Midler says she's glad to be out of TV

NEW YORK, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Bette Midler says she's glad to be out of television and will embark on a concert tour she is calling the "I'm Not Retiring and You Can't Make Me Tour."

The tour is to start in December. The 52-year-old singer and actress has also collaborated with her old accompanist, Barry Manilow, on "Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook" and is set to appear with Nicole Kidman in "The Stepford Wives."

"There's no grand design, I'm happy to be making a movie, happy to be getting back to my old thing -- the stage -- and especially happy not to be doing television anymore," Midler told More magazine in an interview.

"You have to be funny every single week; if you aren't, you're dead, you are just plain dead."

The Divine Miss M. admitted she contributed to the demise of her television show "Bette."

"If I hadn't gone on (the Late Show) with Dave Letterman and said I was a dung beetle pushing a heap of poop up a mountain, I'm sure I'd still be on the air, even with my crummy ratings, but I just couldn't keep my mouth shut," she said.

"Bette" ran for 18 episodes on CBS in 2000 and Midler called it "unbearable," but she said it was a relief when it was canceled.