HOLLYWOOD — Bette Midler is feeling a bit leery about marriage right at the moment now that her husband has up and left her.
Not the real Bette Midler, who's still happily married to Martin Von Hasselberg. The fictional Midler — the character in the CBS sitcom "Bette" — was deserted by actor Kevin Dunn, who played her fictional husband, Roy.
"Kevin Dunn wanted to be let go," Midler said on the set of her sitcom. "He was very unhappy with the material he was given. He works a lot in features, and I think he just preferred that life. And I can't argue with him. I think he's a wonderful actor. I was lucky to get him for the few episodes that I had him. It just wasn't his cup of tea."
But Dunn's departure didn't come at a great time for the show, which is struggling to find itself and struggling in the ratings. (It airs Wednesdays at 7 p.m. on Ch. 2.)
"It was tumultuous to have Kevin leave," said series co-star Joanna Gleason. "It's difficult when an actor is unhappy. And I think it's safe to say that Kevin was unhappy."
Dunn was under contract, but Midler and the producers released him from it.
"Rather than make him suffer through the contract, it seemed like the most judicious thing to let him go and find happiness with someone else," she said.
Who that will be is the big question. And Midler seems truly ambivalent about the whole thing. One moment she says, "I'm not looking for a replacement," the next she's spouting casting ideas.
What Midler finds utterly amazing is that so many people — at least people within the network and the studio — are so caught up in the question of recasting her TV husband.
"In this world, people really take this (expletive) seriously!" she exclaimed. "I think, what are you talking about? It's ether! It's pictures in the air!
"We really have to think this through because, apparently, people care!" she shrieked in astonishment. "I think it's hilarious."
If Midler had her way, the solution to the Dunn departure might be, well, truly odd.
"I personally feel every week we should have a different Roy," she said, suggesting casting like Fred Willard, Martin Short and even Chris Rock. "I just think it's a great idea. And then if you liked them, they could maybe come back for a couple of episodes. You maybe could have a contest — the longest-running Roy or something."
Don't hold your breath on that idea, however.
"I appreciate her wanting different husbands every week," said CBS Entertainment president Nancy Tellem, who quipped that, "Frankly, I would like a different husband every week. But we're trying to make make the series as realistic as we can, and we are currently looking to cast a husband, and I think we're going to end up with only one."
Midler said she really likes to have a "male presence" on the show, but — like a woman whose husband left her — she's nervous about jumping into another relationship.
"They all think that I should have a husband. And I'd like to have a husband, because I'm a little bit embarrassed that he dumped me so quickly," she said. "But . . . I'm of two minds. I would like to have a husband, but I'd like to have a husband that I really, really can write for and someone's who's going to be really happy with this job. It would be awful to hire another actor and have him run away again because too much of the burden is on me and they don't get anything to do.
"I'm very timid about getting involved with another actor who I'm not sure of. And I'm very timid about working with someone who's maybe not so much a comic but more of an actor, if you catch my drift. We're not sure what we need in this role. People want to have a male presence, and the audience likes the idea that it's a good, solid family. And I like that, too. But I want to make sure this time."
Gleason said the show needs to find someone who will be happy as a supporting character on a sitcom — which Dunn obviously was not.
"I think, as with Kevin, you need somebody who's a good actor," she said. "I think they would do well to just find a good actor who's very well grounded in life whose expectations do not exceed, maybe, what the task might offer because every role has its place."
E-mail: pierce@desnews.com