Joan Rivers: FOX Can 'Go F**k Themselves' Over Sarah Palin Controversy 
 
 Email This Joan Rivers says FOX News can "go f**k themselves" after canceling her Thursday appearance on the network's morning show for what she claims is retaliation for some biting comments she made about FOX contributor Sarah Palin. 
 
 
 
 Why so riled up, Joan? It all started when the loud-mouthed legend told TMZ over the weekend that critics were "right" to blame Sarah Palin for the tragedy in Tucson, Ariz. Reports surfaced on Wednesday that FOX heard the diss and nixed Joan and daughter Melissa's visit on 'FOX & Friends.' 
 
 
 
 "We get a call this morning," Melissa told me on the set of my HDNet show. "You're canceled on FOX because of what you said about Sarah Palin." 
 
 The top-rated news network denies that Joan's comments had anything to do with the cancellation, rather, the morning was simply overbooked.But Joan tells me exclusively that she's willing to take a lie detector test to prove FOX canned her over her Palin comments, which also included calling the ex-governor "stupid and a threat" and blasting her use of the term "blood libel" in a video statement on Jan. 12.The situation begs the question: Did Sarah herself call this one in to her FOX bosses in order to punish Joan? The comic certainly hopes the presidential contender has better things to do than listen to her. "If Sarah is listening to what we say, we're in trouble," Joan says.Asked whether she'll accept an invitation to come back to 'FOX & Friends,' Joan went hardcore, saying they can "go f**k themselves."Joan has another reason for being upset, namely that this brouhaha has led her to regret voting for Sarah's daughter Bristol on 'Dancing With the Stars.'"I actually voted for her terrible daughter over David Hasselhoff," she says. "I should've voted for David; they both sucked as dancers."Watch my interview with Joan and Melissa on Saturday night at 7PM on 'Naughty But Nice With Rob,' only on HDNet. ||||| the greatest women we know Joan Rivers Tells Us How Talking About Sarah Palin Got Her Kicked Off Fox 
 
 On a press tour to promote her new reality show on WE tv, Joan Rivers was stopped on the red carpet and asked for some standard celebrity soundbites on what she thought of Sarah Palin's chances for 2012. Rivers responded as she is wont to do, with humor — and teeth. "I think Sarah Palin is an amazing woman, I think she represents everything a strong woman should be and [beat] she should go someplace like to another planet and show them and get out of our face." In the follow-up question about whether Palin was to blame for the shooting in Tucson (Joanie issued an unequivocal yes), she dismissed the mother of all Mama Grizzlies as "stupid and a threat." Less than a minute, and the interview was over. Soon after, the video was uploaded on TMZ. When she woke up this morning, Rivers says she found out that those comments had gotten her and her daughter banned from an appearance of Fox & Friends. We asked Joan to tell what went down and whether she could come up with a Sarah Palin joke that was actually worthy of her getting kicked off the air. From the back of a limo on her way to another interview, she graciously obliged. 
 
 How did you hear about Fox’s decision? 
 
 We’re here to promote our new reality show and we’re talking to everybody. And somewhere along the line, I must’ve said something about Sarah Palin, she should be on another planet, she’s stupid, and this morning it came down. We were ousted from Fox & Friends, I guess Fox & Former Friends. Our PR person was told specifically, because she asked why, it was because of the Sarah Palin remark, which they now are denying. This girl! We’ll take lie detector tests. It’s absolutely exactly what they said. Welcome to the eighties! 
 
 How so? 
 
 In the eighties things were just very tight and censored and let’s go back to McCarthyism, let’s go even further back. I couldn’t care anything about Sarah Palin. I even voted for her stupid left-footed daughter over David Hasselhoff. So you understand how neutral I am. 
 
 As I like to say, the new title could be Fox & Friends of Sarah Palin. Put it on the Christmas card. 
 
 What you said really didn’t seem that offensive. 
 
 You know what the saddest thing about this is? It wasn’t even a good joke. 
 
 Do you have a better Sarah Palin joke? 
 
 Oh, I have a million jokes, but I don’t want to get into a crosshairs. I’m Jewish, I don’t want to get into starhairs. No, no, no, those little fat fingers reach out. You want to know something, I think she’s jealous of our new reality show. Because on her reality show they kill a moose, on our reality show, you see Melissa naked. 
 
 If I’m banned from Fox News for saying Sarah Palin is stupid and a threat, wait till they hear my shocking opinion that Aretha Franklin is a bit overweight. I guess BET will ban me. 
 
 Are you going to try to refrain from making Palin jokes for the rest of the press tour? 
 
 Like I said, the tragedy of all this was that it wasn’t a joke, it was a just a statement. I’m terribly blue now. To match my legs. Can you imagine you don’t even know what you said and they call you over and say that’s it, you’re off the show? And they specifically tell you why. I’m scared now to say maybe last night’s Saturday Night Live wasn’t that funny — there goes NBC. My career is going to be blown out of the water because of this reality show. ||||| Joan Rivers calls out Fox News for canceling her appearance on morning show 'Fox & Friends' 
 
 Christensen/AP Melissa (l.) and Joan Rivers are feeling dissed by Fox News. 
 
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 New York's doyenne of comedy accused the cable network of doing "damage control" after she went public with the story that she and daughter Melissa had been unceremoniously booted from Thursday's "Fox & Friends" guest lineup because of acid remarks she'd made about Fox News contributor Sarah Palin. 
 
 
 
 "Joan says they're a bunch of dirty liars and they're backpedaling," Rivers publicist Judy Katz told us Wednesday. Her comment was the latest in a war of words that erupted after her client was cut from the show. Prompted by media coverage, "Fox & Friends" executive producer Lauren Petterson stated that due to "the volume of news topics," a booker had "mistakenly canceled Joan's appearance instead of rescheduling her for Friday's show." She added that "Fox & Friends" was "in the process of booking" Rivers on an upcoming show. 
 
 
 
 But Katz said Petterson called to rebook only after Rivers had raised the media ruckus. According to Katz, Petterson admitted to Rivers, "We should have never canceled" and said the booker was "never supposed to tell" Rivers she was cut because of the Palin comments. 
 
 
 
 Rivers made the remarks about the Mama Grizzly at the Critics' Choice Movie Awards on Friday in L.A. She bluntly replied "yes" when a reporter asked if Palin was to blame for the Jared Lee Loughner shootings in Tucson, Ariz. She also called Palin "stupid and a threat." A video of Rivers' rant ended up on TMZ.com, and a media firestorm was born. 
 
 
 
 Rivers, 77, has been making the talk-show rounds to promote her WEtv reality show, "Joan and Melissa: Joan Knows Best?," which premieres Tuesday at 9 p.m. 
 
 
 
 The duo were supposed to be on "Fox & Friends" this morning, but yesterday, Rivers told us, the booker informed the comic she was "canceled and banned" from the show and the network. (When we asked if the word "banned" had actually been used, Rivers replied "yes.") 
 
 
 
 Katz added that when Petterson called after the media maelstrom, she wanted to rebook Rivers and her daughter on Friday's show but was told by Katz that Melissa was not available that day. 
 
 
 
 A Fox News spokeswoman responded to our story by saying it was "no problem" if "Joan doesn't want to come on our program." She added, "We have plenty of people begging for a spot on cable's top-rated morning show." 
 
 
 
 But even before the Fox flack gave us that response, Katz left us with little doubt that Joan and Melissa would return to "Fox & Friends" if asked. 
 
 
 
 "Joan and Melissa would do it again. They're promoting their show," Katz said. "It's a PR blitz!" 
 
 
 
 A rep for Palin didn't get back to us by deadline. Rivers says she doubts Alaska's former governor is even aware of her catty comments because the remarks had "too many syllables in each word." 
 
 
 
 Mama Grizzly, take note. New York Alley Cats have sharp claws, too. 
 
 Contact Gatecrasher: 
 
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 Molly Fischer: mfischer@nydailynews.com ||||| Joan Rivers -- Sarah Palin Is 'Stupid and a Threat' 
 
 deserves criticism -- and BLAME -- for the horrifying shooting in Tucson, AZ ... this according to 
 
 Joan was at the Critic's Choice Awards party in Hollywood this weekend when things turned political -- and Joan exclaimed ... "This woman is just stupid and a threat."So we gotta ask...
– Did a Sarah Palin insult get Joan Rivers kicked off Fox News? Depends who you ask. It all started when Rivers told TMZ that Palin is “stupid and a threat,” and that those who blame her for the Tucson shootings are “right.” Rivers and her daughter, who were originally supposed to appear on Fox & Friends today, then got a call telling them, “You're canceled on Fox because of what you said about Sarah Palin,” Melissa Rivers tells PopEater. (Joan adds that they were also told they were "banned.") And how does Joan feel about that? Fox execs can “go f*** themselves.” Fox quickly denied the report, telling E! in a statement that the show was simply overbooked and the booker “mistakenly canceled Joan’s appearance.” Rivers' rep adds that another Fox rep did call Joan to book her for tomorrow (Joan can’t make it—surprise, surprise—but her rep claims she’ll appear at a later date) and said the booker “should have never said” that the Palin comments got Rivers axed. In a later report, however, Rivers’ rep tells the New York Daily News that the comedian believes Fox is “a bunch of dirty liars and they’re backpedaling” and simply doing “damage control.” Click for more of Rivers’ side of the story.