Word: stardom
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...Love," for example, doesn't say much of anything, but its sonic-boom noise and punk/polka rhythm make it great fun. Otherwise, the new Rank and File's hybrid of nasal vocals and buzzsaw guitars sound like uniform drone. Rank and File may catapult the band to MTV stardom (and Rhino Records out from the novelty and oldies bins in record stores), but such success will come at the expense of the band's more interesting elements...
...Artist in 1973. Her 1979 LP, The Rose, went platinum. In 1983 she even found a perch on the best-seller lists with her children's book The Saga of Baby Divine. But what, these days, becomes a legend most? The one little item that eluded Bette Midler: movie stardom. Her galvanizing turn in The Rose, as a soulful thrush on the high wire of drugs, sex and rock 'n' roll, earned the actress raves and an Oscar nomination and . . . precisely no film offers. Her next star role, in the black-and-blue comedy Jinxed (1982), provided the occasion...
Bette's pianist and arranger was young Barry Manilow, just a few years short of his own, more comfortable stardom. Their first rehearsals were "nothing special, almost dull," as Manilow recalls them. "I played and she sang. But then we did it in front of an audience. She came downstairs in this turban and an outfit that could have come from my grandmother's closet. She was a tornado of energy and talent. I was six feet away, and this vision was one of the thunderbolts in my life." Another fan-Aaron Russo, signed on as Midler's manager...
...that scenery. I thought it was my best work." Seen today, The Rose looks ragged, with dramatic longueurs randomly interspersed with explosions, but that is part of its surly authenticity. And Midler, deglamourized as Joplin and vulnerable as her own private self, creates a gorgeous image of tenacious stardom as the dying Rose waves away the hands guiding her and, revived by the audience's electricity, propels herself onstage for her last performance...
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...