Bette Midler laments the roles she let get away

With Oscar nominations for The Rose and For the Boys and such box office hits as The First Wives Club, Down and Out In Beverly Hills, Beaches, Outrageous Fortune, Ruthless People and Big Business, it’s hard to believe Bette Midler would have many quibbles with her film career.

[I also recommend Bette's TV movie Gypsy, the delicious Halloween treat Hocus Pocus and her fine performance in the Helen Hunt-directed Then She Found Me]

But the great star laments some of the parts she said “no” to and went on to become great successes for others: Kathy Bates’ Oscar winning role in Misery and the lead in Whoopi Goldberg’s Sister Act films.

“Oh my God, it’s all so tragic,” she says in a new interview with the UK’s Metro. “But it’s best to forget those and put them behind me. Unfortunately, my husband never lets me forget them. There was Sister Act, which was written for me, but I said: ‘My fans don’t want to see me in a wimple.’ I don’t know where I got that from. Why would I say such a thing? So Whoopi [Goldberg] did it instead and, of course, she made a fortune. Then she went on and did Sister Act 2. I also didn’t do Misery and Kathy Bates won an Oscar for it. That’s not to say I would have. It was so violent and I had no relation to it. I was afraid.”

Bette is the voice of Kitty on the current release Cats & Dogs: The Revenge Of Kitty Galore.