Friday, June 04, 2004 – Page updated at 12:00 A.M.
Kay McFadden
Seattle Times staff columnist
“Inside the Actors Studio,” 8 p.m. Sunday on Bravo.
It’s such a dilemma. On the one hand there’s James Lipton, whose boot-licking attention to guests indicates he’d find value in Pia Zadora.
On the other, there’s Bette Midler, this Sunday’s guest. Intelligent, lippy, a quadruple threat in the venues of film, TV, recording and concerts, she’s nearly always great entertainment.
Yet against Lipton’s blandishments, the Divine Miss M’s spiciness nearly fails. He seems oblivious to the telling clue or the opportune moment; nearly as insensitive are the choppy edits that vault us practically in mid-sentence from one response to another.
But she’s Bette Midler. She’s got “The Stepford Wives” to promote. She’s a gamer, and it’s worth seeing her smile through a grimace when the audience gets up and sings “The Wind Beneath My Wings.”
