Photo: Bette Midler Celebrated Kathy Najimy’s Birthday Last Night

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Bootleg Betty
Bette Midler Celebrates Kathy Najimy’s Birthday Last Night
By Mister D
February 7, 2025

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Nothing compares to Bette Midler spending your birthday eve with you. Lucky Kathy Najimy! I wonder if they talked about Hocud Pocus 3?

The Sanderson sisters reunited in New York City.

Kathy Najimy and Bette Midler celebrated Najimy’s 68th birthday on Wednesday, Feb. 5, where Midler joined Najimy for a pre-birthday celebration dinner at Michael’s NYC.

Najimy posted a sweet image to Instagram of the pair embracing each other at the dinner table donning coordinating black sweaters. Najimy’s birthday is Thursday, Feb. 6.

“Nothing BETTEr than a birthday-eve dinner with this beauty last night. ?,” Najimy simply captioned the photo.

The longtime friends were seemingly joined by Najimy’s husband Dan Finnerty, who was tagged in the photo but did not appear in it.

Finnerty, who has been married to Najimy since 1998, posted a sweet message on his own Instagram, writing “Happy birthday to my sweet sweet lady.”

Midler, 79, and Najimy notably portrayed the spooky Sanderson sisters in the Hocus Pocus films together, as Winifred and Mary, alongside Sarah Jessica Parker as Sarah.

In the original Hocus Pocus, which hit theaters in 1993, Salem teen Max (Omri Katz) inadvertently resurrects the evil Sanderson sisters — who were hanged three centuries prior — when he lights the Black Flame Candle on Halloween at the sisters’ former home. They wreak havoc on the town before meeting their demise.

Nearly 30 years later, Najimy, Midler and Parker starred in the sequel film, which followed the Sanderson sisters’ second resurrection — and gave insight into how the Sandersons became witches centuries ago.

Bette Midler Hasn’t Seen a Script for Hocus Pocus 3 but Shares ‘Fun’ Idea for Winifred’s Story (Exclusive)
When the sequel premiered in September 2022, Najimy told PEOPLE how special it is to be a part of the film franchise that audiences adore.

“It just really is very generational, but nobody is more surprised than we are about how this movie and these characters have just flooded through people’s Halloweens and they really take it seriously,” she said. “They really, really look forward to it. And it’s flattering.

Najimy also added, “Who knew that almost 30 years later we’d be doing this sequel?” Joking that a third installment of Hocus Pocus would have to come sooner rather than later. “I think if we did it 30 years later again, well, there would be walkers and canes involved. The flying might just be a little one-foot blip off the ground.”

Less than a year after the sequel’s premiere, Sean Bailey — who was president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production at the time — confirmed in a June 2023 interview with The New York Times that a third installment was green-lit.

Jen D’Angelo, who penned Hocus Pocus 2, told Entertainment Weekly in October 2023, that she was figuring out the Sanderson sisters’ next movies. “We’re still in the story phase and working on it,” said D’Angelo.

“We’ve been working on some ideas, and it’s been fun to dive back into that world, and we have so many directions in which to go and so many new characters to explore,” she added.

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Hocus Pocus 1 and 2 are available to stream on Disney+.