NEW YORK (AP) – Bette Midler hasn’t lost any of her punch, including the ones that land below the belt. But she may have to quit singing her theme song, Friends, after certain celebrities hear her new album.
The title may just say it all: Mud WILL Be Flung Tonight. She talked about her latest work one recent afternoon at her New York loft. There’s a new movie, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, as well as her comedy LP, which recalls some of the wickedness of h er e a r ly d a ys w h en s he wisecracked to a mostly gay audience at New York’s Continental Baths.
“It’s not a lot of mud, it’s just twit mud,” she said, with a mock pout.
As for having any friends left after the album’s release, she took a thoughtful pull on a cigarette, and laughed: “I didn’t have any friends when I started.”
From quips about Bruce Springsteen (“Bruce, you look good. What happened?”) to imitations of Meryl Streep‘s accent to merciless digs at Sally Field’s screeching “You like me!” Academy Award acceptance speech, Miss Midler’s album proves she’s not only divine, she’s diabolical.
” A c t u a l l y , ” s h e s a i d , “everybody that I dumped on on that record I happen to like a lot.”
In fact, the album is just good, foul-mouthed fun, and it carries a disclaimer sticker: “This album contains material that may be deemed offensive by Bruce Springsteen, Madonna and Prince. For adults only.”
Midler also sings several songs, including a ditty about the invention of the brassiere, and reprises the Sophie Tucker routines from her De Tour tour of 1982-83. But what Miss M was really up to in much of 1985 was shooting a movie with a few of Hollywood’s bad boys, appearing at benefits, including the Live Aid concert and getting to know her husband of one year.
“I finished a film with … Nick Nolle and Richard Dreyfuss, and that was a great experience,” she s a i d. “Di ck D r e y f u ss w as hysterically funny and charming, and Nick Nolle was great, too. The three of us have not the best reputations in town … but we were good. We were all on real good behavior and very supportive of o n e  a n o t h e r a n d it
was tremendous.”
The movie, which opens Jan. 30, is a remake of the Jean Renoir classic, Boudou Saved From Drowning.
