The Mirror (London, England)
June 23, 2000
Mister D: I think it’s safe to say every Bettehead knows these things about Bette…lol
The latest film of actress-comedienne Bette, 55, is, Isn’t She Great? based on the life of Jacqueline Susann, author of the sex and drugs bonkbuster The Valley Of The Dolls.
1. Her childhood heroine, Bette Davis, inspired the Hawaiian-born star to enter showbiz. In her late teens, she moved to New York to find her fortune and got a chorus-line gig in the Broadway show Fiddler On The Roof.
2 In her spare time, billed as The Divine Miss M, she performed a lewd cabaret act in local nightclubs. Barry Manilow was her piano player at the time. She became a massive hit with the underground gay scene and attracted mainstream audiences.
3 David Frost was instrumental in Bette’s finding fame. Her appearance on his US chat show in the early ’70s led to a recording contract. Her movie break—some would say her career-best performance—was in 1979’s The Rose, about the life of tragic rocker Janis Joplin.
4 Twice Oscar-nominated – for The Rose and the 1992 weepie For The Boys – she had a string of box-office hits during the ’80s, including Ruthless People and Down & Out In Beverly Hills. Bette was the first choice for the comedy hit Sister Act but turned it down.
5 She lives in Manhattan with her husband, performance artist Martin Von Haselberg, and their daughter Sophie, 14. She is a member of the Green Party and helped set up the New York Restoration project, an environmental charity that has already rescued 200 acres of parkland North of the city
