Bette Midler: The divine one talks to "The Advocate"

Oh man, the new cover story on Bette Midler in The Advocate is absolutely awesome. It's the Vegas issue and we all know that The Divine Miss M is headlining in her new show "The Showgirl Must Go On." She was paid a visit by Advocate editor Anne Stockwell who asks her about her stance on gay marriage and lighter topics.
Here are some excerpts:

On her early days performing at the Continental Baths: "[The emcee] would say, "The Divine Miss M!" And the place would go crazy, and I would just be as sexy and as hot as I could possibly be. Because there was no danger in being sexy and hot. What was going to happen to you? Nothing! I was just outrageous. Had thrown away my bra a long time ago. I was wearing backless, frontless, sideless, you name it. My hairdresser from "Fiddler on the Roof" said to me, "You can't just go up there and sing your songs. You have to talk too." So we'd write all these jokes out, and I would memorize them. And sometimes on the spot, I would make stuff up, because by this time I was learning a lot. It was so much fun....I think it was youth, just exuberance and hormones and drive. A lot of it was luck too -- to be in a place where this was going on in the gay community, where this community was feeling its oats and had finally stood up for itself after God knows how many hundreds of years, and said, "No, this is not gonna happen to us anymore."

On her controversial remarks to Larry King in 2003 when she wondered aloud whether gay men would want to commit to traditional monogamous marriage: did have to think it over. These are enormous, just gigantic seismic shifts. People don't like change. People have to get used to it. They have to process it. They have to weigh it. You don't just rush off and say, "I'm going to marry that guy." You just don't do it. A grown-up person analyzes it, hears it, processes it, and makes a decision. You come to a conclusion after you've thought it over, and you really -- I'm not so quick. I'm still singing songs from the fuckin '40s! [Laughs] Give it a rest! Come on! I'm slow! [Both laugh] But gay people changed, of course, much faster than everybody else did and suddenly wanted this thing. I mean, I've known gay people, I've been around people and loved them and have been my dear friends and buried 'em and, you know, all that. But this is like a shift that nobody even--nobody saw that coming."

On her appearance: I look unbelievable. That's what they always say. "You look unbelievable!" I do. I don't know how come. Always, under the lights I look unbelievable. So I'm happy to make everyone happy that I'm not some old crone. They can come and they can feel relieved. Because I look fabulous.

Go to Advocate.com to read the article in its entirety...