Word: one
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Those who do not yet know about her soon will. Hollywood tom-toms are all but nominating her for an Academy Award for her first screen role, in The Rose. The movie, the story of a doomed '60s rock star, is one of the few commercial hits of the fall season, and enthusiastic word of mouth is proving more potent than any advertising. Meanwhile, for those who can make it to Broadway, the lady's other, outrageously funny side is on view at the Palace Theater in Bette! Divine Madness. It is the hottest ticket in Manhattan...
...even laughs at her own pretensions to stardom. She announces that she is "a screen star, in the tradition of Shirley Temple, Liv Ullmann and Miss Piggy." When the audience good-naturedly boos one of her jokes, she exclaims: "The crowd turns on the diva. [Pause] But the diva doesn't care!" Her singing, much of it done with three saucy young women called the Harlettes, is no threat to Streisand, or even Minnelli. But it bursts with feeling-almost too much for mere lyrics to express...
...Rose grew up in warm Florida, Bette in balmy Hawaii, and they were both unhappy. In Bette's family, as she remembers, there was always a lot of angry bellowing from her father, a house painter for the Navy. Even today Fred Midler has not come to see one of her shows, a source of obvious pain to his daughter. But Bette had a hardship even Rose didn't have: hers was the only Jewish family in a neighborhood of Samoans...
...almost did. Like Alan Bates, who plays Rose's tyrannical man ager in the movie, Russo dominated Bette's life and her career, in terms of the job his advice was impeccable. Until The Rose, he turned down every film role that was offered, waiting for the one that would let her shine brightest. People laughed at the time, but on her European tour last year, he even demanded that she be paid in gold. He was turned down, but the idea was far from laughable. Gold has since more than doubled in value...
...pair's fights became almost epic in scope. "I liked a good fight like he did," Midler recalls. "But I didn't like any one to fight back, and he fought much harder than I did." She left him and fled to Paris for three months in 1974, only to return for several more rounds. The knockout came last February, and Bette dropped Russo as her manager...