Bette Midler
The Nostalgia of Hocus Pocus 2 Only Serves Itself
Hocus Pocus 2, the long-awaited-by-some sequel to the 1993 fantasy comedy horror film rocking the same name, is best summed up with a stray fart joke. A newly resurrected Mary Sanderson (Kathy Najimy), one of the three nefarious Sanderson sisters (Salem witches whose 1600s reign of terror over the town ended by the noose) stumbles into a Walgreens. She and her siblings, Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Winifred (Bette Midler), are in search of provisions, and lured into entering the pharmacy by the film’s teen heroes. One by one they walk in. Mary, awed by the automatic doors, steps through and immediately, casually, unwarrantedly trumpets her flatulence. End scene. Farts are funny when they have a point. Hocus Pocus 2’s fart has no point. Mary farts because the filmmakers, producers, and ...
When Will Hocus Pocus 2 Be Available To Stream?
A Halloween classic is finally getting its long-awaited sequel 29 years later. Hocus Pocus originally debut in 1993 as a box office bomb, failing to compete with movie juggernauts Jurassic Park and Free Willy on its initial July release. Despite its initial poor reception, time proved to be the film’s ally, as DVD sales and repeated broadcasts on cable TV introduced the movie to a younger audience. Children, families, and others alike became entranced by the dazzling and eccentric personalities of The Sanderson Sisters, cementing the film as a cult classic. Hocus Pocus is now considered a quintessential Halloween film, encapsulating both the humor and sickening horror of the holiday. Due to its rapid growth in popularity over the years, it’s no wonder that it was granted a sequel: Followin...
Bette Midler Faces Backlash for Calling West Virginia “Poor, Illiterate, and Strung Out”
Bette Midler isn’t exactly one to conceal her political beliefs, but this time, her outspokenness came back to bite her: The actress came under fire yesterday (December 20th) for referring to the entire state of West Virginia as “poor, illiterate, and strung out” in a rant aimed at somewhat infamous Senator Joe Manchin. As a recap, Manchin — a Democrat — recently announced that he wouldn’t support President Biden’s Build Back Better bill, which includes plans to establish some desperately-needed efforts to combat the climate crisis (an issue close to Midler’s heart). Manchin’s opposition basically means the bill is now impossible to pass, and Midler took to Twitter to air her frustrations. “What #JoeManchin, who represents a population smaller than Brooklyn, has done to the rest of America...
Bette Midler Calls for Sex Strike in Protest of Texas Abortion Ban
That’s certainly one way of sticking it to the man. Bette Midler took to social media this week to suggest women go on a sexual strike to fight back against their reproductive rights being taken away in Texas’ new anti-abortion bill. “I suggest that all women refuse to have sex with men until they are guaranteed the right to choose by Congress,” the icon tweeted on Thursday, just on day after Texas’ restrictive anti-abortion law — which prohibits women from obtaining an abortion for almost any reason after six weeks of pregnancy — went into effect. Naturally, Midler’s stance set off a firestorm of debate and conversation in the replies, with a number of famous faces also chiming in. “My dad actually suggested that decades ago,” wrote Nancy Sinatra of her father Frank Sinatra, while Rosanna...
Hocus Pocus 2: Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy Returning for Disney+ Sequel
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-05-20T16:50:52+00:00“>May 20, 2021 | 12:50pm ET The Sanderson Sisters are back: Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy are returning for a sequel to Disney’s Halloween cult classic Hocus Pocus. The film will premiere on Disney+ in Fall 2022. Original Hocus Pocus filmmaker Adam Shankman is unable to direct the sequel due to prior commitments, but is on board as an executive producer. Stepping into the director’s chair in his place will be Anne Fletcher (The Proposal, 27 Dresses). Coming nearly 30 years after the original, Hocus Pocus 2 will see the Sanderson Sisters returning to modern-day Salem after being accidentally summoned by a trio of young women. Midl...
HBO’s Coastal Elites Feels Like a Carefully Curated Twitter Feed: Review
The Pitch: Amidst the backdrop of 2020 — the heady and often unpleasant mix of an impending presidential election and a worldwide pandemic that’s hitting the United States especially hard — five people deliver five different monologues (or, as they’re briefly dubbed, “unhinged rants”) about the Way We Live Now in the satirical HBO “special presentation” Coastal Elites. Look at the Camera: Because of the very nature of the coronavirus pandemic, Coastal Elites is a decidedly un-flashy glimpse into the lives of a quintet of Americans. From sly writer Paul Rudnick, the 90-minute special presentation (that’s what HBO is calling Coastal Elites, and although it’s movie-length, frankly, the descriptor fits) is meant as a mix of earnest sincerity and dry wit. How is this disparate handful strugglin...
The 25 Most Anticipated Movies of Fall 2020
“New year, new decade, new films, right?” That was January, back when we were still looking ahead at 2020 with blind optimism and ill-fated excitement. Sigh, hindsight is 20/20 they say, right? Who knew. At the time, we had 50 exciting new titles we were anticipating, most of which have since been either postponed, dumped to VOD, or relegated to a limbo state. It’s been an unnerving year for the film industry, to say the least. A year fraught with shutdowns, furloughs, layoffs, bankruptcies, and re-evaluations. All of that change has prompted a seismic shift in how everything’s run across the media landscape, and no one truly has a grip on things just yet. Odds are they won’t for quite some time. Because of this, anticipating anything right now — let alone anything in pop culture — seems l...
HBO Shares First Trailer for Coastal Elites with Issa Rae, Dan Levy, Bette Midler: Watch
HBO has shared the first trailer for its new satirical film Coastal Elites. The socially-distanced comedy will light up your screens on September 12th with stars Issa Rae, Dan Levy, Bette Midler, Sarah Paulson, and Kaitlyn Dever. Coastal Elites solves the practical problem of filming in quarantine by borrowing an idea from the theater. It’s a cinematic approach to the monologue play, as each of the five characters take turns speaking into the camera. Here, the camera is apparently supposed to be a laptop fixture, and each of the monologues represents a remote video call. In the trailer, for example, we see Levy’s Mark Hesterman greeting an unseen therapist named Dr. Morton, before launching into a joke-filled rant about identity. It’s unclear if everyone is in therapy, but f...
Issa Rae & Bette Midler Team Up For HBO Special ‘Coastal Elites’
Source: HBO / HBO Issa Rae stays getting those checks. On Monday (Jun 22), HBO announced that Issa Rae and Bette Midler will be starring in the new series, Coastal Elites, a series that will explore the deeply divided politics and the universal pursuit of human connection during the pandemic through a series of confessionals. The series, which was produced entirely under quarantine, “tells stories of breaking down and breaking through in the summer of 2020 that are funny, searing, poignant and now,” HBO said in a statement. The series written by Paul Rudnick and directed by Jay Roach will explore the deeply divided politics and the universal pursuit of human connection during the pandemic through a series of confessionals from five characters played by Issa Rae, Bette Midler, Sar...
Issa Rae & Bette Midler Team Up For HBO Special ‘Coastal Elites’
Source: HBO / HBO Issa Rae stays getting those checks. On Monday (Jun 22), HBO announced that Issa Rae and Bette Midler will be starring in the new series, Coastal Elites, a series that will explore the deeply divided politics and the universal pursuit of human connection during the pandemic through a series of confessionals. The series, which was produced entirely under quarantine, “tells stories of breaking down and breaking through in the summer of 2020 that are funny, searing, poignant and now,” HBO said in a statement. The series written by Paul Rudnick and directed by Jay Roach will explore the deeply divided politics and the universal pursuit of human connection during the pandemic through a series of confessionals from five characters played by Issa Rae, Bette Midler, Sar...
