Bette Midler Accused Geraldo Rivera of Groping Her in a 1991 Interview with Barbara Walters

[Frank Cannon]

http://people.com/movies/bette-midler-accused-geraldo-rivera-of-groping-her-in-1991/

Bette Midler once told Barbara Walters that Geraldo Rivera had groped her in the 1970s.

A video of the 1991 interview resurfaced Wednesday after Rivera defended TODAY show anchor Matt Lauer who was fired for alleged sexually inappropriate behavior.

Midler revealed the alleged incident to Walters after the veteran journalist asked about Rivera’s claim that he and the stage star had a sexual encounter.

“Geraldo and his producer came to do an interview with me, in the ’70s, the early ’70s,” Midler said. “And this was when he was very, sort of, hot. And he and his producer left the crew in the other room, they pushed me into my bathroom, they broke two poppers and pushed them under my nose and proceeded to grope me.”

(The word “poppers” is slang for the recreational drug alkyl nitrite.)

Walters cocked her head to the side and looked shocked as she asked, “Grope…?”

[Frank Cannon]

Grope sounds like rape to me....

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