Bette’s Stretch : Highways: Can Caltrans live with a colorful singer sponsoring freeway cleanup, or more to the point, can she live with their colorless scheme?

Most entertainers want their names in lights on Hollywood marquees. But Bette Midler’s next big billing will be on the shoulders of the Ventura Freeway.

Caltrans announced Friday that the actress-singer is the latest recruit to its “Adopt-A-Highway” program, in which volunteers agree to clean up trash along various stretches of state roads.

Midler, a self-described “anti-litter fiend,” will be responsible for the pickup of bottles, cans and other debris along a two-mile stretch of the Ventura Freeway in Studio City, between the Hollywood Freeway and Coldwater Canyon off-ramp.

The state Department of Transportation said it plans to put up two signs--one on each side of the freeway--next week announcing that Midler is sponsoring the spruce-up work.

In an interview, Midler said she chose that particular stretch of freeway to adopt because she is chauffeured along it on her way from her Beverly Hills home to her office at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, and often sees litter there.

“My feeling is it’s a slap in the face of the Earth,” she said. “I take it personally, every single shred of it.”

Joel Fonseca, coordinator of the Caltrans program, said workers next week will attach small panels carrying Midler’s name to two Adopt-A-Highway signs already erected on the Ventura Freeway.

Fonseca said Caltrans recently removed white panels with her name in black lettering from the signs after the actress requested that sky-blue panels be put up.

He said Midler wanted something a little fancier than plain white.

But Midler--who is renowned for her somewhat garish hairstyles and clothing--indignantly denied that she had asked for any such switch.

“I didn’t ask for anything special. I don’t want Caltrans to have to spend any extra money on me,” she huffed. “I think he’s trying to make a good story out of it.”

Meanwhile, Caltrans spokesman Russell Snyder advised stargazers not to expect to find the Divine Miss M herself on the freeway, prowling for litter.

The actress paid to have a private contractor do the actual pickup, he said.

“We don’t want people driving up and down the Ventura Freeway looking for Bette Midler with an orange vest and a little poker,” he said.

“Because that’s not going to happen.”