Philadelphia Inquirer
Sideshow: Divine Midler shifts genres
By Tirdad Derakhshani
Bette Midler hasn’t been on the big screen nearly enough as she should since wrapping up her Vegas revue, The Showgirl Must Go On, in 2010. “I . . . take meetings” all the time, Bette, 66, tells USA Today. “Doing a movie is like pulling together a giant ship. It’s not easy.” Luckily, Bette has a new pic due over the holidays, the Billy Crystal comedy Parental Guidance.
Bette, who bagged a reported $40 mil from the revue, isn’t eager to return to the stage. “I served my time. It was fun while it lasted,” says Bette, “but it was hard, very hard at the end. I was very tired. I was injured last year – a herniated disc. It made me sit down and think about what I wanted to do.” Surely she’s not retiring?
There’s one other career possibility: rock-and-roll.
“I took up guitar after reading Keith Richards‘ Life,” she says. “Not so much about what he wrote about his life, but it was the way he felt about music and how it transports you.” How good is she? “I’m just a clumper.”
