BETTE MIDLER CALLS STEVIE NICKS

Kathy Griffin's 'D-List' adds some A-list star power for new season

Midler appears in tonight's premiere, entertaining Griffin in her Las Vegas digs during an extended concert appearance at Caesars Palace, where she good-naturedly suffers the indignity of Griffin's small talk. "When I'm around you, I look like I have class — which never happens," Griffin tells Midler.

"When you sit down with Bette Midler, you don't want to waste your time with small talk," says Griffin, who proceeds to ask Midler whether her 1990 hit, Wind Beneath My Wings, is about flatulence.

Griffin also bugs Midler for advice on how she can get her comedy album based on her popular stand-up act, For Your Consideration, a Grammy nod — a request that prompts Midler to phone Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks. (Neither offers much help, but that album, which was eventually nominated, did not win at this year's Grammy Awards.)