'Divine Comedy' Interview

Bette Midler (Sept. 18-24, 2000)

Divine comedy

Can Midler successfully transfer her outrageous brand of humor to network TV? You Bette!

by David Brian Waldon

Yes, Bette Midler is starring in her own sitcom this fall. What’s more, the divine Ms. M will be playing herself — or at least a facsimile thereof.

"It’s a little bit of a stretch to play myself, but it’s the role I’m most comfortable with," Midler says while flashing her trademark smirk.

Could you imagine someone with such a big personality being stuck in a cliché role such as that of a divorced mother trying to make ends meet? Well, neither could Midler. Thus, the show uses a "real-life" format, following not only Midler’s busy career but also her domestic life with her husband and 13-year-old daughter. Of course, we won’t be seeing Midler’s actual husband and 13-year-old daughter. They will be played by actors.

"I sort of have a good sense of what would embarrass my family and what won’t embarrass my family," Midler says. "I think you get that little knot in your stomach that tells you when you’ve crossed that line."

That line has not yet been broached, and the pilot for "Bette" has her family’s approval — for the most part. "They thought certain things could have been punched up," Midler says. "You know, everyone has an opinion."

One reason why Midler wanted to do a sitcom was to be able to spend more time with her family while daughter Sophie was attending high school in New York City. "I didn’t want to be on the road," Midler says. "I work a lot on these long tours that are four and five and six months long, and I didn’t want to be away from my daughter that long."

But a lot of the people in the show’s cast and crew live in Los Angeles, so Midler made a decision that makes her look like anything but a diva. "Most of them were people with small children who didn’t want to uproot their families," she says. "And it just seemed easier for me to make that leap rather than to have all those people pick up and move lock, stock and barrel to [New York]."

So Midler will be commuting from coast to coast for at least one season. But she’ll never be away from home for more than two weeks at a time, and she may film a few episodes in the Big Apple. But even if it takes a coast-to-coast commute for Midler to try her hand at television, that’s OK with her, because she’s anxious to tackle a medium she hasn’t yet conquered. Midler has already found a lot to like about TV.

"I love the fact that it’s so fast," she says. "You don’t languish in development like you do in films year after year. And I like the fact that you shoot it, and it’s on the next week. It’s out there. They either like it or they hate it. They pass judgment — thumbs up, thumbs down, you go on to the next."

Despite being a self-proclaimed "television virgin," Midler has set goals for what "Bette" will be. She wants physical comedy and music to be part of the show, and she wants to live up to the standard set by "I Love Lucy," which starred Midler’s idol Lucille Ball.

Midler is also hoping to live vicariously through her TV persona.

"My behind-the-scenes life is actually quite a serious one," says Midler, who donates a lot of her time to causes such as AIDS and the environment. "I wish it were a little more sillier. This show’s going to give me the chance to live a life, even for a little while, that I really wish my life were like. And for that reason, I think I’m going to have a whole lot of fun.

"And when I have fun, everybody has fun!"