Why didn’t anybody think of this before?
Brassy entertainer Bette Midler will play brassy entertainer Mae West in an HBO biopic to be directed by William Friedkin (“The Exorcist”). According to deadlinehollywood.com, the film will be based on West’s autobiography “Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It.” Harvey Fierstein is writing the script.
Queens-born West was a trailblazer who had a knack for notoriety and a gift for innuendo. She was sentenced to 10 days in jail for “corrupting the morals of youth” with her scandalous Broadway play “Sex.” A mere blip on her path to stardom, West recovered, going on to sign her first deal with Paramount at age 39 and becoming one of the highest-grossing stars of the 1930s, with films such as “I’m No Angel” with Cary Grant, and “My Little Chickadee” with W.C. Fields. She died at age 87.
Midler is performing “I’ll Eat You Last,” her one-woman show about Hollywood agent Sue Mengers, in LA. She has appeared in five HBO specials, including “Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On.”
She was also originally slated to play Phil Spector’s attorney, Linda Kenney Baden, opposite Al Pacino in an HBO film that aired last year. A medical problem prevented her from going through with the project and she was replaced by Helen Mirren.