Now prominent among music legends, Bette Midler reminisces about her stint as a Harlette back in the day in the much celebrated documentary Twenty Feet from Stardom. Along with Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, she acknowledges the mega talent of the backup singers—now famously Merry Clayton, Judith Hill-- who make the superstar performers look and sound even greater. Having made the twenty foot leap herself, Bette Midler was perfect for this job: in an inspired moment Peggy Siegal who has a genius for these connections, asked her, superb in her one-woman run as Sue Mengers on Broadway, to front, ah, host a special lunch on Monday, in celebration of this, perhaps the most successful documentary of the year. At the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, in a dining room overlooking Central Park, guests Bernadette Peters, Susan Sarandon, Julie Taymor, Celia Weston, Dan Hedaya, Albert Maysles chatted about the making of documentary films, meeting Prince for the first time, and Ava Gardner’s memoirs.
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