Joan Rivers is still making people laugh.
The late comedy icon was honored at her longtime publicist Scott Currie’s 60th birthday bash at the River Club in NYC, we hear.
The menu included one of Rivers’ funny quotes as an homage to the birthday boy: “I’m so old, my Bible is autographed,” it read.
Joan’s daughter, Melissa, 56, spoke at the bash and described Currie as “the son my mother never had.”
She also recalled her famous mother’s propensity for snatching stuff from restaurants and hotels. “An unattended housekeeping cart was her holy grail,” she quipped.
In the same spirit, Melissa and Currie even jokingly encouraged the 90 guests to “take anything that’s not nailed down!”
Melissa attended the party with her fiancé, Steve Mitchel.
Currie hired famed event designer Preston Bailey to transform the private club into the legendary El Morocco.
Bailey replicated the famed 20th century hot spot, complete with the famous blue and white zebra stripes on the carpet, chairs and banquettes. The place was also decorated with facsimiles of the club’s giant white palm trees and cactuses.
Bailey even had reproductions of the club’s ashtrays, and matchbooks, at every table. The party also had everything one would expect from a top PR guru: A fancy crowd and a bit of gossip.
Martha Stewart, Dorinda Medley, Greg Calejo, Baruch Shemtov, Erik Bottcher, Elie Tahari, Candace Bushnell, Peggy Siegel, Anne Dexter-Jones, Stephen Baldwin, Thom Felicia, Dennis Basso, Nikki Haskell and Frank and Chris DiLella were among the guests at the formal gathering.
Downtown cabaret icon Joey Arias performed two songs by Billie Holiday in a Thierry Mugler gown with a heart shape cut out exposing Arias’ derriere.
R.O.M.E. magazine founder, George Wayne, apparently didn’t get the black tie memo. He pranced around in little white “pum pum shorts,” and yelled, “Butt cheeks!” while trying to snap a shot of Arias leaving the stage.
Stewart, on the other hand, was dripping in diamonds amidst the predominantly gay crowd.
“Van Cleef for the gays,” the Netflix star explained to a male guest of her Van Cleef & Arpels earrings.
Stewart’s longtime publicist pal Susan Magrino reminisced with Haskell about “owning New York nightlife in the ’80s.”
Meanwhile, Haskell, who is still partying at 82, arrived fresh from LA — where she’d been dancing with strippers at a birthday party for Candy Spelling at Josh Flagg’s house, she told us.
Dexter-Jones — mother to “Succession” star Annabelle Dexer-Jones, as well as Mark, Samantha, and Charlotte Ronson — gushed about her lesser-known son, Alexander, who’s in Paris recording music.
The tunes have his very cool mom’s stamp of approval: “It’s brilliant!” she said.
She was also giddy about husband Mick Jones’ upcoming Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony next month.
Jones is the guitarist for “I Want to Know What Love Is” rockers Foreigner.
Also at the bash, the Rockettes performed, and there was a nautical-themed cake brought out to the Village People’s “In the Navy,” plus indoor fireworks.
George Hamilton was overheard quipping, “I practically lived at the original El Morocco, but this is much more fun!”
Guests went home from the party that would’ve made Joan Rivers proud with the clubby ashtrays.
