By the power vested in Joan! Joan Rivers officiated a gay wedding at an NYC book signing on Monday, June 30 — the day after the city’s Gay Pride Parade, by sheer coincidence.
The Fashion Police host, 81, conducted the impromptu nuptials at a Barnes & Noble location, where she was signing copies of her new book, Diary of a Mad Diva. The newlywed couple, Jed Ryan and Joe Aiello, spoke to Entertainment Tonight and explained how the sudden ceremony came into fruition.
“While we were waiting, we were reading the book,” Aiello explained to ET. “She had mentioned being an ordained minister, and I jokingly asked [his partner], ‘Do you think it’s true? Maybe she’ll marry us.’ And he goes, ‘Ask her!’ So… I did.”
“Neither one of us thought she’d say yes!” added Ryan.
Holding a microphone before a large crowd gathered for the book signing, Rivers conducted a comical, heartfelt ceremony between the two men. “Do the two of you understand what marriage is about?” she asked Aiello and Ryan. “Adoring each other, standing behind each other, and forsaking all others, and really, honest to God, this is it, forever.”
This was the second gay marriage ceremony conducted by Rivers, who was ordained in February 2013 by the Universal Life Church Monastery. Shortly after becoming a minister, the comedienne performed her first ceremony ever — a King Kong theme wedding — on top of the Empire State Building for Theo Bleckmann and Preston Bailey.
Watch it here!
