A Goddess Among Us
Beautiful
Barbra Streisand
My
Goddess
by
Summer Fey-Wülf
From
the very first moment I ever heard Barbra sing, she was my Goddess! I
felt a
bond with her that I still cannot describe. I suspect that maybe we
were related
in a previous life. I absolutely adore her!
Barbra
Joan Streisand; (born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress,
writer,
film producer, and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight
Grammy
Awards, five Emmy Awards including one Daytime Emmy, a Special Tony
Award, an
American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few
entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award.
She is
one of the most commercially and critically successful entertainers in
modern
entertainment history, with more than 71.5 million albums shipped in
the United
States and 140 million albums sold worldwide. She is the best-selling
female
artist on the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) Top
Selling
Artists list, the only female recording artist in the top ten, and the
only
artist outside of the rock and roll genre. Along with Frank Sinatra,
Cher, and
Shirley Jones, she shares the distinction of being awarded an acting
Oscar and
also recording a number-one single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100chart.
According
to the RIAA, Streisand holds the record for the most top-ten albums of
any
female recording artist – a total of 32 since 1963. Streisand has the
widest
span (48 years) between first and latest top-ten albums of any female
recording
artist. With her 2009 album, Love Is the Answer, she became one of the
rare
artists to achieve number-one albums in five consecutive decades.
According to
the RIAA, she has released 51 Gold albums, 30 Platinum albums, and 13
Multi-Platinum albums in the United States.
Early
life
Barbara
Joan Streisand (see name change) was born on April 24, 1942, in
Brooklyn, New
York, to a Jewish family, the daughter of Emanuel and Diana (née
Rosen)
Streisand, both of Austrian descent. She is the second of two siblings
sired by
Emanuel (her older brother is Sheldon), who was a respected high school
teacher. Fifteen months after Streisand's birth, her father died of a
cerebral
hemorrhage and the family went into near-poverty. Streisand first
attended the
Jewish Orthodox Yeshiva of Brooklyn, giving a solo performance at the
age of 7.
She later attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn and joined the
Freshman
Chorus and Choral Club. Streisand recollects, "I'm so glad I came from
Brooklyn--it's down to earth."
Diana
Rosen Streisand remarried Louis Kind in 1949 and gave Streisand a
half-sister,
the singer Roslyn Kind. Kind is 9 years younger than Barbra.
Barbra
Streisand became a nightclub singer while in her teens. She wanted to
be an
actress and appeared in summer stock and in a number of
Off-Off-Broadway
productions, including Driftwood (1959), with then-unknown Joan Rivers.
(In her
autobiography, Rivers wrote that she played a lesbian with a crush on
Streisand's character, but this was later denied by the play's author.)
Driftwood ran for only six weeks. When her boyfriend, Barry Dennen,
helped her
create a club act — first performed at The Lion, a popular gay
nightclub in
Manhattan's Greenwich Village in 1960 — she achieved success as a
singer. While
singing at The Lion for several weeks, she changed her name from
Barbara to
Barbra. Afterward she appeared at other New York nightclubs, including
the Bon
Soir and the Blue Angel. One early appearance outside of New York City
was at
Enrico Banducci’s hungry i nightclub in San Francisco.In 1961,
Streisand
appeared at the Town and Country nightclub in Winnipeg, Manitoba,
Canada, but
her appearance was cut short; the club owner did not appreciate her
singing
style. Streisand appeared at Baker's Keyboard Lounge in Detroit in 1961.
Streisand's
first television appearance was on The Tonight Show, then hosted by
Jack Paar,
in 1961, singing Harold Arlen's "A Sleepin' Bee". Orson Bean, who
substituted for Paar that night, had seen the singer perform at a gay
bar and
booked her for the telecast. (Her older brother Sheldon paid NBC for a
kinescope film so she could use it in 1961 to promote herself. Decades
later
the film was preserved through digitizing and is available for viewing
on a
website.) Later in 1961, Streisand became a semi-regular on PM East/PM
West, a
talk/variety series. PM East was hosted by Mike Wallace and Joyce
Davidson. PM
West was hosted by Terrence O'Flaherty. Westinghouse Broadcasting,
which aired
the television show in a select few cities (Boston, New York,
Baltimore,
Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago and San Francisco), wiped
all the
videotapes soon after broadcasting them. Audio segments from some
episodes,
which were saved by Streisand's fans, are part of the compilation CD
Just for
the Record, which went platinum in 1991. The singer said on 60 Minutes
in 1991
that 30 years earlier Mike Wallace had been "mean, very mean" to her
on PM East/PM West. He countered that she had been "totally
self-absorbed." 60 Minutes included the audio of Streisand saying to
him
in 1961, "I like the fact that you are provoking. But don't provoke
me."
In
1962, after several appearances on PM East/PM West, Streisand first
appeared on
Broadway, in the small but star-making role of Miss Marmelstein in the
musical
I Can Get It for You Wholesale. Her first album, The Barbra Streisand
Album,
won two Grammy Awards in 1963. Following her success in I Can Get It
for You
Wholesale, Streisand made several appearances on The Tonight Showin
1962 and
1963. Topics covered in her interviews with host Johnny Carson included
the
empire-waisted dresses that she bought wholesale and her "crazy"
reputation at Erasmus Hall High School. As is the case with Mike
Wallace, only
audio survives from small portions of her telecast conversations with
Carson.
It was at about this time that Streisand entered into a long and
successful
professional relationship with Lee Solters and Sheldon Roskin as her
publicists
with the firm Solters/Roskin (later Solters/Roskin/Friedman).
Streisand
returned to Broadway in 1964 with an acclaimed performance as
entertainer Fanny
Brice in Funny Girl at the Winter Garden Theatre. The show introduced
two of
her signature songs, "People" and "Don't Rain on My
Parade." Because of the play's overnight success, she appeared on the
cover of Time. In 1966, she repeated her success with Funny Girl in
London's
West End at the Prince of Wales Theatre. From 1965 to 1967 she appeared
in her
first four solo television specials.
Career
Singing
Streisand
has recorded 35 studio albums, almost all with Columbia Records. Her
early
works in the 1960s (her debut The Barbra Streisand Album, The Second
Barbra
Streisand Album, The Third Album, My Name Is Barbra, etc.) are
considered
classic renditions of theater and cabaret standards, including her
pensive
version of the normally uptempo "Happy Days Are Here Again". She
performed this in a duet with Judy Garland on The Judy Garland Show.
Garland
referred to her on the air as one of the last great belters. They also
sang
"There's No Business Like Show Business" with Ethel Merman joining
them.
Beginning
with My Name Is Barbra, her early albums were often medley-filled
keepsakes of
her television specials. Starting in 1969, she began attempting more
contemporary material, but like many talented singers of the day, she
found
herself out of her element with rock. Her vocal talents prevailed, and
she
gained newfound success with the pop and ballad-oriented Richard
Perry-produced
album Stoney End in 1971. The title track, written by Laura Nyro, was a
major
hit for Streisand.
During
the 1970s, she was also highly prominent on the pop charts, with Top 10
recordings such as "The Way We Were" (US No. 1), "Evergreen
(Love Theme from A Star Is Born)" (US No. 1), "No More Tears (Enough
Is Enough)" (1979, with Donna Summer), which as of 2010 is reportedly
still the most commercially successful duet, (US No. 1), "You Don't
Bring
Me Flowers" (with Neil Diamond) (US No. 1) and "The Main Event"
(US No. 3), some of which came from soundtrack recordings of her films.
As the
1970s ended, Streisand was named the most successful female singer in
the U.S.
— only Elvis Presley and The Beatles had sold more albums. In 1980, she
released her best-selling effort to date, the Barry Gibb-produced
Guilty. The
album contained the hits "Woman in Love" (which spent several weeks
atop the pop charts in the Fall of 1980), "Guilty", and "What
Kind of Fool".
After
years of largely ignoring Broadway and traditional pop music in favor
of more
contemporary material, Streisand returned to her musical-theater roots
with
1985's The Broadway Album, which was unexpectedly successful, holding
the
coveted No. 1 Billboard position for three straight weeks, and being
certified
quadruple platinum. The album featured tunes by Rodgers &
Hammerstein, George
Gershwin, Jerome Kern, and Stephen Sondheim, who was persuaded to
rework some
of his songs especially for this recording. The Broadway Album was met
with
acclaim, including a Grammy nomination for album of the year and,
ultimately,
handed Streisand her eighth Grammy as Best Female Vocalist. After
releasing the
live album One Voice in 1986, Streisand was set to take another musical
journey
along the Great White Way in 1988. She recorded several cuts for the
album
under the direction of Rupert Holmes, including "On My Own" (from Les
Misérables), a medley of "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" and
"Heather on the Hill" (from Finian's Rainbow and Brigadoon,
respectively), "All I Ask of You" (from The Phantom of the Opera),
"Warm All Over" (from The Most Happy Fella) and an unusual solo
version of "Make Our Garden Grow" (from Candide). Streisand was not
happy with the direction of the project and it was ultimately scrapped.
Only
"Warm All Over" and a reworked, lite FM-friendly version of "All
I Ask of You" were ever released, the latter appearing on Streisand's
1988
effort, Till I Loved You. At the beginning of the 1990s, Streisand
started
focusing on her film directorial efforts and became almost inactive in
the
recording studio. In 1991, a four-disc box set, Just for the Record,
was
released. A compilation spanning Streisand's entire career to date, it
featured
over 70 tracks of live performances, greatest hits, rarities and
previously
unreleased material.
The
following year, Streisand's concert fundraising events helped propel
former
President Bill Clinton into the spotlight and into office. Streisand
later
introduced Clinton at his inauguration in 1993. Streisand's music
career,
however, was largely on hold. A 1992 appearance at an APLA benefit as
well as
the aforementioned inaugural performance hinted that Streisand was
becoming
more receptive to the idea of live performances. A tour was suggested,
though
Streisand would not immediately commit to it, citing her well-known
stage
fright as well as security concerns. During this time, Streisand
finally
returned to the recording studio and released Back to Broadway in June
1993.
The album was not as universally lauded as its predecessor, but it did
debut at
No. 1 on the pop charts (a rare feat for an artist of Streisand's age,
especially given that it relegated Janet Jackson's Janet to the No. 2
spot).
One of the album's highlights was a medley of "I Have A Love" /
"One Hand, One Heart", a duet with Johnny Mathis, who Streisand said
is one of her favorite singers (this is stated in the CD's liner notes).
In
1993, New York Times music critic Stephen Holden wrote that Streisand
"enjoys a cultural status that only one other American entertainer,
Frank Sinatra,
has achieved in the last half century." In September 1993, Streisand
announced her first public concert appearances in 27 years. What began
as a
two-night New Year's event at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas
eventually led
to a multi-city tour in the summer of 1994. Tickets to the tour were
sold out
in under one hour. Streisand also appeared on the covers of major
magazines in
anticipation of what Time magazine named "The Music Event of the
Century." The tour was one of the biggest all-media merchandise parlays
in
history. Ticket prices ranged from US$50 to US$1,500 – making Streisand
the
highest-paid concert performer in history. Barbra Streisand: The
Concert went
on to be the top-grossing concert of the year and earned five Emmy
Awards and
the Peabody Award, while the taped broadcast on HBO is, to date, the
highest-rated concert special in HBO's 30-year history. Following the
tour's
conclusion, Streisand once again kept a low profile musically, instead
focusing
her efforts on acting and directing duties as well as a burgeoning
romance with
actor James Brolin.
In
1997, she finally returned to the recording studio, releasing Higher
Ground, a
collection of songs of a loosely-inspirational nature which also
featured a
duet with Céline Dion. The album received generally favorable
reviews and,
remarkably, once again debuted at No. 1 on the pop charts. Following
her
marriage to Brolin in 1998, Streisand recorded an album of love songs
entitled
A Love Like Ours the following year. Reviews were mixed, with many
critics
carping about the somewhat syrupy sentiments and overly-lush
arrangements;
however, it did produce a modest hit for Streisand in the
country-tinged
"If You Ever Leave Me", a duet with Vince Gill.
On New
Year's Eve 1999, Streisand returned to the concert stage, with the
highest-grossing single concert in Las Vegas history to date. At the
end of the
millennium, she was the number-one female singer in the U.S., with at
least two
No. 1 albums in each decade since she began performing. A two-disc live
album
of the concert entitled Timeless: Live in Concert was released in 2000.
Streisand performed versions of the Timeless concert in Sydney and
Melbourne,
Australia, in early 2000. In advance of four concerts (two each in Los
Angeles
and New York) in September 2000, Streisand announced she was retiring
from
paying public concerts. Her performance of the song "People" was
broadcast on the Internet via America Online.
Streisand's
most-recent albums have been Christmas Memories (2001), a somewhat
somber collection
of holiday songs (which felt entirely —albeit unintentionally—
appropriate in
the early post-9/11 days), and The Movie Album (2003), featuring famous
film
themes and backed by a large symphony orchestra. Guilty Pleasures
(called
Guilty Too in the UK), a collaboration with Barry Gibb and a sequel to
their
Guilty, was released worldwide in 2005.
In
February 2006, Streisand recorded the song "Smile" alongside Tony
Bennett at Streisand's Malibu home. The song is included on Tony
Bennett's 80th
birthday album, Duets. In September 2006, the pair filmed a live
performance of
the song for a special directed by Rob Marshall entitled Tony Bennett:
An
American Classic. The special aired on NBC November 21, 2006, and was
released
on DVD the same day. Streisand's duet with Bennett opened the special.
In 2006,
Streisand announced her intent to tour again, in an effort to raise
money and
awareness for multiple issues. After four days of rehearsal at the
Sovereign
Bank Arena in Trenton, New Jersey, the tour began on October 4 at the
Wachovia
Center in Philadelphia, continued with a featured stop in Fort
Lauderdale,
Florida, (this was the concert Streisand chose to film for a TV
special), and
concluded at Staples Center in Los Angeles on November 20, 2006.
Special guests
Il Divo were interwoven throughout the show. The show was known as
Streisand:
The Tour.
Streisand's
20-concert tour set box-office records. At the age of 64, well past the
prime
of most performers, she grossed $92,457,062 and set house gross records
in 14
of the 16 arenas played on the tour. She set the third-place record for
her
October 9, 2006, show at Madison Square Garden, the first- and
second-place
records of which are held by her two shows in September 2000. She set
the
second-place record at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, with her December
31, 1999,
show being the house record and the highest-grossing concert of all
time. This
led many people to openly criticize Streisand for price gouging, as
many
tickets sold for upwards of $1,000.
A
collection of performances culled from different stops on this tour,
Live in
Concert 2006, debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200, making it
Streisand's 29th
Top 10 album. In the summer of 2007, Streisand gave concerts for the
first time
in continental Europe. The first concert took place in Zürich
(June 18), then
Vienna (June 22), Paris (June 26), Berlin (June 30), Stockholm (July 4,
canceled), Manchester (July 10) and Celbridge, near Dublin (July 14),
followed
by three concerts in London (July 18, 22 and 25), the only European
city where
Streisand had performed before 2007. Tickets for the London dates cost
between
£100.00 and £1,500.00 and for the Ireland date between €118
and €500. The tour
included a 58-piece orchestra.
In
February 2008, Forbes listed Streisand as the No. 2 earning female
musician,
between June 2006 and June 2007, with earnings of about $60 million.
Although
Streisand's range has changed with time and her voice has deepened over
the
years, her vocal prowess has remained remarkably secure for a singer
whose
career has endured for nearly half a century. Streisand is a contralto
or
possibly amezzo-soprano who has a range consisting of well over two
octaves
from "low E to a high G and probably a bit more than that in either
direction." On November 17, 2008, Streisand returned to the studio to
begin recording what would be her sixty-third album and it was
announced that
Diana Krall was producing the album. Streisand is one of the recipients
of the
2008 Kennedy Center Honors. On December 7, 2008, she visited the White
House as
part of the ceremonies.
On
April 25, 2009, CBS aired Streisand's latest TV special, Streisand:
Live in
Concert, highlighting the aforementioned featured stop from her 2006
North
American tour, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. On September 26, 2009,
Streisand
performed a one-night-only show at the Village Vanguard in New York
City's
Greenwich Village. This performance was later released on DVD as One
Night Only
Barbra Streisand and Quartet at The Village Vanguard. On September 29,
2009,
Streisand and Columbia Records released her newest studio album, Love
is the
Answer, produced by Diana Krall. On October 2, 2009, Streisand made her
British
television performance debut with an interview on Friday Night With
Jonathan
Ross to promote the album. This album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard
200 and
registered her biggest weekly sales since 1997, making Streisand the
only
artist in history to achieve No. 1 albums in five different decades.
On
February 1, 2010, Streisand joined over 80 other artists in recording a
new
version of the 1985 charity single "We Are the World". Quincy Jones
and Lionel Richie planned to release the new version to mark the 25th
anniversary of its original recording. These plans changed, however, in
view of
the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, 2010, and on
February
12, the song, now called "We Are the World 25 for Haiti", made its
debut as a charity single to support relief aid for the beleaguered
island
nation.
In
2011, she sang "Somewhere" from the Broadway musical West Side Story,
with child prodigy Jackie Evancho on Evancho's album Dream With Me.
Streisand
was honored as MusiCares Person of the Year on February 11, 2011, two
days
prior to the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards.
Streisand
is one of many singers who use teleprompters during their live
performances.
Streisand has defended her choice in using teleprompters to display
lyrics and,
sometimes, banter.
Acting
Her
first film was a reprise of her Broadway hit, Funny Girl (1968), an
artistic
and commercial success directed by Hollywood veteran William Wyler.
Streisand
won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actress for the role, sharing it
with
Katharine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter), the only time there has been a
tie in
this Oscar category. Her next two movies were also based on musicals,
Jerry
Herman's Hello, Dolly!, directed by Gene Kelly (1969), and Alan Jay
Lerner's
and Burton Lane's On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, directed by
Vincente
Minnelli (1970), while her fourth film was based on the Broadway play
The Owl
and the Pussycat (1970).
During
the 1970s, Streisand starred in several screwball comedies, including
What's
Up, Doc? (1972) and The Main Event (1979), both co-starring Ryan
O'Neal, and
For Pete's Sake(1974) with Michael Sarrazin. One of her most famous
roles
during this period was in the drama The Way We Were (1973) with Robert
Redford,
for which she received an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress. She
earned
her second Academy Award for Best Original Song as composer (together
with
lyricist Paul Williams) for the song "Evergreen", from A Star Is Born
in 1976.
Along
with Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier and later Steve McQueen, Streisand
formed
First Artists Production Company in 1969, so the actors could secure
properties
and develop movie projects for themselves. Streisand's initial outing
with
First Artists was Up the Sandbox (1972).
From a
period beginning in 1969 and ending in 1980, Streisand appeared in the
annual
motion picture exhibitors poll of Top 10 Box Office attractions a total
of 10
times, often as the only woman on the list. After the commercially
disappointing All Night Long in 1981, Streisand's film output decreased
considerably. She has acted in only six films since.
Streisand
produced a number of her own films, setting up Barwood Films in 1972.
For Yentl
(1983), she was producer, director, and star, an experience she
repeated for
The Prince of Tides (1991) and The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996). There
was
controversy when Yentl received five Academy Award nominations, but
none for
the major categories of Best Picture, Actress, or Director. The Prince
of Tides
received even more Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, but the
director
was not nominated. Streisand also scripted Yentl, something she is not
always
given credit for. According to New York Times Editorial Page Editor
Andrew
Rosenthal in an interview with Allan Wolper, "the one thing that makes
Barbra Streisand crazy is when nobody gives her the credit for having
written
Yentl."
In
2004, Streisand made a return to film acting, after an eight-year
hiatus, in
the comedy Meet the Fockers (a sequel to Meet the Parents), playing
opposite
Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller, Blythe Danner and Robert De Niro.
In
2005, Streisand's Barwood Films, Gary Smith, and Sonny Murray purchased
the
rights to Simon Mawer's book Mendel's Dwarf. In December 2008, she
stated that
she was considering directing an adaptation of Larry Kramer's play The
Normal
Heart, a project she has worked on since the mid-1990s. In 2009, Andrew
Lloyd
Webber stated that Streisand was one of several actresses (alongside
Meryl
Streep and Glenn Close) who were interested in playing the role of
Norma
Desmond in the film adaptation of Webber's musical version of Sunset
Boulevard.
In
December 2010, Streisand appeared in Little Fockers, the third film
from the
Meet the Parents trilogy. She reprised the role of Roz Focker alongside
Dustin
Hoffman.
On
January 4, 2011, the New York Post reported that Streisand was in
negotiations
to produce, direct, and star in a new film version of Gypsy. In an
interview
with the New York Post, Arthur Laurents said: "We've talked about it a
lot, and she knows what she's doing. She has my approval." He said that
he
would not write the screenplay. The following day, the New York Times
reported
that Arthur Laurents clarified in a telephonic interview that Streisand
would
not direct the film "but playing Rose is enough to make her happy."
Streisand's spokesperson confirmed that "there have been
conversations". After Laurents' subsequent death there was no official
word
on the status of the film for months, until it was announced on March
13, 2012
that Gypsy was moving forward, with Julian Fellowes writing the
screenplay for
the project.
On
January 28, 2011, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Paramount
Pictures has
given the road-trip comedy My Mother's Curse the green light to begin
shooting,
with Streisand and Seth Rogen playing mother and son. Anne Fletcher is
slated
to direct the project with a script by Dan Fogelman. Lorne Michaels and
John
Goldwyn will produce it with Evan Goldberg. Executive producers include
Streisand, Rogen, Fogelman, and David Ellison, whose Skydance will
co-finance
the pic. Shooting began in spring of 2011 and wrapped in July. In
August the
Internet Movie Database began listing the film with the new title Guilt
Trip.
The film is set for a November 2012 release (originally it was slated
to
release in March 2012).
Personal
life
Marriages
and family
Streisand
has been married twice. Her first husband was actor Elliott Gould, to
whom she
was married from 1963 until 1971. They had one child, Jason Gould, who
would go
on to star as her on-screen son in The Prince of Tides. Her second
husband is
actor James Brolin, whom she married on July 1, 1998. While they have
no
children together, Brolin has two children from his first marriage,
including
Academy Award-nominated actor Josh Brolin, and one child from his
second
marriage. Both of her husbands starred in the 1970s conspiracy sci-fi
thriller
Capricorn One.
Jon
Peters' daughters, Caleigh Peters and Skye Peters, are her
god-daughters.
Name
Streisand
changed her name from Barbara to Barbra because, she said, "I hated the
name, but I refused to change it." Streisand further explained,
"Well, I was 18 and I wanted to be unique, but I didn't want to change
my
name because that was too false. You know, people were saying you could
be
Joanie Sands, or something like that. [My middle name is Joan.] And I
said,
'No, let's see, if I take out the 'a,' it's still 'Barbara,' but it's
unique." A 1967 biography with a concert program said, "the spelling
of her first name is an instance of partial rebellion: she was advised
to
change her last name and retaliated by dropping an “a” from the first
instead."
Politics
Streisand
has long been an active supporter of the Democratic Party and many of
their
causes. Streisand said, "The Democrats have always been the party of
working people and minorities. I've always identified with the
minorities."
In
1971, Streisand was one of the celebrities listed on President Richard
Nixon's
infamous Enemies List.
Streisand
is a supporter of gay rights, and in 2008 helped raise funds to defeat
Proposition 8 in California.
Philanthropy
Streisand
has personally raised $25 million for organizations through her live
performances. The Streisand Foundation, established in 1986, has
contributed
over $16 million through nearly 1,000 grants to "national organizations
working on preservation of the environment, voter education, the
protection of
civil liberties and civil rights, women’s issues and nuclear
disarmament."
In
2006, Streisand donated $1 million to the William J. Clinton Foundation
in
support of former President Bill Clinton’s climate change initiative.
In
2008, Streisand gifted $5 million to endow the Barbra Streisand Women's
Cardiovascular Research and Education Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical
Center's
Women's Heart Center. In September that year, Parade magazine included
Streisand on their Giving Back Fund's second annual Giving Back 30
survey,
"a ranking of the celebrities who have made the largest donations to
charity in 2007 according to public records", as the third most
generous
celebrity. The Giving Back Fund claimed Streisand donated $11 million,
which
The Streisand Foundation distributed.
At
Julien’s Auctions in October 2009, Streisand, a long-time collector of
art and
furniture, sold 526 items with all the proceeds going to her
foundation. Items
included a costume from Funny Lady and a vintage dental cabinet
purchased by the
performer at 18 years old. The sale’s most valuable lot was a painting
by Kees
van Dongen. In December 2011 she agreed to sing at a fundraising gala
for
Israel Defence Forces charities.
In
television
One
memorable parody of Streisand's iconic status has been on the sketch
comedy
show Saturday Night Live in the recurring skit Coffee Talk where
character
Linda Richman, played by Mike Myers, hosts a talk show dedicated to,
among
other things, the adoration of Streisand. Streisand, in turn, made an
unannounced
guest appearance on the show, surprising Myers and guests, Madonna and
Roseanne
Barr. Mike Myers also appeared as the Linda Richman character on stage
with
Streisand at her 1994 MGM Grand concert, as well as a few of the 1994
Streisand
tour shows.
Streisand
is mentioned in the sitcom Will & Grace, particularly by the
character Jack
McFarland. Songs made famous by Streisand, such as "Papa, Can You Hear
Me?" from Yentl and "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" from The
Broadway Album are reproduced by characters in the show.
At
least four episodes of the animated sitcom The Simpsons refer to
Streisand.
Outside Springfield Elementary School, announcing Lisa's jazz concert
and
noting tickets have been sold out, is an advertisement for a Streisand
concert
in the same venue for the following day, with tickets still on sale. In
"Fear of Flying", after Marge undergoes therapy, she informs the
therapist that whenever she hears the wind blow, she'll hear it saying
"Lowenstein", Streisand's therapist character in The Prince of Tides,
even though Marge's therapist is named Zweig. Another reference comes
in
"Sleeping with the Enemy" when Bart exclaims after seeing Lisa make a
snow-angel in a cake on the kitchen table, "At least she's not singing
Streisand", in reference to Nelson Muntz singing "Papa Can You Hear
Me?" from Yentl earlier in the episode. In "Simple Simpson", a
patriotic country singer says that Streisand is unpatriotic and could
be
pleased by spitting on the flag and strangling a bald eagle.
Another
enduring satirical reference is in the animated series South Park, most
notably
in the episode "Mecha-Streisand", where Streisand is portrayed as a
self-important, evil, gigantic robotic dinosaur with a terrible singing
voice
about to conquer the universe before being defeated by Robert Smith of
The
Cure. On another occasion, the Halloween episode "Spookyfish" is
promoted for a week as being done in "Spooky-Vision", which involves
Streisand's face seen at times during the episode in the four corners
of the
screen. At the end of the feature film South Park: Bigger, Longer &
Uncut,
her name is used as a powerful curse word, a gag repeated in the
episode
"Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants". The Mecha-Streisand character made
a return in the Season 14 episodes "200" and "201", as one
of several celebrities the show had lampooned over the years.
In the
Family Guy episode "Mind Over Murder", Lois sings a cabaret act with
"Don't Rain on My Parade" — originally sung by Streisand in Funny
Girl — only slowed down and jazzier, as an act of defiance to Peter. In
"Stewie Kills Lois", Peter receives life insurance after Lois'
apparent death, and claims that he has more money than Streisand. This
was
followed by a cut scene showing Streisand blowing money out of her
nose. In "Wasted
Talent", Streisand and husband James Brolin are shown sitting together
at
the dinner table, with Streisand remarking "I'm glad I married a
regular
person and not a celebrity".
Streisand
is referenced frequently on the Fox TV musical series Glee. The
character Rachel
(Lea Michele) mentions that Streisand refused to alter her nose in
order to
become famous in the show's third episode "Acafellas". Also, in the
mid-season finale of Glee, Rachel sings the Streisand anthem "Don't
Rain
on My Parade". In the episode "Hell-O", she says that she will
be heartbroken for life, "Like Barbra in The Way We Were." In the
same episode, Jesse St. James (Jonathan Groff) criticizes Rachel's
performance
of "Don't Rain on My Parade" by saying that she "lacked Barbra's
emotional depth."
In the
episode "Theatricality", Rachel is spying on the opposing team's
dance rehearsal when the director, Shelby Corcoran (Idina Menzel),
expresses
dissatisfaction at the team's routine. She demonstrates how it's done
with the
title song from Funny Girl, and Rachel, sitting in the audience,
whispers to
her friend, "Exactly what I would have done — Barbra. I could do it in
my
sleep." In the episode "Grilled Cheesus" Rachel sings Barbra's
infamous song from the movie Yentl, Papa, Can You Hear Me?, to help
support
Kurt's dad Burt after undergoing a heart attack. Rachel sang it in a
park with
Finn sitting at her side in Burt Hummel's hospital room. She told Finn
that she
"wanted nothing to come between her and God, and Yentl sang it outside
in
the movie." On the episode Born This Way Barbara is mentioned when
Rachel
is debating whether or not to get a nose job, Kurt Hummel and the rest
of the
glee club set up a "Barbra-vention" of a flashmob to the popular hit
"Barbra Streisand" by Duck Sauce.
The
characters of Kurt and Rachel also sang the "Get Happy/Happy Days are
Here
Again" duet originally heard during Streisand's 1963 appearance with
Judy
Garland on Garland's weekly TV series. In the season three episode "I
Am
Unicorn," Kurt sings Barbra Streisand's "I'm the Greatest Star"
from the musical Funny Girl, stating "[He] has permission from the
woman
herself," actually meaning Rachel Berry. When Glee won the prize for
"Best TV Series-Comedy Or Musical" at the 2010 Golden Globe Awards,
creator Ryan Murphy quipped on stage, "Thank you to the Hollywood
Foreign
Press and Miss Barbra Streisand."
In the
sitcom The Nanny, Streisand is viewed as a divine figure by Fran Fine
throughout the sitcom's run. When asked by her boss who she would save
if her
mother and Streisand were drowning, Fran replies "I'd save Ma, Barbra
can
walk on water," Another example is in "The Passed-Over Story,"
when Fran hears that Barbra Streisand and James Brolin will be arriving
at the
airport, Fran runs towards the door yelling "It's the miracle of
Passover,
the Messiah is coming".
On film
In
movies, Streisand is remembered as the favorite of the character Howard
Brackett, played by Kevin Kline, who finally admits to being gay while
standing
at the altar in the 1997 romantic comedy In & Out. His unfortunate
bride-to-be, played by Joan Cusack, cries out in frustration to family
and
friends present, "Does anybody here KNOW how many times I've had to sit
through Funny Lady?" In an earlier scene, Howard is taunted by a friend
during an argument at a bar with a jeering, "The studio thought that
Barbra was too ol-l-ld to play Yentl." The film also mentions the album
Color Me Barbra. Barbra's signature tune, "People", is played by a
school orchestra in honor of teacher Howard as the story wraps at the
end of the
credits. This and similar references refer to her popularity among gay
men.
In the
1996 comedy "The Associate", Whoopi Goldberg plays a business woman,
Laurel Ayers, who creates a business associate, Robert S. Cutty, who is
said to
have known and dated Streisand. In addition to having an autographed
picture of
Streisand in her office, Ayers also has a cross-dressing friend who
dresses up
to resemble Streisand throughout the film.
The
characters Carla and Connie, as aspiring song-and-dance acts in the
2004 comedy
Connie and Carla, include four Streisand references. They sing "Papa,
Can
You Hear Me?" and "Memory" at an airport lounge and "Don't
Rain on My Parade" onstage in a gay bar, and talk about the plot of
Yentl
at the climax of the film after they ask how many in their audience
have seen
the movie (everyone raised their hands).
In
music
Sound
clips of Streisand's heated exchange with a supporter of former U.S.
president
George W. Bush were sampled in the 2009 Lucian Piane dance song "Bale
Out", making it sound as if she were arguing with actor Christian Bale
(whose recorded outbursts during the filming of Terminator Salvation
were the
centerpiece of the song).
"Barbra
Streisand" is a disco house song by American-Canadian DJ duo Duck
Sauce.
It was released on September 10, 2010. The song peaked at number one in
Poland,
Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland and Austria. It became a
top ten
hit in Australia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and the UK.
On
stage
Daniel
Stern's 2003 Off-Broadway play Barbra's Wedding was set against the
backdrop of
Streisand's 1998 wedding to James Brolin.
"Streisand
effect"
Main
article: Streisand effect
In
2003, Streisand sued aerial photographer Kenneth Adelman for displaying
a
photograph of her Malibu, California, home, along with other photos of
the
California coastline. Her suit was dismissed under the anti-SLAPP
provisions of
California law. Mike Masnick of Techdirt coined the term "Streisand
effect" in January 2005 to describe the publicity generated by
Streisand's
efforts to suppress the publication of the photograph.
Awards
In
1984, Streisand was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award for
outstanding
women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work,
have
helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry.
She also
received the National Medal of Arts in 2000 and the Kennedy Center
Honors in
2008. She was inducted as an officer of France's Legion of Honour in
2007.
Streisand
is the only women to have an album reach #1 on the US charts and win
the
Academy Award for Best Actress.
Music
awards
Streisand's
works have been nominated for over 57 Grammy Awards; she won 15 of
these,
including two special awards. She has been inducted into the Grammy
Hall of
Fame three times. In 2011, she was honored as MusiCares Person of the
Year by
the Grammy Foundation.
To me,
Barbra is certainly a Goddess! She's had a marvelous career, made the
best of
herself, and is truly a person to admire greatly.
Goddess
Barbra!
6-15-12
by Summer Fey-Wülf
All
information is from Wikipedia.