A Continental flight attendant booted comedian Joan Rivers off a flight from Costa Rica because the agent found her passport suspicious. The story is surprising for two reasons:

(1)She’s Joan Rivers and so far there have not been many elderly female Jewish terrorists blowing up airplanes (but whatever). (2)Stopped due to her PASSPORT? It would have been understandable if the news story was that an agent stopped her because they were told to be on the lookout for passengers with a “tight expression” on their faces: Rivers would then certainly qualify due to all of her face-lifts. She’s had more lifts than the Olympic weight lifting team’s barbells.

Who was that agent? A descendant of the late talk show host Johnny Carson? Details via the New York Daily News:

– Joan Rivers is many things: Funny lady. Jewelry mogul. Red carpet mercenary. But a terrorist?

Can we talk?

Rivers, 76, was deemed a danger to national security and booted from a Newark-bound flight in Costa Rica on Sunday by a jittery Continental Airlines gate agent who found the two names on her passport fishy.

Her passport reads: Joan Rosenberg AKA Joan Rivers. Rosenberg was her late husband’s last name.

The “nasty and cruel” Continental gate agent bumped Rivers from the last flight out Sunday and the comedian found herself alone (her daughter, Melissa, flew out to Los Angeles earlier in the day) and with no ATM card and just $100 cash, she said.

Rivers’ tale of woe put a famous face on travel’s new reality – one that leaves many feeling like common criminals.

“If I were going to make up an alias, I wouldn’t pick Rosenberg. I’d pick Jolie or Pitt,” said Rivers, back home Monday in New York with her sense of humor intact. “Do terrorists wear Manolo Blahniks? I can tell you Donna Karan does not make anything that hides a bomb,” she said.

Does this mean a new profile of potential terrorists describes them as people with names like Rosenberg, who may also be carrying “Fiddler on the Roof” cds — and little cartons of Chinese food?