Joan Rivers Protests Costco Book Ban, Handcuffs Herself to Shopping Cart

Motormouthed comedian spars with warehouse giant after it reportedly refused to stock her racy new tome

By Alexis L. Loinaz Aug 08, 2012 1:24 PMTags
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Costco literally has a captive audience in Joan Rivers—and not in a good way.

The motormouthed comedian and E! Fashion Police host found herself sparring with both the warehouse-chain giant and local police Tuesday after she handcuffed herself to a shopping cart at a Burbank outlet to protest the store's refusal to carry her new book.

Rivers claims that the chain banned her book I Hate Everything...Starting With Me because of its racy content, and so she took matters into her own hands.

The funnylady stormed the store and, accompanied by a team of assistants, brought along copies of the book, which she peddled directly to customers and autographed.

She also brought her own megaphone, shouting protests like "Costco should not be like Nazi Germany! Next thing they'll be burning the bible."

She later reportedly said, "This is a store that sells 300 rolls of toilet paper at the same time, and I say any customer that buys 300 rolls of toilet paper deserves a funny book to sit on the toilet and read." Touché!

Rivers then approached a customer pushing a shopping cart and proceeded to handcuff herself to it.

Local police were called to the store and eventually escorted her out, according to published reports, and no arrests or citations were made.

"It is truly about the First Amendment," she later told a local ABC News affiliate. "This is America, and I don't want to see censorship."

Consider us chained to that message.