Showtime's Joan Rivers series starring Kathryn Hahn not moving forward over life rights issues

Variety

When Variety reported last month on the limited series The Comeback Girl, starring Hahn as Rivers and executive produced and directed by Greg Berlanti and written by Cosmo Carlson, the project received negative attention from Sarah Silverman and others for casting a non-Jew as the iconic comedian. But that is not why The Comeback Girl isn't moving forward. "Rivers’ life rights, which are held by her daughter, Melissa Rivers, hadn’t been secured by producers," explains Variety's Kate Aurthur. "The project could have proceeded as an unauthorized venture, but The Comeback Girl wouldn’t have been able to use any of Rivers’ jokes or catchphrases, and, of course, risked running afoul of Melissa Rivers and the estate." The Comeback Girl would've focused on a precarious time in Rivers’ life in 1987 when Fox canceled her new late-night show The Late Show after one season in May 1987 and her husband, Edgar Rosenberg, committed suicide three months later. When asked if Melissa Rivers had any plans for biographical stories about her mother, who died in 2014 at age 81, her spokesperson said there’s nothing to be announced yet.