All Girl Productions

Bette Midler is grabbing a business lunch in the Rotunda, the mouse-motif restaurant frequented by the top rung of Team Disney, when a sandy-haired executive interrupts her, mid-bite. "You're my favorite . . . seen everything you've done," he says, both excited and apologetic. "I was in the second row at Radio City [Music Hall]--the one who caught your hairpiece in the mermaid act."

Bette Midler is grabbing a business lunch in the Rotunda, the mouse-motif restaurant frequented by the top rung of Team Disney, when a sandy-haired executive interrupts her, mid-bite. "You're my favorite . . . seen everything you've done," he says, both excited and apologetic. "I was in the second row at Radio City [Music Hall]--the one who caught your hairpiece in the mermaid act."

Hadassah Southern California, the 22,000-member women's Zionist organization, has selected 27 members to serve on the new Morning Star Commission for a one-year study of the portrayal of Jewish women in films and television.

Bette Midler's dramatic television debut could come next season on NBC in the role of a mildly retarded woman in "Winnie: My Life in the Institution." Midler has signed with NBC Productions to develop a two-hour TV movie based on the real-life story of Gwina "Winnie" Sprockett, who lived most of her life in a mental institution.

Among Bette Midler's upcoming projects: "For Our Boys," in development for Fox. It's about a USO performer whose political awareness grows after gigs in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. There's an interesting subplot, too, in the script by Neal Jimenez ("River's Edge") and Lindy Laub. You see, paralleling Midler's character is a popular male comic--who, a source tells us, is loosely patterned after a real-life popular male comic who's long served the troops.

Last week's rains and cold, windy weather have more than satisfied the need of most Angelenos for a wintry holiday season. But for many Easterners transplanted here, the holidays are just not the same without some snow on the ground and a nip in the air. "I love to put mittens on, and my scarf, to get all bundled up to go into the snow. That's Christmas!" said Rachel Evans, a former New Yorker who works for Bette Midler's company, All Girl Productions, in Studio City.

Bette Midler as a nun didn't fly, so Touchstone Pictures' upcoming singing-nun comedy "Sister Act" stars Whoopi Goldberg instead. The story follows Goldberg, who plays a casino lounge singer on the run from her mobster boyfriend, into hiding at a San Francisco convent, where she finds a new calling as a hip, habit-wearing choirmistress.

The March 6 Calendar contained two curiously contradictory reviews. On the front page, the movie "Twilight" was characterized as "geezer noir" in a review by sub-geezer Kenneth Turan, using the G-word in the condescending way in which your newspaper would never print the N-word for African Americans or the S-word for Hispanic Americans. On the back page was a glowing review by F. Kathleen Foley of 98-year-old theater director Martin Magner's production of "Play Strindberg." The G-word was nowhere in sight.

MOVIES Monroe Memorial: Today is the 35th anniversary of Marilyn Monroe's death, and the Marilyn Remembered Fan Club will hold its 15th annual memorial service for the actress at 11 a.m. in the chapel at Westwood Village Memorial Park in Westwood. Guest speakers will include photographer George Barris, biographer Donald Spoto, Monroe's stand-in Evelyn Moriarty and foster sister Bebe Goddard. Monroe's death on Aug. 5, 1962, was ruled a suicide.

One minute she is demure, bespectacled and as serious as a librarian. She sits rather primly on her office couch, speaking precisely of contract negotiations, story development and the unreleased garage tapes of Hoagy Carmichael. This is Ms. Midler, Disney producer. In the next instant, however, she is the Divine Miss M, jumping to her feet to demonstrate a wild and esoteric dance routine from the turn of the century. "Have you ever heard of the butterfly woman, Loie Fuller and her sticks?