An upcoming series about the life of legendary comedian Joan Rivers is no longer moving forward.
The Comeback Girl, which would have starred WandaVision actress Kathryn Hahn, was scuttled because the producers had not secured Rivers' life rights, Variety reported on Tuesday.
The series also was the subject of controversy earlier this month after comedian Sarah Silverman slammed the production for 'Jewface' casting by using Catholic actress Hahn, who is not Jewish.
Canceled: The Comeback Girl, a biopic series about the late Joan Rivers starring Kathryn Hahn, is no longer moving forward, Variety reported on Tuesday; Rivers seen in 2012 in NYC
Rivers' daughter Melissa Rivers, 53, currently controls her mother's life rights, but she didn't give the series permission to use any of the comic's material.
The series could have theoretically gone forward as an unauthorized adaptation of her life, but it would have been prevented from using any of the comic's standup material or her writings.
The risky approach would have also opened the production up to possible legal challenges from Melissa or her mother's estate.
The series, which was first announced by Variety in September, was set to take place during a tumultuous point in Rivers' career, following the cancellation of her short-lived late night talk show and the suicide of her husband Edgar Rosenberg, who was also her producer.
The Comeback Girl was expected to show the comedian rising from the ashes like a Phoenix to become the iconic entertainer she was known as in her final decades.
Dead in the water: Hahn, 48, was set to play Rivers in the late 1980s, but the production failed to secure Rivers' life rights from her daughter Melissa Rivers, 53; seen September 17 in LA
It's not clear yet if Melissa has plans for her own projects about her mother's life, and a spokesperson for her didn't have anything to announce.
Shortly after the project was announced, Sarah Silverman took issue with the casting of Hahn, who is Catholic, to play Rivers, a Jew.
She saw the casting as fitting into a pattern in which non-Jewish women got roles playing famous Jewish figures.
'There's this long tradition of non-Jews playing Jews, and not just playing people who happen to be Jewish but people whose Jewishness is their whole being,' she said during an episode of The Sarah Silverman Podcast from earlier this month.
'One could argue, for instance, that a Gentile [a non-Jew] playing Joan Rivers correctly would be doing what is actually called "Jewface,"' she continued.
She defined 'Jewface' — inspired by the term 'Blackface' — as 'when a non-Jew portrays a Jew with the Jewishness front and center, often with makeup or changing of features, big fake nose, all the New York–y or Yiddish-y inflection.'
Controversy: After the show was announced, comedian Sarah Silverman blasted the production for casting a non-Jew (Hahn) in the role, which she said fell into a pattern she called 'Jewface'; seen in August in LA
She pondered why the representation of Jewish women seemed to be less important than
