Huffington Post
The New Iron Man Blows Me Away — Beautiful Authors at Literacy Gala
Liz Smith
Posted: 05/23/2013 9:53 am
“What a rage for fame attends both great and small! Better be damned than mentioned not at all!” wrote Peter Pindar.
”¢ I was in Orso, the under-stated theatre café on West 44th Street the other night, and there was music tycoon Clive Davis with his entire family. I asked why they seemed so excited. “Why, because we are going on to see Bette Midler’s show over on 45th Street at the Booth!” I told them, with all the authority I possess, that I’d already seen Bette play the Hollywood agent, Sue Mengers, twice!
Bette is going strong and I still think that although the Tony Awards neglected her, they should have asked her to emcee the Tony theater show with Neil Patrick Harris on June 9. I’ll bet Bette would have accepted the challenge just for the hell of it.
While all the hoopla surrounds Bette on Broadway, let’s not forget her husband of a lifetime, 29 years this December — Martin von Haselberg, who has his own show going on. “Paintings and Works On Paper” can be seen at the Rose Burlingham Gallery, 2 West 123rd Street (between Lenox and Mt. Morris Park) or at the Martin von Hasselberg Studio 165 Lenox Avenue in Harlem.
Let’s not forget that Martin is a true performance artist and no “Mr. Midler.” I personally think he is a genius and I’m not surprised that he is thriving in the hottest art form extant today — drawings and paintings!
