Melissa Rivers’ Christmas (?) Wish

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As Melissa Rivers, daughter of comedienne extraordinaire Joan Rivers who passed away at the age of 81 in September because of complications during surgery, left Craig’s restaurant in West Hollywood, a reporter from the English tabloid the Daily Mail asked her what her Christmas Wish was.

Perhaps an odd question for daughter of a Jewish icon. Or perhaps not, given the fact that Irving Berlin wrote “White Christmas” and Neil Diamond has released more than one Yuletide smash. Well, if it was last week, the reporter could have asked Rivers what her Chanukah wish would be, but I’ve never heard anyone use the expression “Chanukah wish”–it might lead someone to confuse it with a birthday and blow out the candles.

Rivers in the clip didn’t seem so enthusiastic about talking to the reporter, but she was cordial, although looking the other way and moving back. She said, “I want my son to start laughing again.”

Apparently not taking the hint that that was all Rivers wanted to say, the reporter asked her the rather crass question what she thought of her mother’s replacement on Fashion Police. Rivers looked away, then up and wished everyone a “Merry Christmas and a Happy new year, and added, “I think everything is going to be good in the New Year.'”

Melissa Rivers, whose name is actually Melissa Warburg Rosenberg, but took her mother’s stage name Rivers, has a son, age 13, named Cooper Endicott. Cooper was very close to his grandmother and used to call her “Nana New Face, ” according to People. Joan Rivers told grandparents.com that her grandson has “a great sense of humor. I don’t know if it is mine, but that is how we first connected.”