It is a clip that has existed since 1991, and that has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube — diva Bette Midler, who turns 72 tomorrow, telling legendary talk show host Barbara Walters (b. 1929) in 1991 that Geraldo Rivera (b. 1943) had taken sexual liberties with her in the early '70s.
In the clip, Walters is incredulous as Midler, responding to a story in Rivera's Exposing Myself memoir that she'd been sexually insatiable during an affair with Rivera, says Rivera and a producer pushed her into a bathroom, broke poppers under her nose and groped her.
Midler described the encounter was "unseemly," but also seemed to imply that she and Rivera had, in fact, later slept together.
Midler's Twitter, like Cher's, is highly political. (Images via Twitter @BetteMidler)
After Rivera sent out a tone-deaf series of tweets defending Today host Matt Lauer (b. 1957) over sex-harassment allegations, Midler on Thursday tweeted, "Yup. Me, too."
She followed that tweet an hour later with one that contained a tight edit of her allegations about Rivera, along with the text:
Tomorrow is my birthday. I feel like this video was a gift from the universe to me. Geraldo may have apologized for his tweets supporting Matt Lauer, but he has yet to apologize for this.
#MeToo
Tomorrow is my birthday. I feel like this video was a gift from the universe to me. Geraldo may have apologized for his tweets supporting Matt Lauer, but he has yet to apologize for this. #MeToo pic.twitter.com/TkcolFWfA2
— Bette Midler (@BetteMidler) November 30, 2017
UPDATE: Rivera has apologized. Sort of:
Although I recall the time @BetteMidler has alluded to much differently than she, that does not change the fact that she has a right to speak out & demand an apology from me, for in the very least, publically embarrassing her all those years ago. Bette, I apologize.
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) December 1, 2017
