Bette Midler built a successful stage, screen and recording career on the basis of her self-styled “Divine Miss M” character — a sassy, hip-wagging classic “broad” archetype. She was quick with the comebacks, took no guff and had the tendency to burst into tunes from the Great American Songbook. Her initial stage fame and string of nostalgia-tinged hit albums in the 1970s eventually led to big screen success, with dramas like the pseudo Janis Joplin biopic “The Rose” (1980) and three-hankie chick flick “Beaches” (1990). She also lent appropriately outrageous variations of Miss M to comedies
