Orange Is The New Black’s Lea DeLaria On Working With Bette Midler In First Wive’s Club

Gay Salt Lake
The Butch Beneath Our Wings
June 13, 2016

Shifting gears: Let’s talk about your cameo in one of the gayest classics of all time, First Wives Club. What’s an onscreen scolding from Bette Midler like?

Just like an offscreen scolding! (Laughs)

Wait wait, there’s a story there.

I gotta say, you must be about my fiancée’s age because everybody of her generation ”“ she’s 31 ”“ loves that movie. That’s her favorite movie. I’m like, mine’s Rebecca. I’m just saying, First Wives Club is your favorite movie?!

The best thing about First Wives Club, though, beyond the fact that I got to be in it and beyond the fact that Paul Rudnick wrote that for me, which was very cool, was getting to work with Bette, who is my hero and one of the reasons I went into show business. But more than that was becoming friends with Goldie Hawn. Goldie is just an absolute unbelievable doll. Talented. Brilliant. Charming. Just a lovely human being. I had a blast doing First Wives Club.