Phyllis Diller won't be in Aspen this week for the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival - but you can hear that trademark laugh in the hills. The fest, which began Wednesday, is screening a documentary on her farewell show in Las Vegas, "Goodnight, We Love You," on Friday afternoon.

The last time Diller and Aspen were mentioned in the same sentence was in 2000, when Jerry Lewis infamously proclaimed at the fest: "I don't like any female comedians. A woman doing comedy doesn't offend me, but sets me back a bit. I, as a viewer, have trouble with it. I think of her as a producing machine that brings babies into the world."

I was in Aspen that afternoon - and the crowd gasped. Later, Lewis said he was "kidding." And he added, "How could I forget the marvelous Phyllis Diller?"

She was, after all, one of the first female stand-ups.

"That was sweet of him," Diller told me recently from her L.A. house, noting that Lewis came to her last Vegas show. "But it was a big shock to me when he first said that (in Aspen)." Diller isn't that crazy for modern comedians, male or female. "I never had an agenda like they do. I only worked for one thing. Laughs."

She couldn't make it to Aspen this year because of some health concerns. "I don't like to get too far from my doctors," she said. She turns 88 in July. I told her that makes her older than the pope.

"He doesn't know when to quit," Diller said.

By Bill Husted Denver Post Columnist