Word: midlerisms
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...Russo dreamed bigger still. "From the beginning," he says now, "I knew the screen could take this little person with the enormous talent and show her off in a big way." But no project seemed right. So they resurrected Pearl, a script about Janis Joplin, and had it rewritten, Midler says, "as a homage to all those men and women who bit the dust from sheer compulsion." That was The Rose. "I had a ball! I couldn't wait each day to strap on that angst bag and chew up that scenery. I thought it was my best work." Seen...
...European tour following the filming of The Rose in 1979 provoked one last fight with Russo, and Midler was on her own. She chose a jokey film noir script called Jinxed; she chose the director Don Siegel and her co-star Ken Wahl. The brass at United Artists, then tiptoeing through the rubble of Heaven's Gate, was turning to Midler to make decisions. And the creative team, vexed at her power, turned on her. There were shoving matches and walkouts. It was a sorry time. In retrospect, Midler notes, "I feel I've had my revenge. What goes around...
...crumble at any minute." And busted: something like a nervous breakdown ensued. "I couldn't face the world," she recalls. "I slept all day and cried all night. I was drinking to excess. I was miserable." Then, as if in a Hollywood musical (not The Rose), love found Bette Midler. "When I was at my lowest point," Bette says, "Harry called me up out of the blue. This was October of 1984, and in two months we were married...
...Midler is a trouper pleased to have joined the big smooth circus. But she is careful to keep stardom in perspective. She calls Beverly Hills a "happy experience. Plus they gave me the underwear my character wore. The furniture was what really slayed me, but I didn't get that. But I did get the bras." Nor does she make many distinctions among her three recent hits: "Was it Outrageous Ruthless People in Beverly Hills? The films have certainly indicated a direction to stay in. The whole package is a surprise: to be a box-office success hand in hand...
...mother is preoccupied with the chain of continuity that gurgles in her lap. Bette has just noticed that Sophie's ears, like little wings on her bald head, resemble those of Ruth Midler's as a child. Bette softens and tenses as she talks of never appreciating her mother's sacrifice. "When my baby was born," she says, "I was so tired. I kept thinking, 'How did she do it? How could she raise four children and still be standing?' I finally got the message, but it was too late...