Bette Midler

Who?

Oh yeah, that chick who used to play the baths with Barry Manilow back in the day.

Wasn't she in a couple of movies?

Didn't she play Rachel's trashy cousin on a couple episodes of Friends?

I think she adopted part of the freeway I used to drive all the time.

Is that a polite way to say she lives in a tent in the bushes behind the rest stop tearoom?

LIES! You just hush, R6, I would never repeat that vile rumor.

I heard it was in a copse of trees off to one side more than in those bushes around the back.

I'm sure OP chose a horrible song to showcase her talent on purpose as well. Those lower register gymnastics are interminable and she sounds obnoxious just in general.

She's been totally forgotten by those, like OP, with dementia - people who've forgotten poor Bette's name along with their own, their friends' names, what they had for breakfast, where their keys are...

And so on.

Love that song OP.

If we're gonna go down the obscure Bette tracks path, here she is with The Manhattan Transfer.

R11 she's off key in many of those lines. Yikes!!!

I know she's a big gay ally, and that's appreciated, but I still never understood how she was so popular for so long.

Big personality. Amusing in movies. Women liked her too, not just gays.

My soft-Trump parents were in New York, and I took them to see Hello Dolly. I could barely stand to be in the same rook with them, but that was almost three hours of bliss we shared. It made for a great day.

Midler said that she wanted the show to help relieve people from the tough times we were going through. I was never a big fan of Midler or the show. But I will always be grateful to her for making that day possible.

I first became aware of her from her Divine Madness concert film. Then I discovered her earlier Live at Last album. I thought she was hilarious and heartbreaking. Her voice isn't technically perfect but I'd much rather listen to her than, say, Streisand or Dion – I admire their technical prowess but Bette makes me feel something.

FnF.

Shesh one of my bessht freinsh!

Yes, Bette sure does love the gays. What would we do without her?

My favorite of hers.

Deleted from Divine Madness.

r15: "My soft-Trump parents were in New York, and I took them to see Hello Dolly. I could barely stand to be in the same rook with them"

We could barely stand to be there with you. Especially since you "let us" pay for the tickets, dinner afterwards, and then your uber back to your apartment. Also, it's "room" - not "rook".

In my experience, most of the people who like Trump do so because they are quite naive (regardless of age) and deluded about him. They actually think he's a good guy who cares about them while also being "a little rough around the edges." I can't understand that level of self-deception, but it doesn't make them evil.

Now, if R15's parents explicitly like Trump because "he'll put those Blacks and Beaners in their place," that's something else again.

She was funny and an underdog for quite a long time...then she became a monster.

Yikes, r21, this is a little personal since my dad has since passed away and my mom now has dementia. I actually spent a small fortune on the tickets, and was pretty proud of that. Sorry that my typo so offended you.

She's a fat hypocrite

I saw her in the Continental Baths half a century ago when I could wear a towel. I saw her 40-something years ago in a tux (Carnegie Hall?) on New Year's Eve. I have been to Swingos Celebrity Motor Lodge in Cleveland. We had seats in the "Smug Mutha" section in Vegas. God we're old now, but she and I were both young then. Maybe as a consequence, I've loved her ever since my far off youth.

Bruce Vilanch writes a lot of her stuff. She's coming from a good place onstage, anyway. And her response to Geraldo Rivera's claim of romance was a classic: "He stuffs a bottle of poppers up my nose, bends me over a toilet, and calls that a romance?"

I recently watched Ruthless People. So funny! Still holds up.

"When you can't afford Streisand, you hire the more economical Bette Midler."

r28, if you want a concert, get Streisand. If you want a show, hire Bette Midler.

I absolutely loved her Touchstone Pictures days in the late '80s.

She is NOT forgotten! Sistahs!

Ruthless People is still hilarious. It was the one time in her career that Bette Midler stopped trying to be likable and just let her inner raging bitch fly.

R13 Maybe you had to see her live? She was fabulous, trashy, and fun. A kick in the ass. Loved her then, love her now.