Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Joan Rivers ‘Occupies’ Costco

In yet another Occupy iteration, this week Joan Rivers staged a protest at a Burbank Costco, complete with a megaphone and an entourage of assistants.

“Costco, who sells condoms by the pallet,” she shouted, “who sells Paula Deen books and — which is not good for their customers’ health — they decided to ban my book. This is a First Amendment violation.”

Apparently the wholesale giant found swear words on the back cover of her latest book, “I Hate Everyone…Starting With Me,” too offensive to peddle. So Rivers stormed the store, chained herself to a shopping cart and shouted about the injustice.

“This is a store that sells 300 rolls of toilet paper at the same time, and I say any customer that buys 300 rolls of toilet paper deserves a funny book to sit on the toilet and read,” she said.

In true Rivers style, she wore huge dark sunglasses and chunky jewelry. She sold copies of the book and signed autographs for fans. And in a long interview with KTLA news, the 79-year-old comedienne said, “People should have the right to have the literature they want. This is the beginning of Nazi Germany.”

She was eventually escorted from the building by police.

Later that day she tweeted, but not about her protest — weighing in on the QVC network and stretch bangle bracelets instead.

Publicity stunt aside, “I Hate Everyone” is doing quite well. It’s Rivers’ 11th book and has spent six weeks on The New York Times best seller list.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.