10 Questions for Bette Midler

She started in the bathhouses of Manhattan and sang a famous goodbye serenade to Johnny Carson. Along the way Bette Midler, 60, has built a career out of making retro cool, from films like For the Boys to her latest CD, Bette Midler Sings the Peggy Lee Songbook. The Divine Miss M spoke with TIME's Richard Zoglin about Mae West, Las Vegas and the next generation of divas.

WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO PEGGY LEE? I missed a lot of people growing up. I never saw her work live. Never saw her on television. But Barry Manilow sent me these songs, and...

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