‘Bette’ Sitcom Was a Mistake, So Was Not Suing Lindsay Lohan, Says Bette Midler

The actress played a version of herself on the CBS show, which saw Midler perform as an adored celebrity living in Los Angeles with her college professor husband, Roy (Kevin Dunn and Robert Hays), and 13-year-old daughter, Rose (Lohan). When recalling the tumult behind the scenes of the one-season sitcom, Midler called it a “big, big, big mistake.”

“I did a television show, Bette. Does it get any more generic than that? A big, big, big mistake,” Midler told Duchovny. “I think for several reasons. It was the wrong motivation. It was a part of the media I simply did not understand. I watched it. I appreciated it. I enjoyed it, But I didn’t know what it meant to make it.”

“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,” she added. “I didn’t realize what the pace was. And I didn’t understand what the hierarchy was. And no one bothered to tell me.”

Midler also discussed not “asserting” herself enough as the chaos of Bette unfolded and pointed to Lohan’s departure from the show after shooting the pilot. “So Lindsay Lohan left the building and I said, ‘Well, now what do you do?’”

After Duchovny noted that there are contracts in place to address these types of situations, Midler replied that “the studio didn’t help me. It was extremely chaotic.” She continued, “If I had been in my right mind, or if I had known that part of my duties were 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 writers’ room. I couldn’t speak to the showrunner. I couldn’t make myself clear.”