Our first guest tonight is an Academy Award-nominated,
Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award-winning actress
you know from "Gypsy," "The First Wives Club,"
and the Broadway revival of "Hello Dolly."
Her annual Hulaween costume gala,
"In Search of the Sanderson Sisters:
A Hocus Pocus Takeover of Hulaween,"
will stream virtually this Friday at 8:00 p.m.
Please welcome the legendary Bette Midler
How are you, Bette?
-Uh,deafening applause. I'm good.
I'm good. I'm very well. Thank you.
-I am so -- I'm genuinely so thrilled to have you here.
I am a gigantic fan, and this has --
This has been a long time coming for me.
-I am so thrilled to hear you say that
because I'm a huge, huge fan of yours.
I wouldn't have gotten through any of this
without you and Stephen Colbert.
It's just -- You've been fantastic.
This tonight's one -- Tonight's "Closer Look" was like --
I mean, I was flipping birds left and right.
-Well, thank you so much.
You know, you are considered the queen of many things.
But for a while now, you've been considered
the queen of Halloween because of the 1993 film "Hocus Pocus."
Is this true?
-Yes, yes, it is true.
It was a picture that started off a little bit sleepy,
but somehow it found its niche. [nitch]
Niche. [Neesh]
And it became a kind of a cult classic.
And now it's everywhere. I mean, I wish I had a nickel
for every person who turned out to be --
you know, who turned out in a Winifred Sanderson costume.
But it's -- Now it's a cult classic.
And after 27 years, the two girls,
Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker,
and I have reunited for this one-night-only Halloween --
Hulaween extravaganza, a mockumentary called
"In Search of the Sanderson Sisters."
And it's not just a Zoom call.
And tickets are still available. NYRP.org.
-I have a question to ask because this is interesting.
A lot of people are doing Zoom reunions,
but this is not just talking about the good old days.
You actually have written a new script.
We're going to catch up with the Sanderson sisters.
I have a question, which is, are the teeth
gonna show up, Bette?
-They're definitely gonna show up.
Now, they are not my original teeth.
My original teeth did break,
because I have worn them on special occasions.
But I did get the original tooth man, Kevin Haney,
who is divine, to make me another pair.
And they didn't fit.
You know, they wouldn't stay in my face.
So I found something called Poligrip.
That's what they told me to put on,
and that stuff really works, I got to say.
So I put them in and, hey, they stayed.
It was -- It was quite an afternoon.
And we were -- And we shot with all of us.
The two girls showed up. They came to a studio.
We did all the COVID stuff.
And we did our -- You know, we did our thing.
And it was -- And the thing that was the weirdest part is,
like, 27 years after we had finished this picture
and I haven't seen those two girls together in 27 years.
I've seen them in -- in --
You know, I've seen them many times, but always solo.
It was exactly the same. It was like yesterday.
It was like we were eating in the cafeteria.
It was exactly the same.
Fell right into our old characters.
-I imagine when you make a film, obviously,
you want it to be a big hit. That's a goal.
But is it nice to have a film like this
that sort of had a longer tail
and that you sort of continually hear about over the years?
-I would say so. Oh, yeah. I would say so.
It's -- It's actually kind of --
It's the most -- It's so strange.
We had so much fun making it.
And we had no expectation for it. None at all.
And as the years have gone by,
it's just become this snowball, this gigantic snowball.
And I have to say it has been so rewarding.
It's been -- I mean, people come to me and say,
"Oh, I saw this when I was 6."
And these people have, like, white hair.
And you're like, "Oh, my. I'm sure it was lovely."
It's great. It's great.
It's actually the most rewarding.
And that's not -- and that's -- I'm talking financially, too.
It's been great. I mean, it's like an annuity.
It just keeps going. -That's wonderful.
It's very nice that -- Hulaween is usually a live event,
a live fundraiser for the New York Restoration Project.
This year, because of the fact that we're going through
a pandemic, people can only pay $10
because, it should be noted, your donors have stepped up.
-Exactly.
The donors are the sponsors, and we have quite a few of them.
And they have been so generous. Unbelievably generous.
But we've sold a lot of tickets, too.
And the reason we've sold tickets
is because we have this incredible cast.
It's not just Sarah Jessica and Kathy.
But we also have Omri Katz, Thora Birch,
Doug Jones and Vinessa Shaw from the original picture.
And we also have Adam Lambert.
We have Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Sarah Silverman.
We have Marty Short. We have Jennifer Hudson.
We have Anjelah Johnson, Kenan Thompson.
We have a huge cast. Billy Crystal.
Billy Eichner. Alex Brightman. Alex Moffat.
And John Stamos is the handsome devil.
And it was wrangling --
a lot of talent wrangling and a lot of effects
and a lot of excitement about building effects and what --
what can we do here that will be a surprise?
So it was -- We -- I think it's --
I feel that we put a lot of creativity into it
because when people come to our in-person event,
they expect a real blowout.
And we wanted to give them something
that would be memorable.
And I got to say. It's 10 bucks. Don't panic.
We did a lot of work. I hope you like it.
If you don't, what can I say?
I mean, I did -- we did our best.
-I want to talk to you more
about the New York Restoration Project and what they do.
We'll be right back with more from Bette Midler.