It could be Joan Rivers' last big show, the funeral of her comic dreams, with jostling paparazzi and publicists, a Valentino gown and a Harry Winston toe tag and Meryl Streep wailing in five different accents.
Or it could be private, solemn and low-key — everything Rivers was not.
We don't know yet, 24 hours after Rivers died at a New York hospital where she was rushed after she went into cardiac arrest on Aug. 28 during a routine procedure on her vocal cords in an endoscopy clinic. She was 81.
Her funeral will be Sunday at Temple Emanu-El on New York's Upper East Side. "It is a terribly sad day for all of us. We mourn with her family, friends and all those millions to whom she brought laughter and joy," said Joshua Davidson, senior rabbi for the congregation, in a statement.
Other than that, he wasn't saying what the funeral plans entailed, and neither was Rivers' daughter, Melissa Rivers, nor her representatives.
While many pundits predicted it would be closed to the public, others delighted in digging up Rivers' own joking funeral plans, from her 2012 book, I Hate Everyone … Starting With Me, in which she declared she wanted it to be "a huge show biz affair with lights, cameras, action. ... I want it to be Hollywood all the way."
In other developments:
A spokeswoman for the city medical examiner, Julie Bolcer, said today that an initial autopsy did not establish a clear cause of death and that more tests, such as toxicology, still have to be completed, the Associated Press reported.
Flowers, cards and other tributes to Rivers continued to pile up at the sidewalk memorial at the doorstep of her apartment building in New York, and also around her star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood.
The list of boldfaced names paying tribute in statements and tweets grew almost as numerous as the thousands of index cards of jokes she carefully filed in cabinets in her home. And it wasn't just A-list entertainers and comedians: Even royals spoke out today.
Prince Charles, a pal of Rivers' since 2003 (she was one of just four Americans invited to his 2005 wedding to Camilla Parker Bowles), said he and Camilla were "deeply saddened," adding that Rivers "will be hugely missed and utterly irreplaceable."
Rivers' longtime network, E!, announced it would air an hour-long news special tonight, Joan Rivers: Celebrating an Icon (9 pm ET), including highlights from her career, a look back at her early days, and at the outpouring of support from "Joan's Rangers," her legion of fans.
Meanwhile, an investigation of the clinic where Rivers was taken ill, the Yorkville Endoscopy clinic, was launched by state health officials, who aren't commenting on what they're looking at.
TMZ and other media reported the clinic had stepped up security and sent employees home early after being bombarded with death threats since last week.
