Friday, June 18, 2004 | 8:25 a.m.
Joan Rivers must be from the planet Ork. In the fictional world of the late-'70s and early-'80s TV series "Mork & Mindy," people were born old and grew younger.
Today the comedian and plastic surgery devotee is beginning to look more like Britney Spears than a 71-year-old legend in the entertainment world.
You can check out the physical transformation when Rivers performs her stand-up show at the Stardust from Wednesday through June 26.
It will be the youthful-ish celebrity's first Las Vegas engagement in about 10 years.
"I find it extraordinarily exciting to be going back," Rivers said during a recent telephone interview from a suite in the Chase Park Plaza in St. Louis, where she was performing.
In the '80s and early '90s Rivers performed frequently in Las Vegas. But she says she got busy with so many different careers that she wasn't able to fit Vegas into her schedule.
Rivers is excited about a lot of things these days.
"I've just been asked to do another tour in Great Britain," she said in that voice familiar to millions of fans who have heard the sharp-tongued comic on radio and television for more than 40 years.
A Broadway play Rivers has written is on the horizon. It will be her fourth.
"It's about an incident that happened backstage at the Oscars two years ago," she said. "Afterwards I sat down and started writing and it turned out to be a play." It doesn't have a title yet.
"We're just calling it TThe Joan Rivers Project,'" she said.
Rivers has enough projects to keep her busy for several lifetimes.
In addition to her comedy concerts and her tours of England and her Broadway productions, the Brooklyn, N.Y., native is the author of several books and screenplays. She is also an actress and motion-picture director, an Emmy Award-winning television talk-show host, a former radio talk-show host and a highly successful businesswoman.
Rivers has a line of jewelry that has been marketed on QVC since 1990, recording more than $160 million in sales. The company is based in England.
She is host of E! Entertainment Television's "Fashion Police" and, along with daughter Melissa, hosts E!'s live, pre-show commentary for the Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards and Emmy Awards telecasts.
Rivers is a classic overachiever.
With all of her millions she could sit back and enjoy her new, younger self and never have to work again. But she's restless, which is why she is looking forward to an upcoming movie project and a talk show she will host in England ("Comedy Talk").
But she says she enjoys the challenge of working on so many projects.
"Every day is different," Rivers said. "I love it. How wonderful to keep trying different things - I want to design jewelry? Oh, wow, how great! I want to write a play? How great!
"But it's all part of the same thing - doing what I love, which is everything." Her hectic life suits her personality, which always seems to be in overdrive.
Rivers says the accomplishment she is most proud of "is always the next one." Rivers, a 1954 graduate of Barnard College in New York City, began her stand-up comedy career in the late '50s, performing in small clubs and lounges in and around New York. Before turning to a life of comedy she worked as fashion coordinator for Bond Clothing Stores and as a publicist for Lord & Taylor.
In the early '60s she joined Chicago's Second City comedy troupe, continued performing stand-up dates and was a popular guest on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson. In 1983 she became Carson's permanent guest host, but riled Carson when, in 1986, she became host of her own talk show on Fox.
Besides her money-making projects, Rivers is a national spokeswoman for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and an advocate for Suicide Prevention -- her husband, Edgar Rosenberg, committed suicide in 1987.
Rivers also has been actively involved in the war against AIDS since 1982, when she hosted and headlined the first AIDS benefit at the Backlot Theatre in Los Angeles.
In 1985 she participated in the first "Comic Relief," a fund-raiser for the homeless co-produced and co-hosted by Mike Nichols and Elaine May.
Although she has one of the most diverse careers of any celebrity, she says "It all goes back to writing -- writing and performing.
"I'm always working on new jokes. Really, bottom line, it's all about the act, I guess."
Rivers' agile mind covers many topics in a brief span of time.
On Howard Stern, on whose show she has appeared numerous times (the next scheduled appearance is Monday):
"I adore him. He is so honorable and honest, a wonderful man."
On censors hounding Stern:
"There seems to be two sets of rules, one for Howard and one for others. It is so hypocritical."
On the latest developments in comedy:
"We're talking about subjects we couldn't touch on in the beginning," she said. "I love it. I talk about subjects I would never have thought to talk about.
"I don't think it has gone too far, as long as they are laughing. If you can make something funny and palatable, it's not too far."
On the need for comedy:
"We live in such miserable and frightening times," she said. "I live in New York, and we're just waiting for the other shoe to fall.
"People are laughing more because of that. They're going out more. People are seizing the moment to have a good time."
On headliner Frank Marino, the Joan Rivers impersonator at the Riviera:
"I sort of knew him years ago. Good luck to him, but nobody ever does me. I'm a lot harder to do than people realize."
On the thousands of miles she travels each year:
"I get tired of traveling," she said. "But the performing? Never."
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