New York City, Tuesday,
October 27, 2003: Barry and I meet Snook and Julie (Lady Puffy)
at their hotel, The Renaissance. We ate at Foley's overlooking
Times Square. The view is breathtaking...ahhh!!!!
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Wednesday, October 28, 2003: This is D-Day or Hulaween night.
I couldn't sleep at all and wake up sick and hallucinating.
Look outside my hotel, The Radisson, to find that they are making
the sequel to the First Wive's Club, only starring men! Later
we meet Jamie for lunch and drinks at Joe Franklin's-some legendary
comedy club or something...I am completely oblivious. Just want
tot get back to the hotel and put my gift basket together for
Miss M.
The gift basket contains an original Bootleg Betty T-shirt and
a We Got Bruce T-shirt...I just bet Bette is dying to put those
on for one of her social functions. Maybe she'll wear one during
the tour...OMG! Hmmm...what else is in that thing? Flavors
of the Gulf Coast - by Timothy
F. Creehan, Executive Chef and
owner of Beach Walk Café - (Destin, Florida) is an extensive
collection of over 200 award-winning recipes. Sautéed
Red Snapper With Crab Meat, Louisiana Turtle Soup, Oriental
Mango Duck With Tempura Onions and Italian Linguini Pomodoro
represent a sampling of the diverse recipes included in this
publication. Presented in a direct format and designed for simple,
at-home preparation, Flavors of the Gulf Coast is a "must
read" for those who love fine cuisine. He autographed a
copy special for Bette and Martin. He was featured in People
Magazine for catering the Amy Grant/Vince Gill wedding.
Also included in the bag were
an autographed copy of Al Franken's new book, Lies
and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look
at the Right, especially signed to Bette herself.
A big thank you to Snook and Julie for almost getting arrested
for that one:-) And a big thanks to Mr. Franken for breaking
the rules to get it done! A "watering can" carrying
purse for Miss M to put her favorite gardening tips in or tools...whatever!
A copy of Baffler
magazine, her fave....a copy of my CD, Mister D Sings
Miss M (Badly) and my singer/songwriter
brother, Woody Bradshaw's CD, Living The Dream,
both autographed with personal notes from each of us...what
a lucky broad she is...! Other items of interest, a book of
quotations about dogs, a special video montage movie of all
things Bette made by Darrell Redmond from Bette
on the Boards, an original Bootleg Betty Halloween
Card designed by BaltoBoy Steve, Barry Shermer, and myself,
a BLB business card, Halloween stickers, an additional check
for NYRP on behalf of Bootleg Betty and the readers, and last
but certainly not least, tons of e-mails from her fans from
around the world! That was beautiful. I also put in a little
sign she could put up on her dressing room door or wherever....it
said, BE NICE OR LEAVE! (Kind of like the people
who left the Bette club....they just couldn't handle being nice...so
bye bye mean people....)
Here you can see our arrivals....Kris,
Snook, Julie, and Bobby out front of the Marriott Marquis and
then going up the escalators. Wow, look at Barry and I all decked
out, too...like Siegfried and Roy without the maiming...well
except for how my hair turned out! That extra purty one at the
end is the Divine Jamie....And get a load of those Hula girls!
Here in the lobby, we were served champaigne and all kinds of
fishy stuff. This is also where security gave me a grilling
for bringing a gift basket...as soon as I said "I'm Mister
D....what's it to ya???"....well that's when I was wrestled
to the ground, but thank God Bette's tour manager took pity
upon me and my little basket and graciously took it to her....anthrax,
my ass!!!!:-)
Now it's time to go in....looking
at the invitation they had in our seats we see who the emcee
and auctioneers will be...go ahead and take a look.! Look at
us now sitting so elegantly at our table...this will be the
last time you'll see us like this:-) If you look harder, you
can check out the Divine Menu and Foods that we partook of...LOL
Is that a word? I like it! Oh and look, there are some Fish
People! I think I might have eaten one of them in the lobby!
We also were able to watch the highly energetic David
Sanders Dancers. They made me feel very old...
Okay....our food is being eaten,
but the auction begins. You can see the list of what was auctioned
off. I think they raised some 1.3 million dollars in all that
night. Some of the people you are seeing are Caroline Rhea,
Joy Behar, Jann Wenner (founder of Rolling Stone magazine),
the Fab 5: Ted, Kyan, Carson, Jai, Thom (came late, got stuck
in traffic) and some British dude auctioneer from Cristie's....Wow,
there's Governor Ann Richards, Liz Smith. Bette and Richard
Levine (honoree) and Ellen Levine (honoree)....then there's
Bette just shmoozing with people left and right...some I didn't
even know....oops there's Marc Shaiman and then Bette with the
Devil and Angel...and then Miss M meets Mister D and Snook....that's
Jamie next to Bette in the forefront...she's telling Bette who
I am while I barely get a "hi" out from under my frozen
smile. And doesn't Snook look cute???? We were very happy! But
she was whisked away....to the stage to present the Wind Beneath
My Wings Award to Richard and Ellen Levine...
First, click on that readable
card and find out who the honorees are...learn about them!!!
Bette's talking about NYRP and Richard and Ellen. Snook and
I look on in rapture! Bette puts on a doctor's coat that Mr.
Levine gave her...Doctor Divine, she is! Now she's singing Wind
Beneath My Wings
Next Donna Summer is introduced
by Bette. She comes out strong with: MacArthur's Park
and Bad Girls There are a few shots of Ms.
Summer and Ms. Midler in here, although they are from video
transfers and rather blurry...but you can kind of get the picture..Here's
Bette starting out Hot
Stuff. She and Donna do a little dancing and strutting...even
dueling mike stands...awesome....By this time I'm on the dance
stage with the Fab 5 and Caroline...we're all singing and yelping
and grabbing each others booties:-) Just kidding!
.Other pictures are of me either
dancing with or posing with the guys from "Queer
Eye For The Straight Guy" These guys were so nice and
down home...I hope they don't let celebrity go to their heads.
They carried no airs about them at all. Caroline was a dream...the
same way...here's more pics....
Donna closes out with Last
Dance and Bette joins her on the ovation. The crowd
goes wild...
Thom, one of the Fab 5 tries
to give me a make-over ... he thinks my jacket may have caused
the hole in the ozone layer. Carson, the blonde one earlier
up there, kept calling me "Nashville" which used to
be my old name in the yahoo group....however, one can't help
it when they actually do become "Divine":-) Oh there's
Jamie and I with Chris Botti and Caroline Rhea....
And last, but not least....here
I am with the coolest techno guy around, Moby....can you tell
I'm watching out for Eminem's thugs!!!!
The Gift Basket: At the end
of the benefit, Bette had a pumpkin bag full of goodies for
all of her guests....we dumped ours out just for you....cool,
huh? What's in here? The Good HouseKeeping Everyday Cookbook,
The South Beach Diet, Bette Midler Sings The Rosemary Clooney
Songbook CD, and one other Bette CD (each bag had a different
one), A Pez Candy Dispenser, The Very Best of the Beach Boys
CD, Estee Lauder LightSource Moisturizing Lotion, a Flexical
Calculator that rolls up, a scented teacup candle, gummi bears,
lollipops, breathe fresheners, Pearl Vodka, a pumpkin fan, a
beach towel, and a pumpkin bag to put all of this crap in there;-)
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I know this story was brief
and fast, but I know how anxious Bette fans can be. I won't
keep mentioning it, but I've been very ill, so I just wanted
to get this up as fast as I could. If you have any questions,
you can write me at:
webmaster@bootlegbetty.com
I dedicate this little ditty
to Julie Pardini and Snook. Thanks for a great time...wish it
were longer. Also thank you so much for the tix to see "The
Boy From Oz". Mr. Jackman owns that part...
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