Bette Midler Reveals Bette Davis Was ‘Not Pleased’ to Hear She Was Named After Her: ‘I Was a Little Bit Hurt’
The two met at Elizabeth Taylor’s 60th birthday party
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Bette Midler and Bette DavisBette Midler had a bad run-in with Bette Davis.
On the July 24 episode of Hoda Kotb’s Making Space podcast, the three-time Grammy winner, 78, opened up about meeting the great Hollywood actress and telling her that she was named after her.
"My mother named me for Bette Davis, which Bette Davis was not pleased to hear,” Midler said on the podcast, noting that they met at Elizabeth Taylor’s 60th birthday party.
"I had just had my baby. And I was invited, and I was, like, so exhausted. And in those days, there was no hair and makeup,” the actress, who had her daughter in 1986, said. "You didn't know about hair and makeup. You just did your hair, and you put on a dress and went."
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Bette MidlerMidler recalled that Davis was "very offended" that she had attended the event without being glammed up. She added that the actress spent the entire evening chatting with Bob Dylan, who Midler collaborated with for a duet cover of "Buckets of Rain" on her 1976 album. "So, I can't imagine what he said to her," she shared.
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"Anyway, so I was a little bit hurt," Midler said of the entire interaction.
The three-time Emmy winner went on to reveal that two of her siblings also have names inspired by actors. Her sisters Judy and Susan were respectfully named after Judy Garland and Susan Hayward.
Related: Watch Bette Midler Try on a 'Fluffy Cinderella' Wedding Dress in The Fabulous Four Clip (Exclusive)
"And I was Bette Davis. Although, I pronounced it 'bet' [and] she pronounced it 'Betty,' " she shared.
Later in the podcast, Kotb asked Midler if her mother lived long enough to see her rise to fame akin to her namesake. "She saw enough of it that it thrilled her. She saw the movie, she saw The Rose," Midler said. "And she died not long after that. She died actually during the making of, I think, Outrageous Fortune. Which was in the eighties. She got to see a lot of it."
The Broadway star appears in the upcoming movie The Fabulous Four, out July 26, with Sheryl Lee Ralph, Susan Sarandon and Megan Mullally. The comedy flick follows "three lifelong friends who travel to Key West, Florida, to be bridesmaids in a surprise wedding of their college girlfriend Marilyn," per a synopsis.
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Earlier this month, Midler spoke fondly of her costars in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE. "It was six weeks in Savannah, which was absolutely devastatingly beautiful, with these really great comics. I can't say enough about them. I thought they were all superb," Midler said. "I knew them, I loved them, I admired their work."
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