CELEBRITY
Bette Midler Wishes She Sued Lindsay Lohan For Quitting Sitcom ‘Bette’ After 1 Episode
CBS
Bette Midler says she wishes she had sued Lindsay Lohan for quitting her short-lived sitcom Bette after the pilot episode.
The Hocus Pocus star, 78, admitted during a Tuesday appearance on David Duchovny’s podcast Fail Better that her 2000 CBS sitcom, which was canceled partway through its first season, was a big flop.
“I did a television show, Bette. Does it get any more generic than that?” she said. “A big, big, big mistake.”
Although she was the star and the show was named after her, Midler said she was “kicked to the curb” and not allowed to “take charge” of the show. Midler believes the series would have worked if not for some astonishing developments, including then-14-year-old Lohan’s abrupt departure.
“Lindsay Lohan was cast as my daughter,” Midler said. “Well, after the pilot, Lindsay Lohan decided she didnt want to do it, or she had other fish to fry. So Lindsay Lohan left the building, and I said, Well, now what do you do? And the studio didnt help me.
Midler said the aftermath of Lohan’s departure was extremely chaotic.
Duchovny, a veteran of the small screen, brought up the fact that Lohan must have been under a contract, and shouldn’t have been allowed to do that.
“If I had been in my right mind, or if I had known that my part of my duties were to stand up and say, This absolutely will not do, Im going to sue, then I would have done that,” Midler said. “But I seem to have been cosseted in some way that I couldnt get to the writers room. I couldnt speak to the showrunner. I couldnt make myself clear.”
The shocking admission comes just days after Lohan posted a throwback promo photo on Instagram from when the pair filmed the pilot together.
Had such a blast filming with the incredible @bettemidler, Lohan captioned the photo.
But the First Wives Club star didn’t place all of the blame for the series’ failure on Lohan. She admitted that she did not understand the scripted TV landscape at the time, and said the series was made with the wrong motivation.
“I had made theatrical live events. I had made films. I had made variety television shows. I had been on talk shows. But I had never done a situation comedy,” Midler said. “I didnt realize what the pace was. And I didnt understand what the hierarchy was. And no one bothered to tell me.”
When Bette was pulled from the air partway through its debut season, Midler said she was thrilled by the news.
“I said, Oh, isnt that fantastic?’” she said. “I mean, we were on the 18th episode out of 22, and I was so thrilled not to have to continue because I could not gather myself enough to make it work.”
TMX contributed to this article.
