Photos: Jeff Eason of WilsonModels
Bette Midler hosts a very elite Halloween ball every year to raise funds for her charity, New York Restoration Project.
"We manage 52 community gardens across the city in low income neighborhoods," Deborah Marton, Executive Director of NYRP told us. "We also manage 100 acres of New York City parks. We launched a major project in the South Bronx to create a connected network of open spaces. We continue to bring arts programming, education and people want to in open space to those spaces."
Every year Bette dresses up, but this year she really out did herself, slaying the red carpet as her coveted character Winifred Sanderson from the film Hocus Pocus.
"Oh, this is quick! It's only an hour and a half," she responded when asked how long it takes for her to get up in the Winny gig. 
She wasn't the only gay icon in attendance. Sandra Bernhard was there, Kathy Griffin hosted, and Marc Jacobs came in drag to judge the costume competition. When asked why she picked him, Bette said, "Marc is so divine. I worked with him last year. I did a campaign for him with my daughter and he was really lovely to us."
I am a huge Bette fan myself, especially after I discovered her Live At Last concert on YouTube and Spotify. Well, her first album, The Divine Miss M, was just re-mastered and released two weeks ago.
I just had to ask Bette all about it. "Oh my gosh. Someone noticed! Thank you!"
About hearing the album re-mastered, she responded, "It was marvelous. It's great because I hadn't heard it in a long time and it brought back a lot old memories, great memories."
One of Bette's first performing gigs (and highest paid at the time) was at the Continental Baths, a bathhouse for gay men in the basement of The Ansonia Hotel in New York City.
"Despite the way things turned out [with the AIDS crisis], I'm still proud of those days [when I got my start singing at the gay bathhouses]. I feel like I was at the forefront of the gay liberation movement, and I hope I did my part to help it move forward. So, I kind of wear the label of 'Bathhouse Betty' with pride." Bette Midler told the now defunct gay newspaper Houston Voice.
If there is one thing we learn every Halloween, it's that people are still obsessed with Hocus Pocus.
So, what about a Hocus Pocus 2?
"Many years ago, I tried desperately to do a sequel but it didn't work."
Here is to hoping she will try again!
