wouldn't like freak out. Don't Well they always freaked out, but you know, not let people talk to you because they were scared.
Steve Kmetko
Well, I think oh yeah. That was always fun wasn't it? But I think you and your mom are responsible for giving a lot of people work.
Melissa Rivers
I like to think so.
Steve Kmetko
A lot of stylists,
Melissa Rivers
If I was smart,
Steve Kmetko
Weren't stylists before,
Melissa Rivers
But if we had been smart, we would've started an agency and beginning 10% off everybody.
Steve Kmetko
Hindsight is 2020.
Melissa Rivers
And it's so annoying. It's like I say about my ancestors. What you couldn't have, you know, while you were digging for potatoes in the ground in Russia, you couldn't have come up with Velcro. You know what I mean? Because that Velcro was discovered by someone because of the little things that would stick to their socks. And someone one day thought, oh, this is interesting what the Russian peasant couldn't come up with that I got your peasant hands. You could have at least left me some money. You know? Or the heir to the heirs, to the Velcro inventor.
Steve Kmetko
Did you ever feel bad about criticizing someone?
Melissa Rivers
Yes. But what, and I'm taking my mother's humor out of it. We never went after the person. We never said they're a bad person. We ne it was so shallow. You know what I mean? It, and that's why it was great. It was like candy. And my mother was hilarious. And again, what everybody forgets is my mom loved being a star. She loved fashion, she loved these actresses, she loved the events. So making a joke was no big. It was coming from such a place of isn't this the best? And it goes back to, you know, was it from Stripes? Lighten up France, we don't like one of your dresses when you've had 20 outfits for free in the award season. And in her act one time she had a Willie Nelson joke and she heard it upset his daughter. It was out of the act the next day.
There was definitely, and we never went after what we called civilians. You know, that wasn't fair. We did have rules. We did have rules. You're not going to go after civilians. You're not going to go after someone who you know is going through a very hard time. You're not. And as my mother always said about her act as well, you have to be so famous for someone to make a joke about you and have everyone get it. Your career is in a pretty good spot.
Steve Kmetko
This is true.
Melissa Rivers
Because they have to have a working knowledge of you to understand why the joke is funny. Sophia Coppola put it, what great once she's like, the first time she, she's like being interviewed by you and your mom on the, on the red carpet. It's like a sign of like you've arrived and everyone takes themselves so seriously. Most laughed at it. Some took it too seriously.
Steve Kmetko
Why did fashion police go away?
Melissa Rivers
Which version? Okay, so the first one ended when we left E and went to TV Guide. And then we did it at TV Guide. Then we left TV Guide and E tried to do different versions of it. And then they came back to my mom many, many, many, many years later and said, we're going to do them as specials. Do you want to come back? And she said, okay, let's see how it goes. And then they're like, well we want to turn it into a series. And that's when she said, I'll only come back if Melissa produces it again. Because I was producing the first one. Because She trusts me and she knows I'll protect her. And I never say this out loud, but I'm good at my job. And then we went to a weekly and then my mother passed and we went through a horrible experience upheaval where the show just, we, I honestly believe we went back too soon. Everybody was still in so much pain Because we were such a family and they were going to start trying out different hosts. And they came and I knew in my gut, the only person that the fans would accept would be me. And I fought and they weren't going to give it to me. And I called them, I said, I'm done. And 24 hours later I had the show and we went on for another two years. And then we became too expensive. As we always say, you can't spell cheap without an E.
Steve Kmetko
I remember that saying.
Melissa Rivers
Yes. My mother used to say that, remember, you can't spell cheap without an E. And it got too expensive between me and Juliana and other people. It, we priced ourselves out. Or as somebody that could say, you can't ask someone to keep working who needs oxygen while you're standing on the tube.
Steve Kmetko
Yeah.
Melissa Rivers
And I think they made a mistake, but you couldn't do it now because it's not pc.
Steve Kmetko
I reminded you yesterday when we were on the phone that you and your mother were the first two people to call me when, when you found out that I'd lost my job or that E wasn't.
Melissa Rivers
You were Aris Unceremoniously Escorted to the out of the building.
Steve Kmetko
Yes. Right. On the day of the Emmys.
Melissa Rivers
Had you already been on air that day?
Steve Kmetko
No. Nope. Got a call at home,
Melissa Rivers
Which by the way, that management was the reason why my mother and I left that same group of executives who took my mother and I to lunch at the Bel Air Hotel. And our contract was coming up and the head of the network at that time what was her last name? Mindy Herman, I'm not scared to say it. Looked at us across the table and said, we're not sure we're going to continue doing red carpets,
Steve Kmetko
Then why does E exist?
Melissa Rivers
Yeah. But it is like, it's a lost leader even though it's a tentpole and we don't know if we're going to continue doing it. Which is a great thing to say to two nervous twitchy Jews who then get on the phone and go, oh my god. You know, and the hey
Steve Kmetko
A gentile connect that way too.
Melissa Rivers
Exactly. We make, we make the deal with TV guide, we make the announcement and the first phone call we get is from the Roberts family who owned Comcast and said, what the hell is going on? Mindy never reported in what was happening. Yet we all survive enough.
Steve Kmetko
That same person said to me across her desk, I always knew you were a man of integrity. And got up and came around and hugged me. And on my way home from work that day, I got a call from my agent who said, they're still firing you.
Melissa Rivers
I'm glad you think I have integrity. You don't have a job, but I appreciate who you are as a person. Oh, well let me cash that check. But then she did not leave e in favor in the good graces of the powers that be.
Steve Kmetko
I know. I stored those new articles from the LA Times on my phone. I read them whenever I'm down.
Melissa Rivers
Isn't that funny? We all have those things. We all have those things where you're like, remember when you said that? You know, but we, but Hollywood is made up and the entertainment marriage is made up people with so many hurts.
Steve Kmetko
You've spent your entire life here in Los Angeles, haven't you just about. I always thought you were more East Coast.
Melissa Rivers
I think it's an East coast sensibility that I was raised with. And I went to school for four years back east, but my parents were here since I was three and that's why they shipped my cross country for college. Like, you need to get out. And I did that with my son for the first two years. I'm like, you have to get out of LA. This is not reality. This, this town is, has nothing to do with the real world.
Steve Kmetko
Isn't that funny? And people think it's the most wonderful place to come. No, and it is a wonderful place to live. It's, and you can do very nicely here, but I remember going back to Chicago when I moved back to Chicago. You, you tend to think when you live here, you tend to think the entire world orbits around Los Angeles and New York. There are people in Chicago who couldn't care less about LA or New York.
Melissa Rivers
And by the way, Chicago, I love Chicago. Except in the winter.
Steve Kmetko
Except in the winter.
Melissa Rivers
Yeah. But I love Chicago. I think it's the second city. That's why the second city was called Second City. Right. But I love Chicago. But what was so interesting when Cooper first left for school and I was moving him in and I was like, we were, it was a small school and we were both in total culture shock. Because he is moving into Ohio and he's like, oh my God, there are no cute girls. And I'm like, honey, it's because you grew up in la Give it till second semester. And then by second semester he is like, oh yeah, there, you know, lots of cute girls. But his, you grow up in la you're, it's so warped as my mother would say, it's the 1e-06% of the girls that were pretty in their home, the number one pretty in their hometown. And that's where LA is just, and the men too. It's like, it's just, it's just not reality. It's not reality. And that's why I think it was so good that my son got out of here. Like my parents literally, I remember sobbing hysterically on the plane flying to Philadelphia. I didn't want to go. And it's the best thing they ever made me do.
Steve Kmetko
My brother used to do the same thing. Steve needs to get, he was the oldest. I was the youngest. He needs to go away to school get him out of the house.
Melissa Rivers
But yeah, leaving LA was the best thing I did for four years. And I was very fortunate that I could go back and forth to New York. Because My mother moved back to New York after my father passed away, which apparently was some sort of a deal that my parents had some weird pinky swear blood oath that when the other one died, the other one could move back to New York. Because they both hated living in la. Really hated it. Never all those years they were never, they loved our house. They loved our friends. Neither of them were LA people. My mom used to joke, the only time my dad didn't wear a tie was when he was asleep.
Steve Kmetko
Is there anything your mother left you that you treasure most of all apart from your personality and your sense of humor?
Melissa Rivers
Well, that's what I was going to go with. Yeah. I have a, my mother was a very good artist and one year we were sitting on the beach on vacation and she did this little sketch of me and Cooper and I have those two little scrap and they were like on scraps of paper because she would just doodle and I have those framed in the house. Those I know. It's like, what would you grab if your house was on fire? I would grab that. There's a couple other things that I would grab. But that to me, and I see it every day because it was such a real moment. She was sitting on the beach and, you know, probably in the shade under 20 layers of clothing. So nothing could, no could touch her and Cooper. And he was little and it's just sort of from the side and then the two of us just kind of just sitting there on the back and it's, she was just doodling.
Steve Kmetko
She was a great lady.
Melissa Rivers
Yes, she was. And it's interesting because Cooper still profoundly feels the loss in his life. At one point after my mom died, he looked at me and said he was crying, nothing will ever be good again. And this is another good one for grief. And I said to him, things will be good again. They'll just be different. And then I went in my room and sobbed hysterically that my son felt that way. But I truly believe that too. When he said Nothing will ever be good again. It'll be good again. It'll just be different.
Steve Kmetko
There was that wonderful movie about your mother. I don't know if it was, I can't remember now if it was a documentary or what.
Melissa Rivers
It was the documentary
Steve Kmetko
Where it shows her with Cooper on, is it Thanksgiving? Where they're taking food to people who are is sick.
Melissa Rivers
Yeah. Who are home?
Steve Kmetko
And she was teaching him.
Melissa Rivers
Yes. And Cooper and I still do that every year.
Steve Kmetko
It was so nice. Yeah.
Melissa Rivers:
We do that every year. We get up on Thanksgiving morning and volunteer every single year still. We used to do it for God's Love We Deliver, which was the big charity in New York that she was on the board of. And we do it with Cooper and I do it with Project Angel Food here. And we go into the kitchens and pack boxes into bags so that they can be taken, you know, by the drivers. Literally. I mean we still, every Thanksgiving morning we get up and do that.
Steve Kmetko
This has been so much fun, Melissa.
Melissa Rivers
So much fun. But you haven't given me any like, good inside gossip. It's so boring. You were always so good at keeping it to yourself. Like that I don't know. That went on at eight.
Steve Kmetko
Oh oh oh. We have a camera and microphone. I can't do that.
Melissa Rivers
Oh God. You were always so good about being like, Hmm. Not telling. And it's just like, it's so aggravating. It's the one thing I never liked about you Steve. You were too discreet.
Steve Kmetko
My father was a Baptist minister. He kept things to himself.
Melissa Rivers
Can you hear my eyes rolling?
Steve Kmetko
Yes, I can.
Melissa Rivers
It is so good to see you.
Steve Kmetko
Good to see you too. I really enjoyed this.
Melissa Rivers
Me too.
Steve Kmetko
Still here. Hollywood is a production of the Still Here Network. All things technical run by Justin Zangerle. Theme music by Brian Sanyshyn and executive producer is Jim Lichtenstein.