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Bette Midler has regrets about her short-lived sitcom, which she called a “big, big mistake.”
The actress and singer said she wishes she had sued after a young Lindsay Lohan pulled out of the “Hocus Pocus” star’s eponymous comedy “Bette” following the pilot episode 24 years ago.
“I believe it would have worked if I had had a team that was on my side,” Midler told David Duchovny on his “Fail Better” podcast of her 2000 to 2001 CBS show in which she played a version of herself.
She continued, “Things happened that were so astonishing. I didn’t know those things could happen. For instance, Lindsay Lohan was cast as my daughter in the pilot. Well, after the pilot she decided that she didn’t 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?’”
Bette Midler and Lindsay Lohan on the set of “Bette” in 2000. (CBS via Getty Images)
She said the studio didn’t help her after Lohan’s departure, adding, “It was extremely chaotic.”
Duchovny noted that’s why actors sign contracts. “You’re not supposed to be able to do that.”
Midler told him, “If I had known that was part of my duties, to stand up and say this absolutely will not do. I’m going to sue,’ then I would have done that, but I seem to have been cosseted in some way that I couldn’t get to the writer’s room. I couldn’t speak to the show runner. I couldn’t make myself clear. And there was so many competing personalities, and I have to say the main thing that was so shocking to me was the pace of it. I didn’t understand how fast you had to go.”
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Lindsay Lohan was cast in “Bette” as a teenager but left after the pilot.
The 78-year-old said she told David Letterman on the “Late Show” amid the sitcom’s short run that it was the “worst thing that’s ever happened to me in my entire life.”
She added, “Of course, the next day I was fired. My lawyer called me at like 9 o’clock in the morning and said, ‘You’re fired,’ and I said, ‘Oh, isn’t that fantastic.’”
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The “Ruthless People” star explained that the show was on its 18th episode out of 22 that had been greenlet, and “I was so thrilled not to have to continue because I could not gather myself enough to make it work. I didn’t know how to make it work.”
She continued, “So, I was glad to be fired.”
She, however, was frustrated that she ended up leaving her production company after the show’s cancelation.
Midler, now 78, called the 2000 sitcom a “big, big mistake.” (Mark Sagliocco/WireImage)
“My biggest failure is haste and acting on impulse,” she admitted of deciding to do the show.
“Bette” ran for 18 episodes from 2000 until 2001 on CBS.
Lohan, who would have been around 13 or 14 at the time she dropped out of the sitcom, shared a Throwback Thursday post on Instagram last week of her with Midler at the time.
“Had such a blast filming with the incredible@bettemidler,” Lohan captioned the post.
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Lohan, 37, was a child star at the time she was cast on “Bette” after her breakout role playing twins in “The Parent Trap.”
She went on to make movies like “Freaky Friday” and “Mean Girls” before her career stalled due to personal struggles. She has recently started to make a comeback with movies like 2022’s “Falling for Christmas.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to reps for Midler and Lohan for comment.
