The US queen of the barbed one-liner, Joan Rivers, has a career stretching back to Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show in 1965. Viv Hardwick talks to the woman who invented Hollywood's red carpet and asks if she's serious about claiming to be Broke And Alone In The UK.

IS it really possible to believe that raucous Joan Rivers, the US comic famed for her love of opulence, could call her latest tour Broke And Alone In The UK? True, Joan Rivers Worldwide Inc nearly went bankrupt when a business partner made off with $37m in the 1990s, but her Park Avenue lifestyle didn't take much of a dent. Why should it when her range of jewellery and cosmetics turned over $25m a year for ten years?

But Rivers enjoys making money by pretending to be poverty-stricken and first toured Broke And Alone to Edinburgh, the West End and Australia back in 2002. So is it really true?

"Absolutely - I've paid for my family to do this and that and taken care of everybody. I'm not really poor but we all feel broke at the moment so my accountant says 'Joan you've gotta go to work'. feel the pinch when they tell me things like 'you can't get a new rug' and you can't do this or that."

But doesn't she have a Faberge egg collection tucked away in a bank vault?

"They're not all Faberge eggs. My husband (Edgar Rosenberg) loved Faberge and bought it when nobody wanted it, so that was wonderful. It was the last good thing I ever invested in," she laughs.

"But alone, everybody is alone," she continues, with the gravity which makes you think she's feeling every one of her 70 years. I find myself anxious to console her and start wittering on about her daughter, Melissa, and her frequently-mentioned grandson Cooper.

"That's not alone, then. I've got three dogs, so that's not alone," she says, snapping back into comedy mode.

Rivers finds UK audiences very different to the US, but thinks they're a lot of fun. "It's easier to make people laugh these days, especially since 9/11 in the United States. It's like a wartime mentality 'have a good time because you don't know if it's your last day'."

Rivers then lambasts the terrorists who threaten her country and the insanity of destroying part of "my beautiful New York" where the workaholic performer-writer-businesswoman enjoys a mega-million dollar penthouse life. Her consolation is watching three-and-a-half-year-old Cooper and his friends playing in the backyard.

Non-PC comedy is never far below the surface. "I always thought if they were more attractive they wouldn't kill themselves," she says of the suicide bombers. "I've never seen a good-looking terrorist. Omar Sharif would never blow himself up... well, maybe now he's older he might, I don't know."

Rivers declares herself puzzled that the makers of hit movie Shrek 2 decided to replace her voice with that of little-known UK TV presenter Kate Thornton, despite the character looking like the woman famed for being the red carpet reporter at the Oscars ceremony. "It's just so stupid. I didn't know until an interviewer told me. They obviously didn't even realise that I'm well-known in England."

There are signs that the US media is tiring of Ms R's chutzpah chat, but she claims never to read any negative coverage of her TV performances. This year she and fellow reporter daughter Melissa announced that they were switching their red carpet fashion-bash from E! Entertainment to the TV Guide Channel.

"All I know is we're the No 1 show in the US. Obviously we are doing something right. We created the red carpet, there was no red carpet eight years ago. Nobody gave a damn about Oscars fashion until I started it all."

Or the fashion for plastic surgery. Rivers has had plenty - including having her eyes moved 30 years ago to avoid the risk of her Russian-Jewish emigre background leading to deep bags - and she's not shy about it.

"I don't regret my plastic surgery because I was the one who opened the door to say everybody is doing it and don't you believe these woman that lie to you and say 'I've done nothing'. Sophia Loren is the worst, always saying she's naturally beautiful when she's not. How mean is that for other women? Any women over 55 or 60 is going to have jowls."

Despite the wrinkle-less appearance and elegant lipo-suctioned frame, Rivers claims that most of the press stories about her operations are exaggerated.

"I'd have more done when I need it. You know you need it when you look at yourself on television and go 'oh-oh... not looking good'. But I'm avoiding this doctor in California who makes every woman look like Raquel Welch. Now that is hilarious."

Is there any subject that is taboo?

"Nothing. My act comes out of improvisation and when a thought comes in my head I just say it, what's the worst that could happen? The audience will say 'oooh' and I always say 'gone too far, have I?' and then I pull back. All the good stuff comes from just letting yourself go. Every now and then I regret what I've said but if you don't stretch, you don't get to the next good joke."

This year's tour is likely to include her views on It-girl Paris Hilton and the race for the White House where "both candidates are garbage".

She's also booked this month to film a Channel five series, to be shown in October, along the lines of Judge Joan, where she'll set out to solve other people's problems. "I know about doing that better than anyone, but I'm not sure about wearing a wig," she says.

Rivers has also just been filmed for Jack Dee Live At The Apollo, a six-show series starting in September.

So how long can she keep up the reputation of being the woman with the wickedest one-liners.

"Until I die," she breathes back. "I just love the business, I love being able to say what you can say now which is so much more then ten years ago. It's just a great time for comedy now.

"It's a very strange business because you go and look up who won the Oscars ten years ago and many of them are no longer active. This is a very cynical business and a lot of them don't come back.

"With my career, I know what's going on and I know how to fix it. That's why I've been around for 40 years."

* Tickets went on sale this week for John Rivers: Broke And Alone In The UK, York Theatre Royal, October 11. Box office: 0870 242 2898.

Published: 09/08/2004