Bette Midler has admitted to wishing she had sued 14-year-old Lindsay Lohan after the film star backed out of the singer’s show.
The Hocus Pocus actress spoke about regretting not suing Lindsay, now 37, during her recent appearance on David Duchovny’s Fail Betterpodcast, as per The Sun.
During the episode, Bette, 78, reflected on some of her career failures, one of which she revealed was not “asserting” herself when a teenaged Lindsay backed out of her sitcom Bette.
Bette premiered on CBS in 2000, lasting only 18 episodes before it was ultimately cancelled after one season.
Lohan signed on to play Bette’s daughter in the comedy series, appearing in just the pilot episode before backing out to pursue other opportunities.
The Herbie: Fully Loaded star was replaced with actress Marina Malota but according to Bette, Lindsay’s exit threw the production into a tailspin.
She told David, “Lindsay Lohan was cast as my daughter in the pilot.”
The First Wives Club star continued, “Well, after the pilot, Lindsay Lohan decided she didn’t want to do it, or she had other fish to fry. So Lindsay Lohan left the building – and I said, ‘well, now what do you do?’”
The X-Files actor mentioned that Lindsay’s contract should have stopped her from leaving the show or at least provided consequences for her doing so.
Bette replied, “If I had been in my right mind, or if I had known that my duties were to stand up and say, ‘This absolutely will not do, I’m gonna sue,’ then I would have done that.”
The three-time Grammy winner admitted that Lindsay’s exit from Bette wasn’t the show’s only problem, revealing that she had a tough time getting a handle on the production, even as an executive producer.
“I seemed to have been [blocked] in some way, that I couldn’t get to the writer’s room,” Bette stated.
“I couldn’t make myself clear – and there were so many competing personalities,” she continued before adding, “I couldn’t speak to the showrunner. I couldn’t make myself clear – and there were so many competing personalities.”
The notoriously fast pace of sitcom production wasn’t a help either.
“I had no idea how fast people make [sitcoms],” she told David.
The Beaches actress continued, “You have to give people so much credit when it’s great, because the speed of it is so taxing, and if you didn’t keep up, you were in big trouble.
“I was booked on David Letterman and he said to me, ‘How do you like it so far?’ I said, ‘It’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to me in my entire life. It’s like being a dung beetle and pushing a pile of sh*t up a hill every day.’ And of course, the next day I was fired.”
There appear to be no hard feelings coming from her one-time co-star, however, as Lindsay posted a throwback promo photo of herself and Bette on Instagram last week.
She captioned the photo, “Had such a blast filming with the incredible @bettemidler #tbt.”
This article originally appeared in The Sun and was reproduced with permission