Joan Rivers Gives Jay Leno the Finger

When comedian Joan Rivers dropped a $100 bill on Jimmy Fallon’s desk Monday night — along with many other celebrities — it was 49 years to the day since she first appeared on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show in 1965. It also marked the end of her nearly 30-year long ban from the show after she left as Carson’s guest host in 1986 to host her own short-lived late night program on Fox.

The ban started under Carson, but it continued through Jay Leno’s entire stint as Tonight Show host, a fact that the 80-year-old Rivers has not forgotten. During an impromptu interview with Inside Edition after her flight back to Los Angeles from New York this week, Rivers let her feeling about Leno be known:

“The fucking curse is gone,” Rivers said. “To Jay! Well, Jay. Twenty-three years. I’m still here and you’re going to be selling cars.”

She had kinder words of Leno’s successor. “I think he’s so perfect for it and he’s happy to do it,” Rivers said of Fallon “It’s a pleasure. He’s a wonderful worker.”

Watch video below, via Inside Edition:

[photo via screengrab]

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