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 of lesser known tracks from her catalog. Midler was one of the producers of the Broadway production of the musical "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert", which opened in February 2011. In June 2012, Midler received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award at the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York in recognition of her having "captivated the world" with her "stylish presentation and unmistakable voice." The same year, she co-starred alongside Billy Crystal in the family movie "Parental Guidance" (2012), playing a couple of old school grandparents trying to adapt to their daughter's 21st-Century parenting style. Despite generally negative reviews