Vinessa Shaw at Thanksgiving time. She then landed parts in a handful of television roles. She played a considerably large role in Disney's 1993 Halloween family film "Hocus Pocus" alongside Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy, Omri Katz, and a young Thora Birch. Shaw completed roles in various independent films for the remainder of the 1990s. In 1998, she enrolled at Barnard College in New York City, but dropped out to continue pursuing acting. Shaw was attending the college when she was approached by Stanley Kubrick for her role in "Eyes Wide Shut", playing an HIV-positive prostitute who is encountered by
Bette Midler by critics, who felt the film was "sweet but milquetoast", box office totals for the movie were higher than initially expected. In 2013, Midler performed on Broadway for the first time in more than 30 years in a play about the Hollywood superagent Sue Mengers. The play, titled "" and dramatized by John Logan, opened on April 24, 2013 at the Booth Theatre. After the show's success in New York, recouping its initial $2.4 million investment, it was decided to perform the play in Los Angeles at the Geffen Playhouse. In December, it was announced that Midler would portray actress