Bette Midler Hearts Project Runway, "The Chubby One" and "The Chinese Girl"

At the media "Meet and Mingle" with Bette Midler tonight at Caesars Palace, I noted to Bette that it was a shame she'd pulled the "Pope-in-a-sex-club" clip of Michael Kors from "Project Runway" from a video montage segment in "The Showgirl Must Go On." And somehow, that led to a lengthy chat about the only reality show I've ever watched, one that my companion, Amy, podcasts about every Wednesday with her sister, Bay, on special editions of her "Grits To Glitz" podcast.

Turns out, Bette Midler is a HUGE "Runway" fan, although she was a little bit behind because, well, she's been staging a frigging $10 million Vegas show. So there Amy and I were, catching her up on who the finalists were. It was awful funny -- she did hand motions for the hair of each of the three, Jillian, Rami and Christian. She specifically mentioned how she really liked this week's casualty, Chris March (or, as she kindly said, "the Chubby One,"), and seemed turned on by the idea when Amy suggested she hire him for some costumes for the show.

But she was mainly ticked off, she said, that "The Chinese One" was auf'd. That would be VictorYA. "She was the one making the most commercial stuff," Bette said.

Later, Amy and I chatted with Toni Basil, the "Mickey" singer and Bette's longtime choreographer. Basil noted that Bette is a good friend of Michael Kors. And Amy made the suggestion that someone ought to bend the ears of Kors' and "Runway" brass to get them to come to Vegas in Season Five and design an outfit for Bette's show! As Amy noted, the judges are frequently dismissing various designs as "too Vegas." Well, if they can do professional female wrestlers, surely they can go right into the heart of the beast and do a real Vegas challenge. And the cross-promotional potential is ginormous, especially since Kors just opened his first Vegas boutique, at the Palazzo.

And I'll make the vow right here and now: If "Runway" comes to Vegas, I'll find a national media outlet to take a piece on it. If it's the last thing I do. Which, God knows, it could be.

The gauntlet has been thrown.

Oh, and I asked Bette who she thought would win the show. "Oh, I know," she said. Who? I asked. "I'm not gonna tell you!" she cackled.