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Archives
Monthly Archives: January 2015
Saturday, January 31, 2015
Rare Footage Captures Bette Midler’s 1971 Farewell Performance At NYC Gay Bathhouse

Lily Tomlin Has First Leading Role Since Big Business!
GayStarNews
In Grandma, Lily Tomlin has first leading role in a film in 27 years – and she’s playing a bisexual poet
Comedy legend was last above title in 1988’s Big Business opposite Bette Midler in 1988
30 JANUARY 2015 | BY GREG HERNANDEZ
The last time Lily Tomlin had a starring role in a film, the Berlin Wall was still standing, Ronald Reagan was president of the US and it still would be 16 more years before the launch of Facebook.
But the 75-year-old comedy legend is back above the title in the comedy Grandma which premiered this week at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.
In her first leading role since 1988’s Big Business with Bette Midler, Tomlin plays a feminist poet who is breaking up with her far younger girlfriend and still dealing with the death of her longtime partner.
The poet’s granddaughter shows up needing money for an abortion and Tomlin’s character takes her around LA trying to get the money for it.
‘I know I’m putting myself on the line, kind of,’ Tomlin tells the Los Angeles Times. ‘But I trusted (writer-director by Paul Weitz) and I liked the material. First of all, he had written it with me in mind, and he wanted me. Then as we worked through the material, it just seemed like a good thing to do.’
Sony Pictures Classics picked up distribution of the film shortly before its Sundance premiere so the independent movie will make it into theaters.
Leading up to Big Business 27 years ago, Tomlin had been a frequent lead in movies including All of Me with Steve Martin, The Incredible Shrinking Woman, and 9 to 5 with Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton.
She was also nominated for an Academy Award for her feature film debut in 1975’s Nashville.
In more recent decades, Tomlin has been part of many ensemble casts in such films as Short Cuts, I Heart Huckabees, Flirting With Disaster and A Prairie Home Companion.

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Friday, January 30, 2015
Thursday, January 29, 2015
BetteBack November 13, 1988: Bette Midler Gets Early Oscar Buzz For Beaches
Pacific Stars And Stripes
November 13, 1988
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Oscar campaigns begin earlier every year, and already the guns of autumn are firing for such potential nominees as Tom Hanks, Jodie Foster, Sigourney Weaver and Don Ameche.
The studios and publicity offices are readying trade paper ads to offer films and performances “for your consideration.” The champ in that department is Tom Hanks.
THE AFFABLE Hanks has been the subject of the biggest publicity blitz since last year’s blast for Cher, who ended up with the best-actress Oscar for “Moonstruck.”
First with “Big” and then with “Punchline,” Hanks has been the recipient of glowing reviews, many of which mentioned his Oscar chances.
A Hanks nomination seems certain, but for which movie? If academy voters judge by financial success, they might choose his role in “Big” as the youngster who is transformed overnight into a 30-year-old.
But they might consider his troubled comic in Punchline more of a comedic challenge.
SOME OBSERVERS believe Weaver is overdue for an Oscar, and she is likely to be nominated for her role as the obsessed naturalist Dian Fossey in “Gorillas in the Mist.” If the academy had an award for bravery, she would certainly win it for working intimately with the wild gorillas.
Two recent performances have drawn academy predictions from many reviewers: Jodie Foster’s rape victim in “The Accused”; Don Ameche’s innocent among the Mafia in “Things Change.”
As with last year, the strongest race appears to be among the female stars. Aside from Weaver and Foster, other performances which have attracted strong support include: Shirley MacLaine , “Madame Sousatzka”; Barbara Hershey, “A World Apart”; Meryl Streep, “A Cry in the Dark“; Whoopi Goldberg, “Clara’s Heart”; Sally Field, “Punchline”; Gene Rowlands, “Another Woman.”
Joining Hanks and Ameche as possibilities for best actor: Forest Whitaker, “Bird”; Sam Neill, “A Cry in the Dark”; Ben Kingsley, Pascali’s Island”; Willem Dafoe, “The Last Temptation of Christ”; Edward James Olmos, “Stand and Deliver”; Kevin Costner, “Bull Durham.”
HOWEVER, so far no runaway has been cited for best picture of 1988.
Here are some possibles: “Big”; “Gorillas in the Mist”; “Punchline”; “A Cry in the Dark”; “Bull Durham”; “Madame Sousatzka.”
The Oscar race will undoubtedly change as new entries reach the marketplace. The most promising works include:
• “Rainman,” with Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise.
• “Torch Song Trilogy,” starring Harvey Fierstein in the film version of his hit play, with Anne Bancroft and Matthew Broderick.
• “Mississippi Burning,” starring Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe.
• “Talk Radio,” with Ellen Green and Alec Baldwin.
• “The Accidental Tourist,” co-starring William Hurt and Kathleen Turner.
• “Beaches,” with Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey.
• “Working Girl,” starring Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford and Sigourney Weaver.
The 61st Annual Academy Awards will arrive early next year — March 29. For the second year the ceremonies will be held at the Shrine Auditorium.

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Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Bette Tweets: 2015 Tour
Posted in General
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We Are The World Turns 30!
USA Today
‘We Are the World‘ at 30: 12 tales you might not know
Brian Mansfield, USA TODAY 10:11 a.m. EST January 28, 2015
The all-star recording session for We Are the World, the biggest charity single of all time, took place 30 years ago Wednesday.
On Jan. 28, 1985, at A&M Recording Studios in Hollywood, following the American Music Awards, more than 40 artists gathered to record a song Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson had written to raise awareness of widespread, life-threatening poverty in Africa. Most of that show’s winners — including Cyndi Lauper, Hall & Oates, Bruce Springsteen, Huey Lewis, Willie Nelson, Tina Turner, the Pointer Sisters, Kenny Rogers and the Jacksons — participated.
Inspired by the U.K. all-star charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas?, released a few months earlier, We Are the World was released March 7, 1985, and went on to sell more than 20 million copies. The more than $75 million raised by non-profit organization USA for Africa helped to fight poverty on the continent. The song also won three Grammy Awards in 1986, including song and record of the year.
“A great song lasts for eternity,” says Quincy Jones, who produced the track. “I guarantee you that if you travel anywhere on the planet today and start humming the first few bars of that tune, people will immediately know that song.”
Here are 12 things you might not know about the song and the recording session:
Stevie Wonder, not Michael Jackson, originally was supposed to be Richie’s co-writer.
“I was really trying to get in touch with Stevie and couldn’t do it,” Richie says. “Stevie was touring a lot. He was doing a lot of stuff.” A phone call with Jones got him and Jackson involved. “I got Michael before I could get Stevie,” Richie says. “We said, ‘If Stevie calls me back, we’ll get him in. In the meantime, I think we can get it done with Michael.’ ”
Richie and Jackson listened to national anthems to get in the proper frame of mind to write. ...
Darlenne Love’s Upcoming Album Will Feature Bette Midler Duet
Mister D: Just found out this will be the same song that’s on Bette’s album!
Longtime fan Steven Van Zandt is producing an album for Love with material written specifically for her by himself as well as by Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Dion, Joan Jett, and Jimmy Webb. The album also will feature a duet with Bette Midler.

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Tuesday, January 27, 2015
BetteBack October 30, 1988: Lainie Kazan Plays Bette Midler’s Mother In Beaches
Anderson Herald Bulletin
October 30, 1988
QUESTION: What’s this about Lainie Kazan, the ever-chubby singer-actress, losing a lot ofweight? Is she sick or something? CW
ANSWER: It’s true that Lainie has dropped some weight. But she did it voluntarily; It had nothing to do with being sick. In quite another sense, however, Kazan tells me she is indeed sick — sick of playing fatsos on the screen. Once a voluptuous sexpot nightclub singer, she now yearns for the old days. So she went on a tough diet-exercise regimen and dropped some 39 pounds. In her latest flick, “Beaches,†opposite Bette Midler, Lainie plays yet another overweight mama. The film is due around Christmas. After that, she promises, It’s going to be strictly lithesome Lainie.

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Posted in Beaches, BetteBack
Tagged Bette Midler, Britney Spears, Caesars Palace, Celine Dion, Christmas, Christmas Eve, Feticide, Indiana, Las Vegas, The Herald Bulletin
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