Celebrity documentaries can tend to be fawning affairs, celebrating the star’s high notes and glossing over their most telling flaws. But that appears untrue of Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, a new documentary that recently screened at the Sundance Film Festival.

Rivers, now 75, has a history in the celebrity scene that spans decades – but has never been known as a darling, and has never claimed to be one. The film doesn’t ignore this and duly focuses on Rivers’ profane humor, her tart mouth against Hollywood glamor, her struggles in the talk show arena and her personal tragedies, such as the 1987 suicide of husband Edgar Rosenberg.

“I didn’t want this to turn into self-congratulations,” Rivers explained during a recent interview with The Daily Beast. “’Everybody loves her, and oh, she’s such a good person.’ You watch some of those and you go, ‘Oh, come on! Mel Gibson is a Nazi! Say it!’”

Rivers has been nothing but vocal in poking fun at herself, candid about what makes her laughable. This includes copious amounts of plastic surgery, which MakeMeHeal.com reports began for Rivers in 1965, when she underwent an eyelid lift. That was the mere beginning, with many surgeries to follow. According to the site, Rivers has had a rhinoplasty, face lifts, a brow lift, cheek lift, laser skin resurfacing and undergoes Botox injections every few months.

“Joan Rivers looks great for her age,” plastic surgeon Dr. David Shafer told MakeMeHeal.com. “She certainly is not shy about plastic surgery and has an operated look. However, she knows how to work it.”

She is not shy – and though Joan Rivers may have an “operated look,” the first person to admit it would likely be the comedienne herself.

RELATED STORIES

Want a face lift that doesn’t make you look stretched?

Plastic surgery was all the buzz in Seattle, at the annual meeting of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Plastic Surgery Talk was there, live, to talk to the world’s foremost plastic surgeons about hot topics in the industry.

In this episode, host Dr. William P. Adams, Jr., talks to Dr. Robert Singer about the heavily-marketed “liquid facelift” and whether it is an effective solution for women who want a youthful look with little recovery time.

Dr. Singer, who originated the conference’s Hot Topics forum, also discusses how patients can evaluate new techniques and technologies. This is a concern for doctors, because the onslaught of media attention to new procedures often circumvent key safety data in favor of results touted by marketing pundits.

Dr. Anand Deva, co-founder of the Surgical Infection Research Group, also stops in to share what he has learned about capsular contracture in breast implant patients. His discovery will hopefully lead to better surgical outcomes after breast augmentation.

All this and more on Plastic Surgery Talk. Click the player below to watch now.

This episode of Plastic Surgery Talk is sponsored by Mentor. Learn more about Memory Gel Breast implants at LoveYourLook.com.

While students in the United Kingdom likely spent their summer vacation trying not to think about school, many of their teachers are using the time off for cosmetic surgery.

Transform Cosmetic Surgery Group reports that more and more teachers are going under the knife. Transform, the largest cosmetic surgery company in the UK, reports a 103 percent increase of teachers getting procedures from 2008. This year, 4.4 percent of their customers have been teachers.

According to statistics, the most common procedure among teachers is eye bag removal. But they’re also getting face lifts, liposuction, rhinoplasty and breast augmentations.

We asked Dr. Patrick Mallucci, who practices in the UK, why he believes more teachers are choosing to have cosmetic procedures.

The recent report showed that ninety percent of teachers in the UK who choose cosmetic surgery have their procedure in July or August. The findings indicate they choose summer since it gives them time to recover before they stand in front of their students.