Veteran journalist and author Leslie Bennetts will appear at the Gold Coast Arts Center on Sunday, Oct. 29 from 4 to 6 p.m. to discuss her new book, “Last Girl Before Freeway: The Life, Loves, Losses, and Liberation of Joan Rivers.”
Considered the definitive book about the late Rivers’ tumultuous, yet ultimately victorious life, the biography tells the story of one of the greatest comedians ever — a performer whose sixty-year career was born out of a desire to make people laugh so she could feel loved.
In her book, Bennetts, a longtime Vanity Fair writer and former New York Times reporter who wrote the national bestseller “The Feminine Mistake,” delves into intimate aspects of Rivers’ life, including how she believed from a young age that a woman needed a man to depend on, but it was her own husband who nearly wrecked her career, leaving her broke and ruined in her mid-50s.
Although her husband’s suicide was a personal tragedy, it liberated Rivers, paving the way for her greatest success. She rebuilt her career in her 60s and 70s, achieving vast wealth, international renown, and enormous influence at an age when women are routinely dismissed as irrelevant.
“Last Girl Before Freeway” also tells of Rivers’ lovers, with names like Johnny Carson, JFK and Robert Mitchum appearing in the book, while revealing a secret enemy whose diabolical, behind-the-scenes machinations were the real source of the three-year feud between Rivers and Carson.
Fascinating and juicy, “Last Girl Before Freeway” offers the first intimate portrait of the woman who Sarah Silverman said “changed everything for women in comedy.” An icon and a role model to millions, Rivers was also a fearless pioneer, and one of the most inspiring, infuriating, and important women in the entertainment history.
The Gold Coast Arts Center is located at 113 Middle Neck Road in Great Neck.
Admission is $25 and includes a copy of the book, along with the author reading, book signing and a dessert reception.
For tickets, call 516-829-2570 or go to www.goldcoastarts.org.
