EXCLUSIVE: Elite private schools, a $3 million wedding and Fashion Police: How guilt-ridden Joan Rivers had to woo her daughter back after Melissa blamed the comic for her father's suicide and cut her mom out of her life

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Joan Rivers was so determined to make her daughter, Melissa, a star, her ruthless nepotism put her own career at risk, according to an intimate new biography.

Not even Joan's closest friends thought Melissa was talented and booking agents resented Joan for muscling Melissa into her act, according to the book.

In Last Girl Before Freeway, Leslie Bennetts, a journalist and Vanity Fair contributor, looks closely at how Joan manipulated Melissa into the celebrity sphere.

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Joan Rivers would do anything for her daughter Melissa, and even manipulated her into the celebrity sphere

The pair, pictured in 2005, worked their way through Hollywood and created a mother-daughter brand for themselves throughout the years

Melissa, 48, recently settled the malpractice suit against the New York endoscopy clinic where Joan, 81, died following a routine procedure in 2014.

The settlement reportedly numbered eight figures - not an outrageous number given that even as Rivers' condition became critical, one doctor paused to take a selfie with her comatose patient.

Still, it's a healthy sum to add to Melissa's estimated $100-million inheritance.

'For many years, Joan's obsession was: "I've got to keep working - I've got to make sure Melissa is taken care of",' Blaine Trump, a New York socialite and the president-elect's former sister-in-law, told the author.

The author notes that it didn't seem to occur to Joan that her middle-aged daughter could support herself and her son, Cooper, 16.

Though self-sufficiency would have necessitated a lifestyle less steeped in luxury.

'Melissa's been extremely well taken care of,' says another friend. 'She sort of lives in a fool's paradise.'

Melissa grew up with the best of everything, elite private schools, designer clothes, mansions and yachts. As an adult, she never had to earn her own way, according to the author.

Joan made sure of that, though Melissa hardly seemed a reluctant partner in the aggressive nepotism that became their brand, the author writes.

When Joan moved the family to Los Angeles in 1972 for her career, they settled into a Bel Air mansion. Joan threw formal dinner parties, with finger bowls, and welcomed anyone with a social pedigree to her table.

It was equally important little Melissa get in with the right crowd from the start.

Joan called her friend Sue Cameron, a reporter with the Hollywood Reporter, needing to know who was the absolute best English riding instructor for Melissa. 

Joan (pictured right in 1965 and left in 1991) died in 2014 after a routine procedure when she was 81 years old. Melissa recently settled the malpractice suit against the New York endoscopy clinic she died

Melissa grew up with the best of everything, elite private schools, designer clothes, mansions and yachts. As an adult, she never had to earn her own way

'I had to find out who all the chi-chi people sent their children to,' Cameron recalls.

It was a given that Melissa would prep at the exclusive Buckley School of Sherman Oaks before moving to Philadelphia to study European History at the University of Pennsylvania.

Though Melissa dearly loved her father, Edgar Rosenberg, many found him unpleasant and, as Joan's manager, dangerously inept.

Barbara Walters succinctly summed up what Joan found so desirable about Rosenberg.

'The appeal of Edgar was that he wanted to marry her,' she explains.

Rosenberg was the architect of the deal that left Rivers' career in ruins at 55. Before the deal, in 1986, Johnny Carson had made her his permanent guest host on The Tonight Show and her career was soaring.

It was then, at Rosenberg's urging, she left to host her own late night chat show on the Fox network. Carson was furious at her betrayal and branded Rivers a show biz pariah.

Rosenberg's overbearing demeanor led to his being fired from the Fox show. Rivers felt she had no choice but to quit in support, though she knew no one would cross Carson by hiring her in the wake of such a resounding flop.

It wasn't until Rosenberg committed suicide soon after in 1987, Rivers discovered he'd left her with a $37-million debt having made disastrous investments with her money.

But the worst of it was that Melissa, who was a teen at the time, blamed Joan for Edgar's death. She all but cut her mother from her life, according to the author.

Joan was married to Edgar Rosenberg (pictured together above in 1984). He was also her manager, and many found him unpleasant and, as Joan's manager, dangerously inept

It wasn't until Rosenberg committed suicide soon after in 1987, Rivers discovered he'd left her with a $37-million debt having made disastrous investments with her money. Together they're pictured above in 1983

Melissa (pictured with her mother in 1985, left, and 1986, right) was a teenager when her father died. She blamed her mother for Edgar's death and all but cut her mother from her life

Joan clawed her way back with stunning resilience and by 1994 was in the position to woo her daughter with a plum role. She was to play herself in the television movie, Tears and Laughter: The Joan and Melissa Rivers Story.

The movie was about their rift following Edgar's death. Friends warned Joan it would backfire, and would likely hurt the Broadway run of Joan's passion project, Sally Marr... and Her Escorts.

But the author writes Joan was desperate to help Melissa and nothing else mattered.

'Melissa needs the tape!' she told Lonny Price, the director of Sally Marr.

Price reports the TV movie was such a camp disaster - The Worst Movie Ever Made, according to one review - that people quoted lines from it all the time.

'"I didn't kill Daddy! You didn't kill Daddy! Daddy killed Daddy" - It was unbelievable,' Price said.

But, as the author notes, while Melissa may have suffered embarrassment, she never went so far as to reject her 'perennial roles as sidekick and dependent'. 

In 1990, she shed her father's last name to take her mother's show business name, and as Melissa Rivers settled into her fraught, but lucrative, career as Joan's mini-me.

In 1998, Melissa married John Endicott, a horse trainer she met in Palm Springs, in a $3-million extravaganza Joan staged at the Plaza.

Guests entered through a moonlit snow-covered birch bower ascending to a ballroom recreated to look like the Hermitage. Tens of thousands of dollars of roses and white orchids added to the effect.

By 1990, Melissa Rivers (pictured with Joan in 2011) settled into her fraught, but lucrative, career as Joan's mini-me

Peter Hathaway, a social fixture, entered at the same time as society doyenne CZ Guest, who told him, 'I've been to parties with some of the richest people all over the world, and I have never seen anything like this'. 

The marriage lasted all of five years. Then Melissa was back in show business. 

Joan's beloved grandson, Cooper, was also in on their act, as a recurring character in the family-produced reality show 'Joan and Melissa: Joan Knows Best?'

Throughout the entertainment industry, it was known that Joan would 'pull every possible string' to get Melissa shoehorned into a deal.

Mark Simone frequently booked Joan on his WOR radio hour, but Melissa would have to come too. It happened 'like 400 times. She would say, "I have to have Melissa on with me which nobody really wanted".'

Radio host Joe Franklin says Joan turned vicious if someone said the obvious, that Melissa wouldn't be working if she weren't Joan Rivers' daughter.

'You couldn't deny that [it was the truth], but she defended it... and people feared her,' Franklin says.

Billy Sammeth was Joan's manager when Celebrity Apprentice first approached her.

He claims Joan told him, 'I'd rather kill myself than be on Celebrity Apprentice.'

But in 2009, Joan was suddenly willing to be a contestant if Melissa could appear with her. At first the producers were dead set against it, according to Sammeth, but Joan fought so hard they finally conceded.

Melissa also created a web series, In Bed with Joan Rivers, where Joan interviewed various celebrities like Ru Paul and Kathy Griffin in bed

In 2010, Joan and Melissa created the E! television show Fashion Police, a forum for Joan, along with a panel of hosts, to eviscerate Hollywood fashionistas from the safety of a studio set

'Melissa erupted on being fired, spewing vitriol as she shrieked that the two contestants in the boardroom "f***ed me like two little whore pit vipers",' according to Sammeth.

With one leg in a soft cast from a hamstring injury, she ran to the elevator screaming at the producers, 'I want my s**t and I want it now'.

Joan launched her own tirade in defense of Melissa, but went on to win the season, defeating her daughter's nemesis, professional poker player, Annie Dukes.

The ironic twist was that Celebrity Apprentice not only boosted the sales of Joan's QVC jewelry collection, it made her a star all over again.

'That was when everything changed,' says Blaine Trump, 'Her career had gone through the roof.'

Everywhere Joan went she was thronged by fans. And Melissa was often by her side.

The two had started doing red carpet commentary for award shows in the mid-1990s.

It was then Joan developed her schtick as a verbal assassin, making hilariously rude comments about a star's garb, A-lister or not, while the fashion victim was still in camera range.

In Last Girl Before Freeway , Leslie Bennetts looks closely at how Joan manipulated Melissa into the celebrity sphere

For the most part, Melissa looked hideously uncomfortable. And the time came when Joan was no longer welcomed on any red carpet, anywhere.

In 2010, the two created the E! television show Fashion Police, a forum for Joan, along with a panel of hosts, to eviscerate Hollywood fashionistas from the safety of a studio set.

Melissa also created a web series, In Bed with Joan Rivers, where Joan interviewed various celebrities like Ru Paul and Kathy Griffin in bed.

While some in Joan's inner circle feel that Melissa has matured into a hard worker and a skilled producer, most everyone speaks with one reservation.

'She doesn't have the talent,' a friend told the author, who reports it was an opinion quietly voiced by many friends.

In the end, Bennetts writes that Joan's efforts 'created the widespread impression that Melissa lacked the ability to succeed on her own.

'A judgment that elicited snarky comments from friends and foes alike.'

But Melissa wasn't entirely oblivious.

'At risk of her own career, Joan added Melissa to everything she did, in order to give her game,' says close friend Sue Cameron.

'It was very hard for Melissa. She knew very well that Joan was forcing her on people.'

It certainly seems, though, Melissa has inherited Joan's ruthless momentum.

Within eight months of her mother's death, she had a book out, The Book of Joan: Tales of Mirth, Mischief and Manipulation.

It was on the shelves just in time to hit peak shopping for Mother's Day.