Bette Midler, Kennedy Center inductee, is the people’s diva

This isn’t the kind of reflection I’ve come to expect from Midler, who is nearly 76 years old and is gearing up for another photogenic moment, as the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors. Then again, even her “entrance” on this Friday afternoon in October was suddenly muted. Live, she embodies what her co-star David Hyde Pierce in Broadway revival hit 2017 of the “Hello Dolly!,” called “an amazing smallness.” In fact, as her public figure and I waited for her outside the door of the Shubert Foundation on West 44th Street, she sped past us undetected.