When did Datalounge stop liking Barbra Streisand?

Good question … additionally, when did Streisand start becoming a stereotypical joke, someone that should be mocked and feared by gay men? I’m 36 and was a latecomer to Streisand (I grew up in a Cher household) but gays around my age have this negative gut reaction to her name, but without really knowing anything about her or having even heard her voice at it’s peak.

Call yourselves homosexuals? Barbra has championed us for decades. Show some respect.

R2 agreed

Most of her DL fans died off years ago 🙄

I do Not speak for the DL (thank God) but I’ve disliked her since I was a gayling. Her hairstyle on the Wet album cover looks like pubic hair.

I was too young for both Judy and Babs and I'm an ElderGay

[quote] "(I grew up in a Cher household)"

You were raised RIGHT, R1!

[quote] "(I grew up in a Cher household)"

You were raised RIGHT, R1!

I think a lot of gay guys pick on her because they think they’re witty and she’s an easy target, not unlike Madonna. Neither woman is perfect but these people get special delight in denigrating them or ignoring/downplaying their accomplishments.

Once upon a time long, long ago she had a brilliant voice, but even at her peak she had no soul. Even Linda Ronstadt *gave* more as an artist. Babs is just an enormous ego, without the self-awareness or sense of humor that made some of the other monsters (Judy, Bette, Crawford) loveable.

I still like her, but once she entered atomic frau territory in taste and attidude(mid 90ies) it´s more disappointed bemusement.

R10 that's crazy. Barbra has plenty of heart and soul. Have you not heard her sing her most well-known song, People? Evergreen, which she wrote the music for? Don't Rain on My Parade? Give me a break.

The arrival of a broad spectrum of straight people who are either single-issue obsessives and/or rightwing trolls is when it started to happen.

Liza threads are now "lol she's shitting her diapers, fart fart" and the Meghan-hating cunts drove off the people we had who knew anything about royal jewels or royal families, too. Every thread on TCM or old movies has 25 idiots acting like we were alive when Casablanca premiered because how else could we have seen it except on its original run? That's just what DL is now.

….

We're a fickle bunch. Today's gay icon will be tomorrow's fetid cunt.

What a whore

Did she rub her old cunt while saying this? I hope not!

DL doesn't bring me flowers any more!

I wouldn't say I stopped liking her.

In college, I went through a phase where I was pretty obsessed with her. Her For the Record boxed set was amazing. I would show anyone who came into my apartment My Man from Funny Girl. I was a huge fan.

I finally saw her sing live in Anaheim in 1994. She was absolutely sensational. I feel lucky to have seen her.

In subsequent years, I started to get more into Judy Garland, Patti LuPone, and even Liza Minnelli. It started to seem to me that Barbra was almost too perfect. As someone said "She refined herself out of existence." Also, her doggedly trying to play Rose in Gypsy was a turn off. It was simply too late. She'd waited too long.

However, recently, I've been rediscovering her. Clips like this one from her earliest years, are remarkable. WATCH IT!

I looked at the duet she did with herself- the songs from Yentl when she was touring in 1994. Absolutely thrilling. She really is a once-in-a-lifetime talent. I feel very lucky to have seen her live when she was 52 and still very much in command of her powers. I got to see her sing Don't Rain on My Parade, and My Man live. Pretty amazing.

The thing about BS is that she had a great voice, but her repertoire was god awful -- very few of her songs are worth listening to unless you like her voice. She was the essence of middle class American taste.

She's a legend and she always will be. That voice. That confidence.

But she lost her voice at least 15 years ago and she got too political.

When James Brolin put a ring on it.

DLers hold a grudge.

After Back to Broadway. It was great, but she never did anything like that again.

I think she might have become more of a joke - which is probably a little too strong -- more lampooned when her movies became more and more ego trips. Yentel, where she had aged out of the role. Nuts where she a high-priced prostitute at age 50, and a Mirror has 2 Faces where everyone was stunned how beautiful she was at the end. Even Prince of Tides which was a decent movie and she was a supporting character, she was always perfectly lit and her nails had their own credits.

She was/is greatly talented - incredible voice, can be a good actress, big personality. She was not just a gay icon, she had a number of successful movies and top 40 songs in the general public. She was one of the biggest stars for about 20 years, and a well-known name longer than that. I do think some of her later stuff was almost too well produced . She was not autotuned, but some of it was so arranged with so many layers of music that it did not always sound like a real person performing.

Also, part of her disappearing from the mainstream culture thing is simply her age and her amount of time between each movie or project. It has been a few decades since she making music that would be on popular radio stations, and more and more time passed between each movie.

[quote]I would show anyone who came into my apartment My Man from Funny Girl.

In or out of drag?

I will always love her voice. So beautiful. But when she opens her mouth now all I hear is a rich entitled woman. After that Michael Jackson comment I was done.

I'm 62 and she was an old joke from the time I was vaguely aware of her. No resonance with me, people I knew who were my age, and even the gay people I knew who were solidly one or two generations older than me. She wasn't part if "the gay knowledge," if you will, that anyone I knew displayed or discussed.

Except for those batshit late1970s/early 1980s where she thought she was pretty or deep, I wouldn't have given her a thought.

I was aware that she had been a big thing, and that there were holdouts who carried on as though she still were. The same with Judy Garland whose appeal likewise escaped me completely. To me, they were the idols of a subset of the gin and regret and sad memories lot, and their ripple effect didn't carry.

She was her era's Madonna, but could thankfully sing. She could also act in the right thing.

Otherwise, she played it too safe and wasn't original.

I say this as a MUSICIAN I first really started listening to songs at 5, going through my mother's cassette collection. The albums that stood out to me were: The Doobie Brothers Greatest Hits; Linda Ronstadt Greatest Hits; Earth Wind & Fire Greatest Hits; Donna Summer (Another Place And Time): and Barbra Streisand (Till I Love You). I played that album over and over, trying to imitate her technique (vibrato, sustained notes, belting, etc.). I didn't know anything about being gay at that age but I knew about music and what sounded good to me. I adore her catalogue. Her feeling get shit don't stink is something different but she found success pretty young and maintained it, so I can understand the feeling of self-aggrandisement. But she really is (was) a talented singer who, apparently, wanted to be an "actress who can sing" rather than a SINGER.

FFS, R27. Judy Garland made her first movie in the 1930s and died the year after the Funny Girl movie came out. Yes, she belonged to the previous generation.

Nobody ever heard of Barbra Streisand before you were born, and by the time the movie was released you were 8 and probably were taken to see it. She was one of the biggest stars in the world throughout the 70s, by the end of which you'd have been college-age. So by "solidly one or two generations older than me", you mean "10 years older than me at most" and by "hold-outs" who still thought she was a big deal, you mean "the majority of all moviegoers". You'd have to get to the early 90s for your arguments to hold any water, by which time you'd be in your 30s.

R30 Exactly. I was born in 1970, and as a kid I was well aware of her as a movie star. I was a little too young to be aware of The Way We Were at the time of it's release, but it was talked about for much of the decade. A Star is Born was massive in the culture. And even a movie forgotten today like The Main Event was huge in the culture. All over the place.

That's not even to mention how she was all over the radio with The Main Event, Evergreen, Guilty, Memory, The Way We Were, You Don't Bring me Flowers- sorry, she was huge and a person who was 14 in 1976 would certainly have been aware of her.

I don't dislike her. I'm just not familiar with her music.

Okay, "I'm So Above It All" R27. Who are your gay icons? Better make it good.

What a load of BS, we do love our Barbra. Here, Barbra, old gal, a bouquet of roses just for you.

Here you go, R32.

Haha. Try again.

[quote]Okay, "I'm So Above It All" [R27]. Who are your gay icons? Better make it good.

None, R33. And if I had any "gay icons" they would have been gay. Worshiping at the altar of straight women, divas, and camp never had much pull with me. Inasmuch as I admired any gay celebrities (or celebrities) it was for writers and others who created stories and roles that included gays and lesbians in some more or less natural way.

Aren't we due for the poster to comment on the millions she had donated through her various foundations?

Of course, they always leave out that the only reason she donated that compound was because no one would buy it? It was listed forver.

I don’t know her, therefore how can I stop liking her?

I'm 62 and Australian. Because of the success of Funny Girl I remember hearing Don't Rain on my Parade and Second Hand Rose regularly on the radio back then. I used to get a few props and parade around miming that latter, much to the amusement of my sisters. Apart from that I didn't grow up to be a huge fan. I agree with the comment that, while her voice could be sublime, the repertoire was bland.

The films, whether acting or directing are nearly all vanity projects. Is it true that she has admitted Hello Dolly was a casting mistake? Credit to her if that's true. And despite the diva reputation she was gracious enough to do Meet the Fokkers. I thought she was perfect in that. Imagine if they had cast Bette Midler?

You'd think r27 was trying to be insufferable, but no, he's being totally serious.

Streisand's movie career wasn't really over until 1997 and you would have been 40 by then. Everyone who has pointed out that it's hardly plausible to claim she's two generations before you are exactly right.

Your whole post is just one of those juvenile "I don't like them; therefore, they're irrelevant" things we get so often on DL. Boring.

The compound she donated to the State of CA, on condition it not be built on, which her former boyfriend Jerry Brown proposed building on?

I like all kinds of things that were way before my time, but somehow I don't think she has a timeless appeal.

R20- you clearly do not know her catalogue although you think you do- it covers just about every genre of vocal music in existence.

The posters on DL who denigrate Streisand and others of great achievement and talent usually say more about themselves than the person they are knocking. It’s a bit ironic with Streisand because she’s been such a champion of gay rights with both her public advocacy and her fortune.

We realized it wasn't the laughter we remembered.

I never liked her as much as some guys do, but Funny Girl, Funny Lady, The Way We Were, and The Broadway Album are all essential albums for me. I never stopped liking her, but I haven't bought one of her albums since the 1980s.

I had a friend who had all her CDs, and created quite the IKEA shelf altar to Barbra. Another friend loved Diana the same way. Same with Bette and Madonna for other gay friends.

I loved Cher starting in 1965, but she disappeared and eventually I replaced her with Linda Ronstadt. Cher's post-'90s output isn't for me.

She covers every genre of vocal music? Tuvan throat singing? Death metal cookie monster shouting? Doo wop? Gregorian chant? Jump rope rhymes?

From 2018:

From 2019:

[quote] She covers every genre of vocal music? Tuvan throat singing? Death metal cookie monster shouting? Doo wop? Gregorian chant? Jump rope rhymes?

Someone else said on Datalounge:

[quote]And except for a small set of pop material she sang the rest of the genres badly, betraying no understanding of the material or even a desire to want to connect with it. She has also had a terrible habit of being condescending towards the material outside her comfort zone. Bitch, if you didn't want to record it, who forced you to?

Nice try R47, smart ass DL troll: show, ballad, rock, bossa nova, country, classical, disco, and of course pop. Every great song writer and American songbook composer, almost all to a man or woman full of praise for her artistry and her own music as well. Doubt you’ll find any singer as admired by her singer, musician and writing peers. It’s all public record. Yeah. You’ll find exceptions (David Bowie and one her covers).

It’s easy to go after the “best” and simple minds often think they look smart, insightful, etc when they challenge the obvious. What they ignore or don’t have capacity for is the big picture.

In the arts, entertainment (and other areas of achievement you see it all over DL. Warhol, Streep, Winfrey, HRC, Churchill, FDR, you name it. Streisand is in this category- doesn’t help that she is a woman and unapologically has embraced her ethnicity all her life.

The reason: she's stayed well past her expiration date

Had Streisand completely retired or died after The Way We Were, she would have the perfect career

Had Streisand completely retired or died after her 1994 concerts, she would have gone out on a high note

BUT NOOOOOO.....Barbra deserves all of the ribbing she gets today for staying too long at the fair. And to all of you who think she's been a gay friend, that only happened AFTER son Jason came out and educated her.

None of that has any bearing on this point though:

[quote]And except for a small set of pop material she sang the rest of the genres badly, betraying no understanding of the material or even a desire to want to connect with it. She has also had a terrible habit of being condescending towards the material outside her comfort zone. Bitch, if you didn't want to record it, who forced you to?

R51 smells like charlie...

She could do traditional pop, show tunes, vocal and things that were written specifically for her.

[quote][R51] smells like charlie...

I thought so too. But I'm not quite sure if the voice is right

He was DEFINITELY all over this thread though and he's in fact what the person who wrote this was replying to

[quote]And except for a small set of pop material she sang the rest of the genres badly, betraying no understanding of the material or even a desire to want to connect with it. She has also had a terrible habit of being condescending towards the material outside her comfort zone. Bitch, if you didn't want to record it, who forced you to?

I my upcoming memoir I'll be settling the score with you bitches in the emotional chapter, "The DataLounge Has Two Faces!"

^ CAN'T WAIT!

Her most famous disco song -- Enough Is Enough -- does have that long ballad intro (obviously added just for her) and the title was changed to No More Tears (Enough Is Enough) so it would fit in with her Wet concept album.

Didn't she have an anti gay remark moment a few years ago?

No, maybe you're thinking of Bette Midler.

Jerry Brown never proposed building on the Ramirez Canyon compound, he wanted to sell it. Since there was no endowment, upkeep was a fortune. One of the houses burned down.

R52, you’re full of uninformed garbage- don’t know what you’re talking about. After the 1994 tours there were several others- all sold out, almost all record setting. And one of them won another Emmy.. There were also a couple of #1 CD’s. For anyone her list 1994 careers would be considered a huge success. And there was progressive activism and philanthropy- a lot on behalf of the LGBT community. She is on record in 1992 supporting same sex marriage.

She can still sell-out a tour today.

But she hasn't had much of a voice for the past decade.

Post 1994 career…

Datalounge stopped liking Barbra Streisand when Gen-Zs infiltrated this site.

Those kids wouldn't know class if it bit them in the ass.

But does Gen Z appreciate other old divas?

If Barbra is the exception, why?

Barbra is like Madonna. Both unlikeable cunts. There is no denying the talent of either, however.

She has one of the great singing voices of all time and her early work is some of the best ever, but she got lazy and, for all this talk about what a great actress she wanted to be, she never took any big risks and attempted tough roles. By the time she wanted to do Gypsy, she was far too old. Had she decided to do that in the 90's or even in the early aughts, she could have had a real triumph. Instead, she did softball roles in not so memorable movies like The Mirror Has Two Faces, the Fockers movies, and The Guilt Trip.

She got successful, raising a loving son, found a great partner in James Brolin, and figured redesigning her home was the most important thing to her and, whenever she came close to running out of money, she'd do a few concerts. She lost that fire within her and become a bit unrelatable. The woman she is now seems to have so little of what made her so interesting at the start of her career.

charlie (R63) STFU, your promotion is tiresome.

She could've done Gypsy in 1993 when Bette Midler did it.

But she didn't want to put her own money into it... which doesn't inspire confidence in any other potential investors.

[quote]But does Gen Z appreciate other old divas? If Barbra is the exception, why?

Because Barbra doesn't see herself as an old diva, she sees herself as a sexy contemporary diva.

[quote]She could've done Gypsy in 1993 when Bette Midler did it. But she didn't want to put her own money into it...

I had a mall to build!

R67, Cher and Dolly are only a few years younger, and they're appreciated by people of all ages.

Barbra can still put out a #1 album.

Her performance in Funny Girl is iconic and if nothing else that alone would secure her legacy.

R40 Actually, her earlier stuff had an edge. At first, she sort of resisted singing standards.

Nothing bland about this.

^ Barbra needs to acknowledge Lena Horne's influence in her upcoming autobiography.

I've just never cared for her music, though I do enjoy her movies. I don't hate her I just don't love her. With Madonna, I dislike her. I like Evita and a few hits, but Madonna the person, I've never cared for I much prefer Kylie. But, I do love me some divas, I love Judy, Cher, Ethel Merman, Patti Lupone, Reba, Dolly, Diana Ross, Aretha, Patsy Cline, etc...

Gaga is the new Babs.

[quote]None, [R33]. And if I had any "gay icons" they would have been gay. Worshiping at the altar of straight women, divas, and camp never had much pull with me. Inasmuch as I admired any gay celebrities (or celebrities) it was for writers and others who created stories and roles that included gays and lesbians in some more or less natural way.

Yes, but some divas are very talented and great entertainers.

Bette Davis is a gay icon. What do you think of her?

I'm not Sally fucking Field, bitches! Bring on the hate!!

R70 is a miserable person.

Charlie stopped signing his posts because he got called out for trashing Whitney and Mariah.

Yet he wants everyone to treat Queen Babra with kid gloves.

Whitney and Mariah are terrific singers- one limited by substance abuse and death and the other because she’s kind of a nut- both had terrific pipes but as vocal artists I don’t think either are in the league of Ella, Billie, Peggy, Judy, Aretha, Nina, a few others and yes, Streisand.

[quote]the other because she’s kind of a nut

She suffers from mental illness. Must be nice to kick someone down like that. Says a lot about you.

But I give her credit for not spending millions to clone a dog. All the animals already suffering in the world, but that's not good enough for the Princess. Is that the philanthropy you boast about?

R85 really? Billie? Bitch head but half an octave range and was a fucking druggie. What kind of "vocal artist" was she? Even that boring bitch Peggy had one hit tune (Fever) to which I ask was that all there is? 😂

Yes- Billie Holliday, addict and vocalist with her limited voice easily is a greater vocal artist than either Whitney or Mariah. I’m not knocking either- their problems were and are sad- but then Nina, Judy and Billie has substance abuse and mental health issues are were each real artists.

She boring. Very, boring. Doesn't help that I'm not american and in my twenties.

Everytime I tried listening to her records, it just did not worked. It's meh.

From the old eldergay divas, I like Cher. She sang and understood rock, pop, disco, had a epic club hit Believe - revolutionary cause it was the first record to use autotune as a vocal effect; love Madonna too, even now with all the bullshit and plastic surgery. Gen z are also discovering her.

Idk I like rock, folk, dance, some jazz. Barbra lived in the 60s, 70s but it's like she was an old woman. Just weird.

You don't have to have an expansive voice to be great. Tammy Wynette was an artist who said herself that she wasn't a great singer. Yet she was a great and unique vocalist.

Billie Holliday didn't have the greatest voice, either, but she was a wonderful vocalist. It isn't always about whether you have the greatest instrument but how you use it.

She doesn’t have the range!

Neither do you, anymore, darling r91

Funny Girl was hot, hot, hot that year. And I begged my father to take us to see it, but he couldn't get his hands on a single ticket. Instead, he took us to see a matinee of Any Wednesday with Sandy Dennis. He said, Let's go see a woman who's going to be doing the exact same thing for the next 20 years. But she did it best in Any Wednesday, you have to admit.

Streisand was the best she’ll ever be that year. She was SIMPLY BARBRA with the Egyptian eyeliner, the pageboy, the long red fingernails, singing songs like “Free Again. Lucky, lucky me, free again.” Then she moved out to Hollywood and she crimped her hair. And she went down the Stoney End. She never wanted to go. Down the Stoney End, but somebody FORCED her down it.

We miss you Barbra!

Come back to the five and dime, Barbra Streisand, Barbra Streisand.

[quote]None, R33. And if I had any "gay icons" they would have been gay. Worshiping at the altar of straight women, divas, and camp never had much pull with me. Inasmuch as I admired any gay celebrities (or celebrities) it was for writers and others who created stories and roles that included gays and lesbians in some more or less natural way.

Really, R37. There's not a ton of openly gay actors, writers, singers and musicians, and many of them are not great talents. Pretty slim pickings.

Babs career went down the toilet because she dressed like a hooker for the Oscars.

[quote]Instead, he took us to see a matinee of Any Wednesday with Sandy Dennis.

That reminds me of a radio talk show in the 1970s where Sandy's show had a sparsely filled theater and they told her, "Well there's a snow storm..." Sandy then said, "And they were PACKED down the street for Funny Girl."

1960s Barbra - Funny Girl - theater, record albums - TV specials - it was an amazing time. The DL would be going wild if it were around from 1963 to 1969. But later Barbra - OY. Jon Peters, Yentl, crap pop album after crap pop album, it was very difficult to be a Streisand fan in the last half. No wonder Datalounge stopped liking her, no wonder X, Z and Millennials don't understand WTF was so special.

In all fairness, Babs has at times become a caricature of herself. The Mirror Has Two Faces, anyone? The basement shopping mall?

Remember ‘Terms of Imprisonment’ with Barbra, Whitney Houston and Meg Ryan? I still believe there’s a basic respect for her here. We kid because we love.

Yes! That was great!

I'll breakdown charlie's take on vocalists post 1980:

ONLY THE STARS FROM MY ERA WERE REAL STARS.

She always felt uncomfortable in other genres. Not that she couldn’t do them… but it’s hard to imagine she was ever really a big country or disco fan.

Only Barbra would think to bring cut roses to Studio 54.

It's almost admirable in its conviction, but force and relentless repetition of argument that Streisand that she is the best, the biggest, the greatest, the most famous, etc., etc., is hardly going to bring nonbelievers in line by way of exhaustion.

She appealed to a certain segment of audience when I was a kid, through her film and ballad phase, and whatever she's done since. But for people who have not been impressed by her up to the present, who don't really give much thought to her because they don't listen to her songs, watch her films, or follow her, how are they going to be swayed by force of argument?

Maybe she was better received or more revered by DL as a whole at some time in the past, but not everyone liked her then or now. I've been aware of her all my life but never had to pay much attention to her: a few songs from her earlier well regarded work, some of that inescapable maudlin ballad stuff, and a catalogue of films I couldn't sit though, she never appealed to me. There have been others on DL for many years who to whatever extent are not fans either. I don't think there's any tide that has turned (yet), it's just that people hear the hum of consensus when it suits them.

You miss the point, R103.

Datalounge used to love her. But in the last few years it seems there has been a shift.

Was is it?

A single troll doesn’t seem likely.

Do young gays not enjoy her? If so, why? Other divas before their time get cred.

I think she’s an enormous talent, yet almost all of the criticisms levelled at her I find myself agreeing with.

Nobody listens to the old music (Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves? Anyone?) so much as they just like the performers. And Babs is just kind of dated and weird, at least to me (in my 40s).

Gen Z has awful taste in gay icons… Azaliea Banks and Britney Spears

Dolly and Cher seem to be more popular among youngerish gays

R105 Fletwood Mac are doing crazy numbers on streaming, dude

I think Dolly and Cher endear themselves to the younger gays because they come off as real people and have a sense of humor about themselves. Not to mention that an entire slew of younger artists have covered Jolene (too much IMO, pick another damn Dolly song to cover!). Barbra on the other hand barely makes public appearances anymore and when she does it’s almost seems required that whatever program or talk show that has her on it’s show has to be 100% about her and how fantastic she is etc. I still think that the likes of Dolly and Cher cannot compete with Barbra at the top of her game talent wise, but to the younger generation their music has just aged better. Also doesn’t help that fewer gay guys are into show tunes and traditional pop anymore

I'm strictly talking gay icons, R108.

R100, oh there a are a few after 1980- but not many. Amy Winehouse for my taste was the most original and talented singer of recent decades. Whitney and Mariah and Celine have not (or did not) meet the musicianship and artistry of their vocal instruments in my opinion. The best examples of this are Kelly Clarkson and Christina A. Toni Braxton recorded one terrific album and went nuts… Anita Baker stepped back and was perhaps a bit of a Sarah Vaughn clone. By the way R100, Garland, Ella and Billie are before my time. I can’t figure out what GaGa is (neither can she). A little Madonna, a little Lena (when dueting with Tony), even A clone of Julie Andrew’s on the Oscars. Artistry as retro mimicry?

I'm in my mid-60s and my contemporaries always referred to Streisand as "my parents' music." Music is marketed to age groups, though I resent that most people can't fathom listening to music popular before they were born, Streisand has an "old lady" appeal. After her initial kook, rebellious teen shit which I only read about, she was an old lady desperately trying to be young. She was old old old even at age 40. On the DL, Streisand aged out because she for whatever reason has little appeal to young people, and it's more than just her chronological age.

Barbra always has her finger on the pulse of what the kids are listening to.

[quote] a bit of a Sarah Vaughn clone

charlie, the name is spelled VAUGHAN, Sarah Vaughan. Everybody knows that.

R21 Do you love her anti-trump song?

I've loved Streisand ever since the early 60s TV appearances. I love her voice. I don't care about her politics, I don't care about how she used people to get to the top, I don't care about how fanatic she is about all those homes arranged so perfectly. I don't care that she was too old for YENTL and about her ongoing need to play Rose in GYPSY. That Voice has calmed me so much during difficult times. She is #1 in my book and always will be.

Nice, R116, but it has nothing to do with this thread - When did Datalounge stop liking Barbra Streisand?

[quote] Worshiping at the altar of straight women, divas, and camp never had much pull with me.

Swine!

Bette Midler seems more popular among young (and I mean under 50) gays now.

R117, I was just saying that not everyone on DL hates Barbra Streisand, that's all.

We love Babs.

And she loves the gays.

Just like Beyoncé, it’s not her I dislike so much as it is her stans. They make you hate the object of their own obsession. I had a friend, recently deceased, who’d use any excuse to talk about Barbra Streisand. After dinner festivities would always include an old Streisand television appearance or one of her movies. It got so annoying. Once I mentioned something about her that I read somewhere and he went ballistic. Mainly because I didn’t ask him about it first! “Don’t you KNOW that NOTHING about Barbra gets by ME!”. I had to ghost him. Stopped returning his calls. Had to for my own serenity. I felt bad about that, but even when he was hooked up to the machines helping him breathe, he was watching Barbra on his sister’s iPad. Barbra is good, but she’s not that good. Not to me anyway…

My cousin had a similar obsession with Jude Law, forcing people to watch his films at her house. Even when she went over to her friends and families houses, she’d bring a Jude Law DVD. It was exhausting. She’d even tell her husband that if Jude asked her to leave her husband for him, she would have! What do you do with folks like this?

Honestly, I think it started for me when she released that book extolling her architectural and designing “talents” in 2010.

It’s certainly her right to spend her (endless) money however she wants, but the extravagance is just off putting - building an artificial pond with a “humble” mill and water wheel, the underground personal mall, elaborate doors different on their two sides so they independently match adjoining rooms…[italic] especially when the end result looks like a cold, characterless hotel.[/italic]

A lot of the puzzled customer reviews for the book, I’m sure many by bitter queens like me, are funny. (“This is a book that you would expect to be put out by a museum. It's like a design theme park.”)

I don’t know if The Guardian is a paper we approve of on DL (I’m American) but they kind of aptly sum it up with:

[quote] Self-awareness and a sense of proportion are not concepts with which Barbra Streisand has been on speaking terms for several decades, at the very least. When Streisand was building what she describes as "her dream house" in Malibu in 1995, she not only included a pond in which the fish are colour co-ordinated with the nearby barn, she also built her own "19th-century village of shops" in her basement. Then she thought this was all such a marvellous idea that she wrote a book about what a brilliant designer she is: My Passion for Design.

[quote] In the arts, entertainment (and other areas of achievement you see it all over DL. Warhol, Streep, Winfrey, HRC, Churchill, FDR, you name it. Streisand is in this category- doesn’t help that she is a woman and unapologically has embraced her ethnicity all her life.

^^THIS is why we stopped liking her--we had to put up with charlie's ridiculously worshipful bulllshit about her.

I'm surprised he doesn't also compare her to Jesus and Muhammad and the Buddha while he's at it ("But she's a woman, which makes her achievement all the greater!").

“In fact, Barbra wasn’t really happy with the original photographer’s work in the book, so she fired him and hired the best photographer she knew… who happened to be Barbra Streisand.”

Oh god, I feel myself going down a wormhole! Sorry!

[quote]I had a friend...who’d use any excuse to talk about Barbra Streisand.

I used to be like that when I was FOURTEEN.

And realize that charlie is like that well into his 60s, r128.

I think he's older than that, R129, over 70.

What gets me about charlie in addition to the obvious, is that he preaches like he's going to convince people at the DL that he's right about Streisand's greatness. That we'll eventually come around and realize that she deserves our devotion because of her vocal perfection philanthropic interests. All it does is invite ridicule.

She did lose points with me personally when she directed a bowdlerization of THE PRINCE OF TIDES and when she was a PEOPLE magazine cover story, but the subject was about what SHE thought of the Clintons and politics in general. As if she was a head of state or something.

I think she'll get a second wind when someone makes a big biopic about her. IDK if they can do that while she's still alive, though.

I can't see a biopic happening....

What would it even cover?

She was my grandma's favorite female singer (aside from that slut Connie Francis), but she's half a century too old for my generation to know who the hell she is.

Well, come on, if anything, Barbra's life is interesting enough for a biopic! Wonder who would play her. Gaga again?

Gaga has the insane ego to play BS, but she doesn't have half the talent or versatility.

Babs herself would nix it. In fact, I'm surprised she didn't put a hit out on Beanie when she heard THAT was who would be playing her part onstage.

I just got bored with her. I was 9 when our family went to the NY World's Fair in 1964. During our time in the city, we went to see "Funny Girl". It was only several months into the run and Barbra was still working at it.

I enjoyed some of her music as I grew-up but not all. Some of the films I really enjoyed such as "What's Up Doc". Her comic skill in that was great. I also thought that "Prince of Tides" was beautifully made and well-cast. I saw her in the 90's in concert, a couple of times. However, she should have stopped singing around 2000. Her announcements about "no more concerts", etc. became laughable and the films she made were awful. In the last 20 years, she has become tiresome.

Had she directed "The Normal Heart" instead of "Mirror", she might have won an Oscar for her directing and had she made it with the same care she showed in "Prince of Tides", she might have created a masterpiece.

I can't think of anything that stands out for me regarding her in the last two decades.

R137 I actually liked her Meet the Fockers/Little Fockers role, it was just a simple comedic supporting role, but exposed her to lots of moviegoers who had probably never seen a Barbra Streisand movie, she should have done more roles like that to keep herself in the public eye but were not taxing for her and that she would not be blamed if they failed.

Babs should take a role like Henry Winkler's in Barry.

IMO Babs should do a sitcom with some really funny writers and a good sparring partner, someone hilarious like David Hyde Pierce or Danny DeVito.

R140 Danny's already spoken-for, jabroni! We let him eat garbage and bang hoors on set!

I think Barbra's strong side is being unintentionally hilarious. So her sitcom should focus on making fun of her while she takes herself seriously. That'll make her likable. I'd watch.

R132, a bio-pic will never happen until she's dead (think 2038), eve then it'll be at least five-ten years before we see it. If it's while she's alive - only BARBRA will direct it. She'll sell her 5,000 pg autobiography for the film on condition she can direct. Then buy a priceless painting with the money. Jason will trash all of it once Barbra's six feet under.

[quote]Babs should take a role like Henry Winkler's in Barry.

With her impossibly altered plastic surgical face, Streisand should stay away from TV or screen for the rest of our lives. She no longer looks human.

I did use to piss off my friend whenever I would call THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES, THE NOSE NEEDS TWO MIRRORS. teehee 🤭

It’s titled THE MIRROR HAS TWO FILTERS ! !

She’s got a real sweet clit. Bossy, but sweet.

R134 Your grandma had good taste. Connie was more versatile than Babs and was a much better entertainer. Babs did nto like entertaining.

In our house we call it, "The Mirror Has Two Feces".

I would like to watch TMHTF with the director’s commentary playing. I can’t imagine how up herself BS might sound.

[quote] IMO Babs should do a sitcom with some really funny writers and a good sparring partner, someone hilarious like David Hyde Pierce or Danny DeVito.

Honey, she's entering her ninth decade. She's dunzo.

No, R140, it should be with LAINIE KAZAN!