A federal investigation revealed that the doctors who operated on Joan Rivers made several egregious mistakes during the surgery that ultimately ended her life.

A partner at Gair, Gair, Conason, Steigman, Mackauf, Bloom and Rubinowitz confirmed this morning that Joan Rivers's daughter Melissa hired the firm to investigate Joan's death. Page Six reports that Melissa plans to file a multimillion-dollar wrongful death lawsuit.

While the official word is that comedy legend Joan Rivers died of complications from throat surgery—namely, oxygen deprivation that led to irreparable brain damage—we'll never know exactly how she died, because her daughter Melissa Rivers asked doctors not to perform an autopsy.

In a macabre attempt to push his platform, Texas Governor Rick Perry has suggested that Joan Rivers might still be alive had the clinic where her botched endoscopy was performed been held to the same stringent standards required under his controversial abortion law.

Joan Rivers' doctor took a selfie with the unconscious comedian in the operating room before her endoscopy, according to a new report from CNN. The ear, nose and throat specialist, who hasn't been publicly identified, was also allowed to perform a biopsy on her vocal cords, a procedure that Rivers hadn't previously approved and which may have led to her cardiac arrest.

What in the "Dear Mr. Jesus"/"Christmas Shoes" hell is this tripe? I can hear Joan Rivers going, "Ugh!" over and over in her grave in response to this treacly tribute from Kristin Chenoweth on today's episode of The View. Chenoweth sings her own "Borrowed Angels" ("They can't stay forever / 'Cause they're heaven sent / And sometimes heaven needs them back again") to rhapsodize a woman who made being a devil her life's work. At least Howard Stern's "dry pussy " bit was tonally consistent with Rivers' output, if not plausible. Does anyone really think that heaven needed back Joan Rivers?

How did an apparently healthy Joan Rivers die suddenly—albeit at the age of 81—after what was supposedly a routine outpatient procedure? The New York Times hopes someone will tell it:

Joan Rivers may have died last week but her propensity for getting blacklisted is apparently alive and well.

Howard Stern delivered the eulogy at Joan Rivers' funeral this weekend, and—as befitting the legendarily acerbic comic—he held nothing back.

Joan Rivers' funeral was held Sunday morning at Temple Emanu-El on the Upper East side of New York City, and the tribute was one fit for a legend. Howard Stern delivered the eulogy and it was attended by everyone from Hugh Jackman to Diane Sawyer. Rivers died last week at 81.

Trailblazer Joan Rivers is dead, and over the next few days, you should expect to see various takes on what her life and career meant. These takes will probably fall on one of two sides: "Joan Rivers was fearless!" vs. "Joan Rivers was bigoted!" Supporting evidence abounds for both, which is to say that the truth is more complicated than what an outsider's summation of a person's life work can provide.

Legendary comedian Joan Rivers died this afternoon, her daughter Melissa announced. She was 81.

Comedian Joan Rivers was put into a medically induced coma on Thursday night after complications from throat surgery, and now her daughter, Melissa Rivers, reports that the comic legend is "resting comfortably" and asks that "everyone keep her in your thoughts and prayers."

Joan Rivers was on last night's Late Show with David Letterman, because The Great Joan Rivers Moment-Having of 2014 is not yet over. Letterman challenged her with questions that in other circumstances she might deem "negative," but she answered his with humor and whatever the Rivers equivalent of grace is, as she already has a punching bag in the form of CNN's Fredericka Whitfield, whom she now infamously jilted during a recent interview.

The Wrap reports that Joan Rivers "insisted her quick exit was not a PR stunt," regarding her storming off during a satellite CNN interview this weekend. But of course it was—she may not have caused a scene for the sole purpose of selling more copies of her 12th book, Diary of a Mad Diva, she may have been authentically pissed in the moment (or as authentically anything as anyone can be with a camera pointed at her) but...did you know that Rivers had a book out before the clip of her admonishing Fredericka Whitfield went viral?

During an interview with CNN's Fredericka Whitfield, comedian Joan Rivers, who is promoting her new book, Diary of A Mad Diva, stormed out, reacting to Whitfield's questions with "All you've done is negative!"

In the weirdest look for hip-hop since...oh, Sunday, when Macklemore won all of those Grammys, rapper Wiz Khalifa appeared on E!'s catty Fashion Police. If you haven't seen it, the show is kind of like the judging deliberations on reality competitions stretched out for an entire hour. Every week the winner is Joan Rivers because everyone on the panel (including babbleheads Kelly Osbourne and Giuliana Rancic) bellows at her jokes and otherwise kisses her ass.

Last night, Showtime aired the documentary Why We Laugh: Funny Women, a follow-up to its 2009 doc Why We Laugh: Black Comedians on Black Comedy. Dozens of female comedians were interviewed for it, including titans like Joan Rivers, Whoopi Goldberg, Lily Tomlin, Aisha Tyler and Kathy Griffin, who riffed on what it's like to be a woman in what is still considered (by many of them even) to be a "masculine" job in a male-dominated field.

Joan Rivers went on Letterman this week and made fun of Adele for being fat.