yahoomusic: Bette Midler is here with us now!
yahoomusic: Welcome Bette!
yahoomusic: Thank you so much for joining us. . . .
i_am_the_divine_one: Hello out there in cyberspace! I feel like Orville and Wilbur all rolled into one, very exciting and bewildering. But here I am!

snookum000 asks: Many of us were blown away by your rendition of "Mary" performed on the Millennium Tour. Have you recorded or will you record that song?
i_am_the_divine_one: I was in the studio in February and I did record the song.
i_am_the_divine_one: People really did love it. It was the song on the show that got one of the best responses. We were so excited by it we recorded it, one of the first things we recorded when we into the studio around January 15.
i_am_the_divine_one: We spent about two weeks cutting tracks. We loved the song and have very high hopes for it.


Marty2634 asks: Hello Bette, Describe what roles you portray in the upcoming movies:"Isn't She Great" and "Drowning Mona"?
i_am_the_divine_one: In Drowning Mona I play the meanest woman in the world.
i_am_the_divine_one: And in Isn't She Great I play a loosely inspired version of Jacky Susanne, a real party girl in the fifties and sixties.
i_am_the_divine_one: Who only wanted to be a star, and become a star of sorts, but had a sad life.
i_am_the_divine_one: Both pictures were fun to make. I think the Jackie Susann movie didn't do great, but people have been going in droves to Drowning Mona. So that's been fun to watch.
i_am_the_divine_one: I understand that when audiences see me on the screen in Drowning Mona, they gasp.
i_am_the_divine_one: I look absolutely ghastly. But everyone looks pretty terrible! And everyone is pretty pissed off, so I'm not alone!
i_am_the_divine_one: When I read the script I thought it was really, really funny. It was a world apart.
i_am_the_divine_one: Down to the last detail it was it's own world. But it was a world that a lot of people would recognize.
i_am_the_divine_one: And I liked the script and the director. But I'm not in it very much. And that was one of the reasons I did it. I wanted to have the experience but I didn't want a very long experience.
i_am_the_divine_one: It was short but sweet, as so many things in life are.


vfibarrest asks: Any new movies planned?
i_am_the_divine_one: I am going to do a couple of days with Mel Gibson on a picture called What Women Want.
i_am_the_divine_one: And I have a picture of our own called Finders Keepers in the fall.
i_am_the_divine_one: That's a comedy.
i_am_the_divine_one: That part is wild woman, she's out there.
i_am_the_divine_one: And we have a few surprises. Some things that have come in that are shockingly funny, that we're going to try and get done.


snookum000 asks: Your fans strongly desire a boxed cd set of your recordings (which would include rare live performances), and a video tape collection of long unavailable movies (Ole Red Hair Is Back, The Bette Midler Show, Diva Las Vegas, etc). Any chance our wish will be granted? :)
i_am_the_divine_one: I really didn't.
i_am_the_divine_one: The record company , my old one, Atlantic, said they wanted to do the boxed set.
i_am_the_divine_one: I'll get on it right away.
i_am_the_divine_one: Will you buy it, or shall I just stream it over Yahoo!?


divinedivap asks: Will you ever do Broadway again?
i_am_the_divine_one: Hmm. You know, I've been asked a couple of times by some very lovely people to participate in revivals.
i_am_the_divine_one: I was asked to do a revival of WHo's Afraid of Virginia Wolff which would be a lot of fun to do.
i_am_the_divine_one: And a friend of mine is writing a musical, and I'm waiting to see how it turns out.
i_am_the_divine_one: My last tour I had so much fun singing with this band, and so much fun being on the road, that I would really like to do that exclusively for awhile.
i_am_the_divine_one: A lot of blue eyed soul music that I haven't sung in public before that I really love. My record is a lot of that. And I'm seiously thinking about a soul review.


spence_spin asks: I heard that "Knight in Black Leather" from your '79 album is back on the top charts in Philedelphia. Do you plan on re-releasing any hits?
i_am_the_divine_one: It is? No, I'm trying to make some new hits!


betteorbust_2000 asks: What was the craziest gift you received from your fans on the Millennium Tour?
i_am_the_divine_one: Huh, that is a really good question. This year I got a lot of sports equipment, a lot of football helmets, I'm not sure why.
i_am_the_divine_one: I got a fabulous book, a lot of books, a lot of cookbooks.
i_am_the_divine_one: Crazy gifts? I met a lot of crazy people. I got a few strange pairs of platform shoes in very large sizes that were very funny.


mermaidatbat asks: Will "The Divine Miss Millenium Tour" ever be taped? Or was it taped in Vegas? So many of us would love to relive it!!
i_am_the_divine_one: We did not tape it.
i_am_the_divine_one: We shot video every night for the show.
i_am_the_divine_one: And every night's performance we have in a box somewhere.
i_am_the_divine_one: But I wasn't thinking of putting it out cause the sound quality wasn't very good.
i_am_the_divine_one: I just wanted it be especially for the people who came. That was the whole thrust of the tour itself.
i_am_the_divine_one: However, I want to stream the actual New Year's Eve moments, and the moments leading up to the pyrotechnics, and stuff, it's about 10 minutes long and very funny.
i_am_the_divine_one: But I have to get the rights from the publishers of the songs.
i_am_the_divine_one: As soon as I get that done, I'll put it on this website and everyone can have a good laugh.
i_am_the_divine_one: I hope I do it before the next millenium.


mark_beth99 asks: will you have a spring/summer tour of "Miss Millennium" for the cities that were missed?
i_am_the_divine_one: Are you having any fun yet?!?


shmeebee98 asks: Bette, have you ever been asked to host the Oscars?, is this something you would consider, I think you would be perfectly Divine!!
i_am_the_divine_one: Thank you very much. I have been asked many times. But it's really a tough gig.
i_am_the_divine_one: If you succeed it's great, but if you fail, two billion people talk about you disparagingly for years on end.
i_am_the_divine_one: And I never had the personal courage to put myself on the line like that. Although I've been asked many times, I don't have the nerve.


cdavid_2000 asks: How did you like your episode in Seinfeld?
i_am_the_divine_one: LOL! I loved that show, I love them. It came about by accident.
i_am_the_divine_one: A friend, Marjorie Gross, was a writer on the show.
i_am_the_divine_one: And she was very sick at the time. She was a wonderful woman. I knew she had been sick for a long time.
i_am_the_divine_one: And she called me up and said that she had written an episode just for me.
i_am_the_divine_one: And I liked her so much and I wanted to do something to cheer her up. So we went out there and it was a wonderful experience.
i_am_the_divine_one: I miss that show and watch it every chance I get. It was hilariously funny.
i_am_the_divine_one: I felt like I had wandered in from another set. I wasn't that familiar with the show when I did it.
i_am_the_divine_one: I did things, but I didn't really know what it means. A lot of it was so inside.
i_am_the_divine_one: So I didn't get it. If you really watch me closely, you'll see I have kind of a puzzled look on my face for most of it.
i_am_the_divine_one: But I became friends with a lot of them afterwards, it was really a riot.


muzic_life asks: Bette, My friends and I are singing " Wind beneath my wings" at a college graduation. Do you have any tips for us? p.s. I'm really scared
i_am_the_divine_one: Listen to the piano. Listen to the piano player.
i_am_the_divine_one: Sing the song 100 times and it will be yours.


dead_girrrl asks: Did you know that you were once on the simpsons? did you like it? was it your voice that the simpsons recorded, or did they just get your permission to make up their own voice? I hope you answer my long question because Im a big fan or yours, xoixoxo
i_am_the_divine_one: I saw it, I did it, and I loved it, I thought it was hilarious, especially when they said, Oh, no, it's Bette Midler.
i_am_the_divine_one: I'm the kind of person who when people are idling their cars, I go up to them and say Do you know who I am?
i_am_the_divine_one: And they say, yes. And I say, could you shut your car off, your soiling my air.


sweetp01_2 asks: Of all of your characters you portray (Dleores DeLago, Vicki Eydie, Nannett) who is you favorite?
i_am_the_divine_one: Ooo. I guess I'd have to say Delores DeLago because I've been playing her the longest.
i_am_the_divine_one: She gets to sing all the songs that I want to sing but am too embarrassed to sing, the songs that you'd have to sing ironically. Like I Will Survive, and that theme from Titanic.
i_am_the_divine_one: But she's really an outgrowth of Vicki Edyie the desparate lounge singer.
i_am_the_divine_one: They are cut from the same cloth. But I've been doing Delores for so long, now she's turned into a little cottage industry.
i_am_the_divine_one: People like her, she's so full of beans, and so ill tempered. Plus she does major calesthenics.
i_am_the_divine_one: People admire her because she hops around in a mermaid tail for 20 minutes. People are very impressed by the effort she makes to entertain.
i_am_the_divine_one: Plus she's so snarly!
i_am_the_divine_one: She hops and she's snarly!
i_am_the_divine_one: That's a winning combinatoin.


treyfan1 asks: Good Evening, Ms.Midler, Thanks for taking my question. How did you feel being one of the few to be on Johnny Carson's last Tonight Show?
i_am_the_divine_one: How about one of the two? That was probably one of the biggest thrills of my whole life, definitely a high point, the memory will never fade.
i_am_the_divine_one: I have a picture, when it was over, he sent me a picture in a frame of one of our moments together when I was kissing him, and it was stolen out of my house.
i_am_the_divine_one: I was so upset, I called the office and asked for another one, and he sent me another one, with a card that I had framed.
i_am_the_divine_one: I'll read it to you. It was quite personal, and no one knows I have this.
i_am_the_divine_one: A really meaningful thing in my life. It says, Dear Bette, what a lovely person you are. Your note meant a great deal to me and then I saw you on the Charlie Rose Show and you made me cry all over again. Love, Johnny.
i_am_the_divine_one: Just the sweetest thing.
i_am_the_divine_one: Things like that only happen once in a lifetime.
i_am_the_divine_one: I have no memorabilia in my home. I read a lot. And I like other people's pictures and work.
i_am_the_divine_one: Most of my music I do in my head. I don't have any posters, and I have very pictures of me with so and so, I don't like that stuff, I think it's ostentatious.
i_am_the_divine_one: I prefer it to be memory. BUt that was so striking I kept it.
i_am_the_divine_one: I don't have any of my gold records. I have won quite a few awards, and I'm happy to have them, but I don't have them out.
i_am_the_divine_one: I always think awards are really nice, but it's such a crap shoot to get one.
i_am_the_divine_one: As the years go by, they come to mean different things.

Thu Mar 9 16:36:09 2000
i_am_the_divine_one: When I first got into the music business, I won a Grammey for best new artist. A long time ago.
i_am_the_divine_one: I had no sense of what it meant. Because I came from far away. I didn't realize what an honor it was. I was excited, but...maybe it got bigger, it became a weightier honor.
i_am_the_divine_one: I didn't take it as seriously as people seem to take it now.
i_am_the_divine_one: Now I look back on it and I'm thrilled and delighted I got it.


scarletto3 asks: What will the NYRP be working on this spring?
i_am_the_divine_one: We are trying to raise money to build the first boathouse in a hundred years to be built on the Harlem River.
i_am_the_divine_one: This year we have our Easter Egg hunt at Fort Tryon.
i_am_the_divine_one: We are building a brand new park at the corner of Dykman Street and the Harlem River Drive, all in northern Manhattan.
i_am_the_divine_one: And we are trying to continue to clean and maintain five parks in Northern Manhattan.
i_am_the_divine_one: In addition to this, we are also raising money to pay for the 115 gardens we purchased with The Trust For Public Land and on our own.
i_am_the_divine_one: And our website is finally up. So if you are really interested, my Yahoo! website has a link to the New York Restoration Project, and I like this site very much.
i_am_the_divine_one: And I encourage all of you to visit it, it's terrific and a great source of information. It's not finished, but it's up and running.


jeffreybette asks: boathouse betty is right, do you get many fans calling you?
i_am_the_divine_one: LOL!! That's fabulous! I will take that under serious consideration. That's hilarious!
i_am_the_divine_one: Am I too long winded?


starkiss606 asks: Good Evening,Ms. Midler, thanks for taking my question. Are you planning on directing or producing any movies in the near future?
i_am_the_divine_one: Well my company is producing Finders Keepers in the fall. And I think I'm not ready to direct.
i_am_the_divine_one: I'd like to be, as long as I can shake a tail feather, I'm gonna.


elephant_frog asks: For those who never knew- how did your original 'The Devine Miss M' name come to be
i_am_the_divine_one: Well, I had a very dear friend named Bill Hennessey. He was a hair dresser, my hair dresser in Fiddler on the Roof.
i_am_the_divine_one: When he was a free lance hair dresser, his nom de hair was Mr. Gerard.
i_am_the_divine_one: And his clients called him Mr. G fo r short. He was Mr. G and he named me Miss M.
i_am_the_divine_one: We were at the Continental Baths, it was our first night. He went everywhere with me when I worked,
i_am_the_divine_one: And the owner asked me how I wanted to be introduced, and I said, you can call me Miss M, and tell them I'm divine. And so he went out and said, And now, the Divine Miss M. And it stuck!
i_am_the_divine_one: In the song Baltimore Oriole, HOaghy Carmichaell wrote about the Diviine Miss O. But I didn't know that until years later.
i_am_the_divine_one: I thought if It's good enough for Hoagy Carmichael, it's certainly good enough for me. It could have been Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer, that sounds right.


divenutsuz asks: How do you do do it? The family, movies, recording music, aren't you exhausted?
i_am_the_divine_one: I'm pooped. In fact I'm flat on my back, even as we speak.


floridaisy asks: Bette, you are, of course, our favorite celebrity. But who are your favorite musicians and actors?
i_am_the_divine_one: I like a lot of musicians, I have a lot of respect for people who make music cause I know how hard it is, and how much emotion goes into making it.
i_am_the_divine_one: I listen to all kinds of music, a lot of rhythm and blues, jazz, a lot of folk music from all over the world. I listen to a lot of Hawaiin music, and even opera.
i_am_the_divine_one: Music makes me cry. It has so much power of me, and every year it gets worse. Every year I'm more and more astonished about how much I love it.
i_am_the_divine_one: One of the things I love about it is it makes me dance, and I love to dance. I love to watch people dance, and I love to dance myself.
i_am_the_divine_one: And I don't care what kind of dancing it is, I'll go see any kind of dancing, clog dancing, square dancing, ballet dancing. I think when people are dancing, they are their most beautiful, who they really are supposed to be, they really reveal themselves.
i_am_the_divine_one: That whole thing, music and dancing, the older I get the more in love with it I am.
i_am_the_divine_one: And there are greats in every area of music, the Latin musicians have their stars, the jazz people have their stars, rockers have their stars....
i_am_the_divine_one: For the most part, they are people who strike a chord in the audience. That the audience adores.
i_am_the_divine_one: But they don't even know why, they just love what this character is communicating to them.
i_am_the_divine_one: I have a lot of respect for actors, I was crazy about Anna Magnani, crazy about Julietta Massina, crazy about Simone Signoret, adore Marilyn Monroe, she was just like a sunbeam.
i_am_the_divine_one: I worshipped Charlie Chaplin since I was a little kid. And when I was really little I used to write to Stan Laurel. And he used to write me back.
i_am_the_divine_one: Or someone was writing me back, and I saved those letters.
i_am_the_divine_one: And I have to say Lucy, I have to say I love Lucy.
i_am_the_divine_one: I love Lucy, and I was so lucky to meet her, when I came to California for one of the first times, I was working at the Universal Amphitheater and she came to see me.
i_am_the_divine_one: She didn't go out a whole lot they lead me to believe.
i_am_the_divine_one: She was really tall, and I was so dumbstruck.
i_am_the_divine_one: And in real life she had a very low voice, because she smoked, and all those years of pitching her voice so high when she worked, I was just dumbstruck.
i_am_the_divine_one: I was so moved.
i_am_the_divine_one: And of course as the years have gone by, I realize what this was. I am so thrilled to have had the chance to meet her.
i_am_the_divine_one: And that was a real highlight too.
i_am_the_divine_one: Her daughter was very kind, Lucy was very kind to me.
i_am_the_divine_one: I didn't think Hollywood people could be that kind to someone they didn't know, it was an extraordinary experience, and another really meaningful moment.
i_am_the_divine_one: I went to her home, she invited my manager and myself to come to lunch the next day, and it was amazing.
i_am_the_divine_one: She had a Scrabble board cemented into her living room floor, and she was a killer Scrabble player.
i_am_the_divine_one: She asked if I played and I said, Sure, I play, I thought I was a pretty good Scrabble player. So we started to play and her first word was seven letters!
i_am_the_divine_one: And then she had a dictionary right nearby.
i_am_the_divine_one: And she was just a killer, and I had to get out of the game. My manager kept on playing, I had to get out. She beat the pants off him.


bette_fan_15 asks: How can we contribute money to build the boathouse?
i_am_the_divine_one: If you go to the link www.nyrp.org you can find out everything you need to know. And thank you!
i_am_the_divine_one: It's a great song, and it conjures up a lot of old memories, it does, they're very private but they seem to be right near the surface, so...
i_am_the_divine_one: Well this was interesting!
yahoomusic: Thank you so much for joining us Bette!
i_am_the_divine_one: Thank you, I think! For logging on.
i_am_the_divine_one: This was relatively painless and I would love to do this again soon. Stay in touch! I love having the visits! I love being able to stay in touch in telling you what's coming up.
i_am_the_divine_one: I love the Delores Delago doll that i think is being offered at a discount.
i_am_the_divine_one: I'm really working hard at getting pieces of the Divine Miss Millenium show up on this site.
i_am_the_divine_one: Because I really think you guys would really get a kick out of it.
i_am_the_divine_one: So until next time! Thank you and good night!
yahoomusic: And Thank You for joining us tonight!
yahoomusic: Check out Bette's official site bettemidler.yahoo.com
yahoomusic: And her only Official Fan Club where you can get all the latest and greatest on Bette.
yahoomusic: See you next time!