Indiana Gazette
September 23, 1995
Love-love-love the idea of Bette Midler playing Jacqueline Susann – or some ersatz version of her – in a movie based on Michael Karda’s recent New Yorker memoir about the late author. This unusual project could really stretch Midler’s acting muscles. Many critics thought “Gypsy” was the role of Midler’s life.
Belting out those Styne/Sondheim classics, she seemed totally in her element. But others Insist Bette gave her greatest performance playing completely against the type of material she prefers – as “The Rose‘s” desperate, drug-addicted rock-and-roller. Bette was never more compelling or convincing than as a fictionalized Janis Jopltn.
All this is still in the talking stages, but it’s an absolutely .delicious idea to cast Bette as the slick, sleek novelist who revolutionized book promotion and gave the world “Valley of the Dolls”
