Bette Midler Accidentally Starts a ‘Sailors vs. Salem’ Debate Among ‘Hocus Pocus’ Fans: ‘Don’t Mess With This Witch!’
Bette Midler stirred up quite a bit of confusion over a famous line in Hocus Pocus last week, all thanks to a social media gaffe.
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On Friday (Sept. 23), the actress shared a new glimpse of herself as Winifred Sanderson in a promotional poster for the upcoming Hocus Pocus 2 with the caption, “Hello Sailors! My name’s Winifred, what’s yours? #WinifredSanderson… #HocusPocus2, an Original movie event, streaming September 30 on @DisneyPlus.” The caption referenced her character’s line in the middle of “I Put a Spell On You,” but her followers were hilariously baffled by the greeting.
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“Hello SAILORS?! are you telling me it’s not hello SALEM?!” one fan wrote with a mind-blown emoji while another commented, “I always thought you were saying ‘hello, Salem.'”
The controversy brewed over the lyrical mistake kept brewing in the comments section of Midler’s post. But as it turns out, the fans were correct, and she returned returned to the caption days later to issue a hilarious correction.
Changing the caption to “Hello Salem!” she added, “(Autocorrect – don’t mess with this witch!)” to the end of the tag, laughing off the technical malfunction in the process.
Premiering this Friday (Sept. 30) on Disney+, the long-awaited sequel to 1993’s Hocus Pocus reunites Midler with Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker as, respectively, Mary Sanderson and Sarah Sanderson as the witchy trio is accidentally brought back to life by three high school students in modern-day Salem.
While original child stars Omri Katz, Vinessa Shaw and Thora Birch aren’t returning for the sequel, the Sanderson sisters will be joined by newcomers Hannah Waddington, Tony Hale, Whitney Peak, Lilia Buckingham and Belissa Escobedo. Additionally, original Hocus Pocus star Doug Jones will be reprising his role as Billy Butcherson.
Check out Midler’s cheekily edited Hocus Pocus 2 post below.
