Bebe Neuwirth, Dopey Showbiz Clintonite

Apparently, she had been adamant. People had begged and pleaded?her producers, other members of her cast. But no. "This woman came on like gangbusters," the actor who wrote the sketch, Elliot Cuker, told the Post. "She is tough." And so she is. Talented, too.

It's disheartening, therefore, to see her come out publicly in favor of a woman whose significance is so diametrically opposed to everything Neuwirth herself represents. After all, Hillary, whose life and career are an insult to married and professional women everywhere, only got where she is on the strength of who she's married to.

It's worse than that. Neuwirth isn't just any hoofer. The show she stars in, which is a satire, takes as its target the very sort of woman Hillary Clinton represents: the kind who makes it on her back. Maurine Watkins, the reporter who wrote the play upon which the current musical is based, had covered the real-life murder trial that inspired it, and reserved her most cutting prose for the woman she turned into "Roxy Hart."

Watkins inaugurated a legacy of social satire in which intelligent, gifted women step into the minds of gold diggers and trophy wives. Neuwirth makes a living brilliantly impersonating women who make it on their backs. Hillary Clinton makes a living poorly impersonating women who don't.

Never mind whatever Neuwirth thinks she has against Giuliani. (Is she upset with him about cleaning up 42nd St. and Times Square? And arguably saving Broadway in the bargain?) It's another classic example of how simpleminded (Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon) or just stubborn (Charlton Heston, now Neuwirth) show-business types can be when they engage in political grandstanding. The event Neuwirth so nobly rejected raises some "$100,000 a year for small neighborhood charities" around the city. Maybe in compensation she'll send them all free tickets to matinees of Chicago.