CBS (via Getty Images)
Lindsay Lohan (Rose), Bette Midler (Bette), “Bette”, April 1, 2000.
CNN
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Bette Middler has had many hits, but she's talking about one of her professional failures.
During an episode of David Duchovny's podcast “Fail Better with David Duchovny,” Middleler spoke about the failed 2000 CBS sitcom “Bette.”
She called the show a “big, big mistake” and admitted it had “the wrong motives.”
“It was a part of the media that I didn't understand,” she told Duchovny about television. “I saw it, I appreciated it, I enjoyed it, but I didn't know what it meant to make it.”
Not only was she not ready for the pace or hierarchy, but the show had changed since its original pilot starring a then-teenage Lindsay Lohan.
“I didn't know something like that could happen. For example, Lindsay Lohan was cast to play my daughter in the pilot,” Middleler said. “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. So I said, So, What do you do now?
The situation that followed was “extremely chaotic,” Middleder said. Duchovny pointed out that there is a contract and there is “no way he can leave the show.”
“I know, if I had been in my right mind, if I had known that it was part of my duty to stand up and say, 'This is a no-no, I'm going to sue,' “I would have done that,” she said.
Middlele added that she found the speed at which the show was produced to be “difficult.”
She appeared on David Letterman's late-night talk show and explained what happened when asked about what filming was like.
“This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me in my life,” she replied.
That didn't work.
“Of course I was fired the next day,” she said. “My lawyer called me at about 9 o'clock in the morning and said, 'You're fired.' I said, 'That's great!' So we were on the 18th episode out of 22, so we were really excited that we didn't have to continue. ”
CNN has reached out to Lohan's representatives for comment.