The Divine Miss...Dolly!

When Bette Midler gets her tease on, she makes good on it.

The Divine Miss M – who is modeling for Marc Jacobs and working on a reunion with her fellow First Wives, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton, for Netflix – is also on her way back to Broadway, where she will take on the role of Dolly Levi in a revival of Hello, Dolly! that will open next year. Midler’s staging will mark the first time in more than half a century that the show has graced the Great White Way.

Film producer Scott Rudin is backing the production, which will be under the direction of four-time Tony winner Jerry Zaks.

The entertainer was last on Broadway in 2013, as the star of I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers.

Previews for the new Hello, Dolly! are set to begin in March 2017 for an official curtain later late the following month.

Photo: Zimbio.com.

Going Mae West

Bette Midler is headed to HBO.

It is so the place to be these days, after all.

The Divine Miss M has signed on to play Mae West on a telefilm about the Hollywood multi-hyphenate/sex symbol.

Midler is also on board to executive produce the Harvey Fierstein-written project, which William Friedkin is set to direct.

Photo: BoneuBryanBrown.com.

Bette Is Back, Ladies and Gents

That noise you hear is the sound of Bette Midler making her way back to Broadway – after three decades! – and thousands of fans shrieking in delight and anticipation.

Indeed, the Divine Miss M is set to take the Great White Way by storm once again, beginning at the end of April, in John Logan’s I’ll Eat You Last: A Chat with Sue Mengers.

Logan, btw, is the screenwriter of the latest 007 adventure, Skyfall, so you can expect a taut and satisfying show when you go to the theater.

Joe Mantello will direct the one-woman show about Hollywood’s first female “super-agent,” a plucky woman with a legendary wit from Hitler’s Germany who came to America and climbed the Tinseltown ladder to great heights of success.

Photo: SMH.com.au.

First Wives Reunited (Ish)!

It is the reunion the world has been waiting for with breath that is bated.

Well, sort of.

First Wives Club stars Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton, and Bette Midler have signed on to star on a new comedy for Netflix titled Divanation!

The project will center on the members of a once-popular singing group thrust into a reluctant reunion after 30 years of estrangement.

Similar concept to the trio’s beloved-by-all 1996 hit, but, y’ know...still different. And already such a must.

Photo: CW33.com.

R.I.P. Tony Soprano

I was literally just on Skype chatting with the BFF when I checked Us Weekly online and found that James Gandolfini has passed away.

The Emmy-winning star of HBO’s The Sopranos suffered a heart attack while on vacation in Rome today.

He was 51.

The actor most recently appeared on the big screen in Zero Dark Thirty and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.

Still coming up he had Nicole Holofcener’s Enough Said and Animal Rescue, a thriller with Tom Hardy, as well as a new show for HBO called Criminal Justice, which was picked up just last month.

Photo: TVGuide.com.

Update 1: Click here for reactions to this sad news from Sopranos creator David Chase, who remembered his friend as “a genius.”

Update 2: For reactions from the Hollywood community – including Susan Sarandon, Albert Brooks, Bette Midler, Rob Lowe, Kathy Griffin, Olivia Wilde, and Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter – click here.

Update 3: In a touching move, the New Jersey ice cream parlor where Gandolfini shot his last scene as Tony Soprano – you know, the one with the most famous cut to black ever – paid tribute to the actor by placing a “Reserved” sign on the table where he and his TV family sat for the very last time.