The Other Beaches Duo
For 16 years, comedienne Bette Midler and producer Bonnie Bruckheimer were The All Girls Productions. On Tuesday, January 17th, the latter joins HMS for a stroll through the universe of Beaches.
By FilmStew Staff
It began in 1988 for producing partners Bette Midler and Bonnie Bruckheimer with, appropriately enough, a couple of illiterations – Big Business, starring Bette and Lily Tomlin as fraternal twins, and Beaches, the mother of all contemporary chick flicks headlined by Bette and Barbara Hershey. In between this impressive double debut and 2002’s Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, there were other “B” projects – For the Boys, Bette Midler in Concert, the TV series Bette and Some of My Best Friends.
But overall, a lot has changed since this duo’s shingle of The All Girl Productions held court in the main-adjacent structure of the Disney lot. Michael Eisner is no longer the rising patriarch; Disney is no longer king of the animated roost; and the chick flick genre that Beaches relaunched has seen itself stumble of late at the domestic box office with the likes of Must Love Dogs and In Her Shoes.
Still, in the shadow of a barely working Julia Roberts being reconfirmed by the Hollywood Reporter as Tinseltown’s top-paid female star, it will be interesting to hear the thoughts of Bonnie Bruckheimer as to the then, and now. Today, of course, her hubby Jerry Bruckheimer rules both the film and TV arenas, with on this coming year’s horizon such big screen efforts as Glory Road and another Pirates of the Caribbean.
Like similar producer power couples Richard and Lauren Schulder-Donner, or Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy, it takes a powerful mix of secure personalities to live and work in the same treacherous industry trenches. True, the Bruckheimers have done it less than these other esteemed pairings, but you can bet there’s still a lot of great pillow talk to be had, saucier than anything you’ll ever read in the trades.
So, whether Beaches is your favorite three-hanky tearjerker or you’re simply in the mood for a bit of innocent nostalgia about Bette, Disney and the decade when greed was still simply good, plan on attending FilmStew sister company Hollywood’s Master Storytellers special presentation of Beaches. And perhaps, if you dare, you can ask the question about Barbara Hershey’s infamous collagen lip injections.
[Hollywood’s Master Storytellers’ special presentation of Beaches, with a moderated Q&A featuring producer Bonnie Bruckheimer, will begin at 7:30pm on Tuesday January 17th, 2006 at the Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood. Tickets are available online or at the theatre box office.
Twice a month or more, Hollywood’s Master Storytellers showcases some of the motion picture industry’s most fascinating storytellers. Since its launch in January 2003, HMS has been host to such luminaries as Jeffrey Katzenberg (Shrek 2), Art Linson and Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High), Stan Lee (X2: X-Men United) and Frank Marshall (The Bourne Supremacy). Other HMS guests include James Cameron, Sidney Sheldon, Richard Donner and George Clooney.]
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