Bette Midler got a lot of attention this week when she attacked the people of West Virginia for daring to elect a senator that Ms. Midler and her Hollywood pals don't approve of.
Rather than isolate her criticism to Sen. Joe Manchin, a long-time, professional politician who has voluntarily put himself in the arena of ideas and the rough-and-tumble world of electoral politics, she instead focused her vitriol on West Virginians.
Her attack was unseemly, rude, insulting, and demeaning. Also, sadly, it was all too common within the cloistered, sheltered, and privileged ranks of the entertainment elite.
What #JoeManchin, who represents a population smaller than Brooklyn, has done to the rest of America, who wants to move forward, not backward, like his state, is horrible. He sold us out. He wants us all to be just like his state, West Virginia. Poor, illiterate and strung out.
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) December 20, 2021
"He wants us all to be just like his state, West Virginia. Poor, illiterate and strung out," she tweet-ranted about the very people who would save their last pennies to pony-up a whopping $998 per ticket to see her in the revival of "Hello, Dolly!" on Broadway a few years ago.
Producers of “Hello, Dolly!” are now charging $998 for front row seats at many performances between late November and mid-January, when Bette Midler leaves the cast, according to a review of ticket prices on the Telecharge website. With fees, each of those seats will cost $1,009.
That's right... when the "Divine Ms. M" last trod the board at the Shubert Theatre to play the part immortalized by Carol Channing (and on film by Barbra Streisand), her producers were bilking ticket-buyers for a thousand bucks to pay her ridiculous $150,000 per week salary (including a reported 10% of box office sales).
The outright disdain projected by actors and entertainers directly at the very Americans who keep their obscene lifestyles afloat is beyond insulting... it's maddening. It's also, sadly, all too common.
Before I became a talk radio host and columnist a little over a decade ago, I worked in the entertainment business. I've often written about my time in the theatre industry (ironically, with the Shubert Organization, the company that housed Midler in the above-referenced production). I can assure you that Midler's attitude is not a one-off or an exception; it's typical.
The jokes and insults one hears from actors as they refer to Americans who live in cities and states they'd only visit if pampered with four-star treatment laid out in their contract rider is constant.
I had a friend who recently appeared on Broadway in a high-profile production. He came from a military family and had to endure constant commentary and vitriolic insults leveled at conservatives, Republicans, Trump supporters, Southerners, military veterans, and any other group his fellow actors, stage managers, and wardrobe personnel could sophomorically dream up during their daily backstage rants against the prior administration.
The only group of co-workers who would exchange glances and roll their eyes with him during these behind-the-scenes moments were stagehands who, generally speaking, are more conservative as a group and have children who have followed in their footsteps by serving in the military.
My time in the business delivered a message that was loud-and-clear for Republicans like me: Believe what you want but keep your mouth shut. If we ever learn what you think or how you vote, you won't work in this town again.
But on-the-job harassment over your political beliefs is one thing, directing your hate at your customers is a whole other behavior. And, it's a behavior that producers and studios seem to be just fine with, for now. One wonders how long this will be the case.
Next year, Disney+ is set to release the long-awaited (or was it?) sequel to "Hocus Pocus," a zany movie featuring Midler as a witch (let's forego the obvious jokes about typecasting here, it's beneath us, isn't it?).
How happy is Disney that its well-played star just insulted the people of an entire state, not to mention others in this country who identify with and stand in ideological solidarity with West Virginians? I bet it's not so pleased.
Maybe this is why Midler "apologized" on Twitter shortly after her insult.
But did she really apologize?
"I apologize to the good people of WVA for my last outburst. I'm just seeing red; #JoeManchin and his whole family are a criminal enterprise. Is he really the best WV has to offer its own citizens? Surely there's someone there who has the state's interests at heart, not his own!" - Barely literate tweet from Midler
She didn't really address the oddly specific insults she levied against West Virginians, did she? How can she think the people of West Virginia are "good people" when her immediate description of them was that they're "poor, illiterate and strung out"?
Clearly, she isn't sorry; she's engaging in damage control. I doubt it worked.
One other point... Midler claims the people of West Virginia are "illiterate" and made a non-sequitur comparison of them to the people who live in Brooklyn.
For the record: West Virginia has a graduation rate of over 91%. The geniuses in Midler's beloved New York City are barely graduating at a rate of 78.8%.
I'd be willing to bet West Virginians are way more literate than Brooklynites.
And I guarantee they're smart enough to never shell out a thousand bucks to hear Midler sing "Before The Parade Passes By" ever again.
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