Bette Midler says she ‘regrets’ not suing Lindsay Lohan over sitcom debacle

‘It was extremely chaotic’ the actor said

Bette Midler has said she regrets not suing Lindsay Lohan when she walked away from their shared sitcom, Bette, after the pilot was filmed in the early 2000s.

Midler played herself in the situation comedy, which aired in America from October 2000 to March 2001, with Kevin Dunn playing her husband and Lohan as her daughter in the pilot.

Although 18 episodes of Bette were filmed, two instalments were never aired and the show was cancelled after its first season.

The actor, 78, has revealed she wishes she had taken legal action against Lohan for ditching the series, who was 13 years old at the time.

Speaking to the Fail Better podcast, Midler called Bette a “mistake” and admitted she was naive when entering into the project.

“I had never done a situation comedy,” she said. “I didn’t realise what the pace was. I didn’t understand what the hierarchy was and no one bothered to tell me.”

Midler claimed after Lohan’s exit from the series she started to notice “astonishing” things happening.

Bette Midler has said she ‘regrets’ not suing Lindsay Lohan after the star walked away from their sit-com together (Getty Images)

“Lindsay Lohan decided she didn’t want to do it, or she had other fish to fry,” she said.

“So, Lindsay Lohan left the building and I said, ‘well, now what do you do?’ And the studio didn’t help me.”

The actor described the fallout of Lohan’s exit as “extremely chaotic”, adding if she had been in her “right mind” she would have taken legal action.

“If I had known that part of my duties were to stand up and say, ‘This absolutely will not do, I’m going to sue,’ then I would have done that,” Midler added.

“But I seem to have been cosseted in some way that I couldn’t get to the writer’s room. I couldn’t speak to the showrunner. I couldn’t make myself clear.”

Earlier this month, Lohan shared a photo of herself and Midler filming Bette in the 2000s to Instagram.

“Had such a blast filming with the incredible Bette Midler,” the Freaky Friday actor reminisced in the caption alongside a love heart emoji.

It comes after Lohan recently revealed she had opted to move from Hollywood to Dubai a decade ago to escape the public eye.

The Mean Girls lead left the US for London before permanently residing in Dubai - where she eventually met her husband, Bader Shammas.

Speaking to Bustle, Lohan reflected on what influenced her need to leave the country, citing the never-ending swarm of paparazzi as a main one.

“I feel like some of [my work] got overshadowed by paparazzi and all that kind of stuff when I was younger, and that’s kind of annoying. I wish that part didn’t happen,” she said.

“I feel like that kind of took on a life of its own. So that’s why I wanted to disappear. I was like, ‘Unless there’s no story here, they’re not going to focus on just my work.’”