Bette Midler "Isn't She Great" and "Drowning Mona". In Andrew Bergman's "Isn't She Great", a highly fictionalized account of the life and career of author Jacqueline Susann, she played alongside Nathan Lane and Stockard Channing, portraying Susann with her early struggles as an aspiring actress relentlessly hungry for fame, her relationship with press agent Irving Mansfield, her success as the author of "Valley of the Dolls", and her battle with and subsequent death from breast cancer. The dramedy garnered largely negative reviews by critics, who dismissed it as "bland material [that] produces entirely forgettable comic performances." For her performance in the film,
Dolores (Susann novel) author's mother, Rose Susann (1892-1981). As always with Jacqueline Susann's novels, the critics were harsh. A reviewer for "The New York Times" wrote, "The novel is a fanzine version of clippings and rumors... The writing is sluggish and the plot limp." The reading public nonetheless embraced the book: the hardcover spent 25 weeks on the "New York Times" best seller list, peaking at #2 for seven consecutive weeks, and becoming the third highest-selling novel of 1976, behind just Leon Uris's "Trinity" and Agatha Christie's final book, "Sleeping Murder". The 1978 Bantam edition reached #1 on the "Times" paperback list. Dolores