Bette Midler (43 page)

In
Divine Madness
, Bette not only sang her ass off, she also told several wry and raunchy Sophie Tucker jokes. She once quipped to a loud audience member, “Shut your hole honey, mine’s makin’ money.”
(Courtesy of The Ladd Corporation / MJB Photo Archives)

In the 1980 concert film,
Divine Madness
, Bette Midler was able to show off many sides of her musical talents.
(Courtesy of The Ladd Corporation / MJB Photo Archives)

According to Bette Midler, in preparation for her role as Barbara Whiteman, she went through a period of character study: “I walked all around Beverly Hills, and I shopped until I was blue.”
(Courtesy of Touchstone Films / MJB Photo Archives)

Margrit Ramme, Little Richard, Bette Midler and Richard Dreyfus in the comedy hit
Down and Out in Beverly Hills. (Courtesy of Touchstone Films / MJB Photo Archives)

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Bette Midler was always an exotic blossom. Although she has lilies in her hair in this one, it was another flower, the rose, which she is most closely associated with. She starred in a film called
The Rose
, had a huge hit with the song “The Rose,” played Madame Rose in
Gypsy
, and even recorded an album called
Bette of Roses. (Courtesy of Atlantic Records / MJB Photo Archives)

Always considering herself an
“artiste”
and known for her ample bosom, Bette in 1984 starred in the cable television special
Art or Bust. (Courtesy of HBO / MJB Photo Archives)

Singer and record producer Dan Hartman with Bette Midler in 1986. Hartman’s song “Waiting to See You” was part of the soundtrack for
Ruthless People. (Courtesy of David McGough for Epic Records / MJB Photo Archives)

Bette gets down on the stage floor in her video for “Beast of Burden.” She not only turned the Rolling Stones song into a hit, Mick Jagger made a guest appearance in the video.
(Courtesy of Atlantic Records / MJB Photo Archives)

Midler, who wrote two hit books in the early 1980s, poses in her pajamas for National Library Week in 1984. The book that she is hugging is her own children’s story,
The Saga of Baby Divine. (Courtesy of American Library Association / MJB Photo Archives)

The infuriated Miss M wanted no mistake to be made on her opinion of Geraldo Rivera. “Oh, he was a slimeball!” she exclaimed. “If I had known then that he was going to do this twenty years later, I never would have given him the time of day” (
27
).

Jeff Erdel, who was identified by
USA Today
as a “Rivera spokesman,” said of Midler’s efforts to trivialize the so-called “torrid affair” between Bette and Geraldo, “Absurd! He did not drug Bette Midler.. . . This was not a one-night affair or attack. This was the beginning of a torrid, month-long sexual relationship consummated on perhaps twenty different occasions” (
138
). He also insinuated in the press that Midler’s statements were meant as a part of her publicity campaign for her upcoming film
For the Boys
.

Geraldo’s rebuttal in the press continued to fan the flames of his controversial book. According to him, “I have no idea why she suddenly turned so mean” (
139
).

While she was settling scores and clearing up past feuds, Bette also lit into Bruce Springsteen. Apparently, in the 1980s, when she was working with producer Chuck Plotkin, he played the demo of a song Springsteen had written, called “Pink Cadillac.” Bruce had yet to record it, and Plotkin was under the impression that it was free for Midler to record first, so she went into the studio and recorded her version of the song. According to Bette, she spent $25,000 recording the song, and, said Bette, “[Springsteen] said I couldn’t sing it. . . . it wasn’t a girl’s song” (
140
). It seemed that Bruce wanted to record it first, and that Plotkin had no legal right to offer it to Midler. When Natalie Cole recorded the song in 1988 and had a hit with it, Bette was even madder at Bruce than she had been before.

In addition to all of the publicity that was being generated by the Geraldo Rivera-Bette Midler feud, and her gripes about Springsteen, Miss M was in the news in November 1991 for her latest crusade: trash. Well, not the kind of trash that she is usually associated with. This time
around, it was trash alongside the highway, making the American landscape look shabby. According to the press, “Midler was the 236th Adopt-a-Highway volunteer.” A strip of highway in the North Hollywood area was suddenly designated her responsibility, with signs reading, “Litter Removal Next 2 Miles, Bette Midler” (
141
).

Also in 1991, Bette was part of an all-star public service music video aired on television and at movie theaters in the United States. The name of the video was
Yakety Yak: Take It Back
. The video was part animation and part live action. The animation segments included a cartoon Yak, dancing with music celebrities, delivering a “no littering” message. Midler appeared in the lively video, which is set to the Leiber & Stoller song “Yakety Yak (Don’t Talk Back).” The Number 1 hit was originally recorded by the Coasters in 1958. Bette is dressed in a black jacket and skirt with a white blouse, as a school teacher instructing her students to recycle. The song was slightly rewritten, with the message “take it back” as the chorus. The video also features Pat Benatar, Queen Latifah, Lita Ford, B. B. King, Kenny Loggins, Natalie Cole, Charlie Daniels, Stevie Wonder, Tone Loc, Ozzy Osbourne, Quincy Jones, and the voice of Dr. John as Yakety Yak, the animated Yak.