Sideshow: Melissa Rivers healing after death of mother Joan Rivers

It's taken nearly eight months, but Melissa Rivers is beginning to get back on her feet after the death of her mother, Joan Rivers.

"I never let myself imagine life without her," she tells People. "Why would I want to?"

Rivers, 47, and her son, Cooper Endicott, 14, are getting a handle on the grief by going through rituals such as clearing out her mother's New York flat. (The contents are to be auctioned.)

Trouble is, they threw out the wrong stuff. Rivers, who had long known her mother hid money in strange places, realized a little late that she had chucked some of her mother's favorite hiding spots - empty candy boxes. "Then I was told she used Milk Duds boxes as her travel wallets," she said. "And we've been throwing things out!"

Rivers is making the rounds to plug her new memoir, The Book of Joan: Tales of Mirth, Mischief and Manipulation, due Tuesday.

The Joni Mitchell mystery reached an acme of confusion on Tuesday. On March 31, the innovating genius songstress, 71, was found unconscious in her L.A. home. Since then - almost a month - she has been at UCLA Medical Center. Her exact condition, and her malady, are unknown. On Tuesday, TMZ said Mitchell was "unconscious in a hospital, unable to respond to anyone, with no immediate prospects for getting better." It said that Mitchell friend Leslie Morris filed a court document seeking conservatorship over the singer's affairs.

You got it wrong, guys, the Joni Mitchell website shot back: She's not in a coma, she is alert, she has "her full senses," she's expected to recover, and you totally flubbed that document.

All sorts of questions outstanding, all sorts of lines to read between. OK, TMZ is wrong, but what is going on, then? A month in a hospital is serious, OK? Meanwhile, Twitter sympathy flows from Ellie Goulding, Mackenzie Phillips, Rita Wilson, and many other stellar types.

- John Timpane

It's Summer Festivals Announcing Their Lineups season! The latest is Musikfest in Bethlehem, Aug. 7 to 16. More than 500 total acts. Main-stagers include Snoop Dogg, Alice in Chains, Darius Rucker, ZZ Top, Reba McEntire, 3 Doors Down, Collective Soul, Culture Club, and Jerry Seinfeld (which does not seem to belong, and why?). For tix: 610-332-1300 or www.musikfest.org.

- John Timpane

Now, that's the right way to promote Avengers: Age of Ultron! Days after Robert Downey Jr. went all weird during a TV interview, his costar Jeremy Renner plugged the film Tuesday night on The Tonight Show by showing up all dolled up as his character, Hawkeye. As the ace archer, he sat down at the piano and tinkled out a rendition of Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud."

Of all the thousands of goofy decisions made by TV networks every day, this one takes the cake: ABC has murdered Revenge after four seasons, exec producer Sunil Nayar tells E! News. OK, so one of the lead characters, Victoria Grayson (played by the lovely Madeleine Stowe), got herself blown up. No reason to kill the show, too!

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