David Duchovny now has a podcast out on Lemonada, called Fail Better. The premise is looking into the way that failure looms over all of us and really shapes who we are. The first two episodes, featuring Ben Stiller and Bette Midler, respectively, dropped on Tuesday, May 7. During the episode with Bette, he asks her about failures she’s had throughout her career. Bette brings up hiring Don Siegel, who she calls the “meanest man in show business,” to direct Jinxed! because he made her life “completely miserable.” Siegel and an unnamed co-star who said “racist and homophobic things” ganged up on her throughout filming. (I can’t find the exact transcript, but apparently in 1982, she name-dropped Ken Wahl to Rolling Stone.) When the movie failed, they blamed it on Bette, which landed her in “movie jail” for several years.
What happened in the aftermath of Jinxed! led to another one of Bette’s biggest mistakes: her sitcom, Bette. Bette admits to not knowing a lot about filming a sitcom. Afraid of once again being labeled as difficult, she didn’t want to rock the boat when power and control were taken away from her. Bette aired for 16 episodes on CBS back in 2000. The actress who was originally cast as Bette’s daughter was none other than Lindsay Lohan. Lindsay filmed the pilot, then decided to just peace out. Bette was left not knowing quite what to do. In retrospect, she wishes that she’d stood up for herself and sued Lindsay for breaking her contract.
Venerable actor Bette Midler says that her partially-autobiographical 2000 sitcom “Bette” represented a series of mistakes. Among the errors was her decision not to sue Lindsay Lohan, who appeared as her daughter in the pilot episode, but who did not continue in the following 16 episodes which broadcast on CBS in the U.S. Midler unpacked her regrets on “Fail Better,” a podcast hosted by fellow star David Duchovny. “’Bette.’ A big, big mistake. I think for several reasons,” Midler said.
She suggested that Lohan’s early exit from “Bette” may have contributed to its failure. “Lindsay Lohan was cast as my daughter in the pilot. Well, after the pilot, Lindsay Lohan decided 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?”
At the time, Lohan had recently enjoyed success in “Parent Trap.” She went on to star in “Freaky Friday” and “Mean Girls.”
Midler, who was executive producer on “Bette,” also pointed the finger at herself.
“I didn’t realize what the pace was, and I didn’t understand what the hierarchy was, and no one bothered to tell me,” she said. “Well, I was kicked to the curb immediately and I didn’t know what to do about it… I didn’t know that I could have taken charge, that I could have asserted, because I think because I was so terrified of being branded a grandstander.”
“It was a part of the media I simply did not understand,” Midler continued. “I watched it. I appreciated it. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t know what it meant to make [a TV series.] 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.”
I had completely forgotten about Bette. I didn’t watch it, but do remember seeing commercials for it on TV. I don’t think hearing this story about teen LiLo is necessarily surprising, but I was curious to see what else she had going on back in 2000. Her only other credit that year was Life-Sized with Tyra Banks. Lindsay’s other big movies didn’t come out until 2003 (Freaky Friday) and 2004 (Mean Girls), so I’m not sure what happened there with her career or family. Bette herself said the entire experience was “chaos.”
I gave it a listen out of curiosity. Bette is her usual chatty, bluntly honest self. What I find the most interesting about both of Bette’s stories is that despite being such a popular entertainer, she still dealt with misogynistic BS. It’s sad that the first bad experience left her too fearful of standing up for herself during the second one. I like that David asks his question and then lets her talk without interruption. Podcasts can be a tough listen if a host continues to talk over their guest. You can listen to the entire interview here. Also, you all know that I’m going to be checking it every week now to see if an ep drops with Gillian Anderson.
Bette Midler calls her autobiographical sitcom, 'Bette,' "a big, big, big mistake."https://t.co/FNyo9oSqLB
— Entertainment Tonight (@etnow) May 8, 2024
Photos credit: Jeffrey Mayer/Avalon, Robin Platzer/Twin Images/Avalon and Getty Images
So she thinks the show would have been better had she sued a teenager to force them to continue acting on it??? 🙄
Right? This sounds like the bullied becoming the bully syndrome. Bette felt powerless against men who treated her poorly so she…wishes she could have sued a young, teenage girl for not wanting to work with her.
I hope someone sits Bette down and explains why this sounds really, really bad.
It’s not bullying in a situation like this. It’s called enforcing a contract and it’s done all the time.
Lohan has been working since she was a child. I assume she left because there was no contract to enforce which her agent would have known. As a Disney star, she would have had capable people around her to make these professional decisions. Not to mention, pilots can debut without contracts I imagine, since the pilot has to actually be picked up. Tamzin Merchant dropped out of the role of Daenerys on Game of Thrones because she didn’t want to continue after the pilot, which was only picked up by HBO afterwards.
It’s actually quite common to have cast changes from the pilot to the debut of the show. Usually it’s because the cast member didn’t test well or as in Lohan’s case it just wasn’t for her (a sitcom would have limited her time from doing movies which is what I think she really wanted). To sue a minor and to talk about it now as a regret she didn’t do is quite ridiculous. The optics aren’t good and from what I barely remember from that sitcom, having Lohan on it wouldn’t have saved it. Bette has had a good life and a great career, it all worked out like it was supposed to, that is what she should accept.
If Lohan signed a contract and didn’t fulfill it, then she absolutely could have – and should have – been sued. Which is what I think this boils down to. Not bullying a teenager. I don’t see or hear anything in this podcast that suggests she wanted to bully Lindsay.
Realize that Lindsay was 14 years old at the time. She was a child. She was not legally capable of making her own contracts.
Exactly. This is more about Lindsay Lohan Inc and the various people and managers who were around her. It’s not about giving a kid a hard time.
Then she would have sued whoever signed the contract on Lindsay’s behalf. What do people think happens when parents or agents or whoever sign contracts for their children in these scenarios? that they can just walk away without any consequences because there’s a child involved?
She’s not talking about putting Lohan in jail or something for crying out loud. She’s saying she should have enforced the contract. Specific performance is tricky to enforce as a general rule but she likely would have been entitled to damages.
Anything else – Lindsay’s age, change in filming locations, etc – could have been used as a defense – but it doesn’t mean Bette doesn’t have a point here.
She would have never, ever gotten specific performance, and damages might have been limited to the cost of recasting.
Suing is expensive, risky, and burns bridges.
And was she even the person who could sue? Was she executive director? Was the casting farmed out?
It’s a really weird statement for her to be making.
Imagine suing a 13/14 year old kid for not wanting to work. She should’ve made sure the network compensated her for any loss wages, but to sue a kid, because you don’t know why they quit is just…😬
Bettes insistence that the filming move to LA after the pilot was filmed in NYC could have had something to do with it.
To clarify – she wishes she would have sued a 14 year old? Bette at that time was 55 years old and had been in the business about 30 years. She is suggesting that a child should have been sued?
I wonder if this move- from NYC to LA- was a possibly a violation of Lohan’s contract? I wonder if she took the job expecting to work in NY and then the job moved after the pilot? If that’s the case, that could be considered a breach of contract by Bette- if she, as the executive producer of the show, decided to change the shooting location.
Perhaps that’s why Lohan dropped out, and if that’s the reason, it’s perfectly defensible. and yeah, Bette- blaming a 12 year-old kid for the show’s lack of success? I don’t think so. You were the executive producer. The buck stops with you.
Yeah, no, this isn’t it, Bette. Lindsay was a child. She had an agent, who allowed his client to leave a sitcom she felt didn’t work for her. Actors are recast all the time. Blaming Lindsay and not herself and other adults is laughable.
Bette must be out of her damn mind, or senile? maybe she’s always been awful because why would she ever say this out loud? and what makes this worse is the actor who played her husband actually also left the show 12 episodes in (wonder why!) and production was clearly scrambling as it took them multiple episodes to introduce a replacement… yet she singles out the child (who we now know had quite a lot going on at home) and wishes she had forced her to keep working against her will?!
She’s always been terrible.
It’s interesting it never occurred then, or now, that Lindsay left because Bette was horrible to work with.
It’s worth adding another voice saying, “Not a good look, Bette.” Lohan was a child. Did Bette not notice the Nickelodeon doc come out?
Can I just say something as a Brit. The construction she wished she “would have sued” rather than she wished she “had sued”, which is how we say it here, is so American. I always love seeing/hearing it. It’s like when I hear names of American snacks, which are just so weirdly magical, given how often they were mentioned in the American films we watched growing up. I always wished we could buy some here!
Really bad move on Bette’s part. Lindsay was 12 or 13 at the time. Growing up with two parents who used her like a cookie jar. I have to assume her parents or agent pulled her out of the pilot for logistics or business reasons. Not so a child can screw over a way past middle aged woman.
Also, Lindsay is on a career upswing with rom-com Netflix movies. She seems to have found a little niche for herself and finally have her own family. Don’t try and kick the woman down now.
Bette could have talked about this from an angle a million other ways. But suing Lindsay as a child is the headline grabber I guess for attention.
Lindsay absolutely has to take responsibility for her actions as an adult but the way she was treated as a child by her parents was abusive (even if you don’t believe the more horrendous rumours). Suggesting she had *any* control over leaving / staying is ludicrous. I somehow don’t think this is going to go the way Bette thinks.
Also, I hadn’t realised Lindsay had pulled herself together to manage to film reliably. Good for her.
It’s easy to forget how adorable and talented Lohan was back then. Her career was on fire because she was such a value add to teen/family productions. This is a weird story, though. Lindsay or whoever was managing her career saw better opportunities and took them? Plenty a tv star has missed out on a film career due to contractural obligations, so this actually sounds like it was the right move. We’re only discussing it because Lindsay’s career subsequently tanked. No one slams A-List stars for making sound career choice.
Just to give a bit of industry context: a pilot does not always have a contract directly related to additional episodes. Sometimes they do. But if Lindsey was able to walk away and the network (who she was under contract with NOT Bette) let her that means that legally she probably had every right to do so.
If she’d sued Lindsay, wouldn’t Lindsay’s insurance have picked up the tab?
I grew up with Beaches and Big Business on videotape. Bette always makes me nostalgic!
She wouldn’t have been able to do anything legally lol a child can pretty much void any contract they’d like.
Bette is a weirdo, imagine saying you regret suing a child. and Lindsay literally had 0 impact in the show’s success, she dropped out after Bette moved production from NYC to LA and Lindsay didn’t want to leave her family, but the show was still picked up, she was recast and went on to have almost 20 episodes without her? also the actor who played her husband literally also left after like 12 episodes because he didn’t enjoy working with her… sounds like she’s still an awful person then.