Word: midler
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...cake, complete with bride and groom, on top of her head? Isn't the answer obvious by now? She is, as she announces in the opening number of her new Broadway show, "the big noise from Winnetka." She does not, in fact, come from Winnetka, but Bette Midler is the biggest noise-and one of the biggest talents...
...singer she plays in The Rose has often been compared to Janis Joplin, who died of an overdose of drugs in 1970. Though Midler admires Joplin, the rock singer in the film is, in many respects, Bette Midler. Rose grew up in warm Florida, Bette in balmy Hawaii, and they were both unhappy. In Bette's family, as she remembers, there was always a lot of angry bellowing from her father, a house painter for the Navy. Even today Fred Midler has not come to see one of her shows, a source of obvious pain to his daughter...
...pair's fights became almost epic in scope. "I liked a good fight like he did," Midler recalls. "But I didn't like any one to fight back, and he fought much harder than I did." She left him and fled to Paris for three months in 1974, only to return for several more rounds. The knockout came last February, and Bette dropped Russo as her manager...
...hero's best friend in Head over Heels. Though they live in Los Angeles, they have rented a loft in Manhattan for their trips East. Calm and low-key, Riegert seems to be the grounding for Bette's electric charge, her steadying influence. On stage, says Midler, she is "a character without fear, who has no problem being vulgar or outrageous. But in my private life, I'm one of the most paranoid per sons in the world...
Rose spirals downward for two hours, as parasitic people struggle to make a living off her talents. There are some brilliant moments in the film--Midler's return to the transvestite club she once haunted, Midler's gutsy rendition of "When a Man Loves a Woman"--but director Mark Rydell must be the most pessimistic man behind a camera. There is no comic relief, no reminder that, in the long run, good can prevail, no hint that justice is done. If you take away Rose's guts, you're left with an awfully familiar theme--only the good die young...