This quote is from November 2016, a lifetime ago:
“I haven’t left my house in days. I watch the news channels incessantly. All the news stories are about the election; all the commercials are Viagra and Cialis. Election, erection, election, erection! Either way we’re screwed!“
That mango-hued, twice-impeached, disgraced, White Nationalist former POTUS and Bette Midler have had a long Twitter war.
Here is one of my favorites tweets from Midler:
There once was a girl from Slovenia
Who now lives right on Pennsylvania
To the East Room she’ll flee
From her husband’s wee wee
While he plays with his own schizophrenia
(@BetteMidler)
In 2019, this happened:
Washed up psycho @BetteMidler was forced to apologize for a statement she attributed to me that turned out to be totally fabricated by her in order to make “your great president” look really bad. She got caught, just like the Fake News Media gets caught. A sick scammer!
(@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2019
Yes, one must always check the quotes. That should take up, oh, maybe 23 of the 24 hours in the day? Because there are SO MANY LIES, most of them generated by Trump himself, that the task of separating the truth from the lies is impossible. Which is just how he likes it. #CHAOS
(@BetteMidler) June 5, 2019
The gays know her story: Midler began her career in Off-Broadway plays, prior to her appearing on Broadway in Fiddler On The Roof and Salvation on Broadway in the late 1960s. In 1970, she began doing an act at the Continental Baths, a Manhattan bathhouse, where she gained a considerable following. Her musical director and piano accompanist at the baths was Barry Manilow, who produced her first album, The Divine Miss M (1972).
When she released her album Bathhouse Betty (1998), Midler commented on her time performing at the baths, writing:
“Despite the way things turned out with the AIDS crisis, I’m still proud of those days. I feel like I was at the forefront of the gay liberation movement, and I hope I did my part to help it move forward. So, I kind of wear the label of ‘Bathhouse Betty’ with pride.”
Midler has released 14 studio albums as a solo artist, selling over 30 million records worldwide. Many of her recording became hits, including The Rose, Wind Beneath My Wings, Do You Want To Dance?, her fabulous cover of the Andrew Sisters’ World War II hit Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, and the lush ballad, From A Distance.
This autumn, Midler returned to films with Hocus Pocus 2, a sequel to the 1993 film Hocus Pocus, with Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy, reprising their roles.
I have seen Midler in concert seven times, more than any other artist. The first time was in Boston in 1973, and the last was in Portland in 2004. In a career spanning half a century, Midler has won three Grammy Awards, four Golden Globes, three Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Kennedy Center Honor.
In 2020, she was seen playing Bella Abzug in the film The Glorias: A Life On The Road, a biopic directed by Julie Taymor about Gloria Steinem, played by Julianne Moore and Alicia Vikander. She returned with an even bigger presence in Season Two of Ryan Murphy‘s The Politician for Netflix that year, along with Coastal Elites written by Paul Rudnick, with Sarah Paulson, Dan Levy and Issa Rae playing people navigating life during the first years of the COVID pandemic on HBO.
Today is Midler’s 77th birthday! She continues to stir the shit on Twitter. Just yesterday, Midler was giving it to a bunch of MAGAs and Nazis with her wit and style.
