Do you think Barbra’s book will do well? Chapter Three

It's doing well on DL! 1200 posts and counting.

Can you imagine dating Jason Gould and meeting Barbra for the first time?

So according to her, Martin Ritt was a misogynist, Howard Zieff was incompetent, as was Frank Pierson. Did she say anything nice or negative about Herb Ross?

[quote]Can you imagine dating Jason Gould and meeting Barbra for the first time?

I...would...*plotz*.

I can’t imagine dating Jason Gould, R2.

R3, She’s pretty much positive toward Herbert Ross. His then wife, Nora Kaye, would conduct daily ballet classes on the set of .”Funny Girl” which Barbra never missed.

There was “rivalry” between Herbert Ross and director William Wyler, who would be present on days when Ross was choreographing scenes, even though his presence wasn’t necessary.

Yes and Wyler got angry when Ross was referred to as the director.

How could she mention her relationships with Brolin’s children and grandchildren and yet totally omit his son Jess?

Did she mention how gay Herbert Ross was, or out anyone else?

She’s not very kind in describing her relationship with Don Johnson.

R9, What???

William Wyler went to a screening of A Star is Born in 1976. He really must have liked working with her on Funny Girl to sit through that dreck and pretend he liked it.

Are we through with this book?

I found it interesting that she says Sinatra told her that if anyone bothers her to tell him and he'll take care of it. A mere few pages later she starts the whole Sydney Chaplin harassment story, which sounds like it was pretty awful. She should have given ole blue eyes a call or at least threatened Sydney with her doing so.

All in all this is a very enjoyable read, often very funny. She comes off as intense, but deliberate, and very human. She was given a few great gifts: that voice, intelligence, charisma, and curiosity, all of them off the scale of mere mortals. It is interesting to hear her side of the story.

[quote]So according to her, Martin Ritt was a misogynist, Howard Zieff was incompetent, as was Frank Pierson. Did she say anything nice or negative about Herb Ross?

You think those old white men wanted to hear from a young woman upstart?

[quote] William Wyler went to a screening of A Star is Born in 1976. He really must have liked working with her on Funny Girl to sit through that dreck and pretend he liked it.

"A Star is Born" was the second highest grossing picture in 1976 only behind "Rocky". Won five Golden Globes including Best Motion Picture Musical Comedy. Was nominated for four Academy Awards winning Best Song. Some people liked it.

I read another book on my way to work every morning, and listen to Barbra's book on my way home. It's a little tedious, but almost always fascinating and, up to last night, been almost completely linear. Was wrapping all 17 hours of her chapter on her Vegas "comeback" concert which turned out to be the longest setup in storytelling history.

Been 20 years since she performed live in front of a crowd, but she was facing her fears and taking the plunge. Every detail was considered, Andrew Lloyd Weber and Stephen Sondheim wrote special lyrics to their songs, and she lists reams of people who were there opening night to support her. She comes out on stage, and her mother's seat was empty. Chapter 48 ends: "I made sure she and two of her friends were taken care of with a wonderful room, a wheelchair, etc. Where was she? Was she ok?" Long Pause. "Chapter 49. My Mother."

WOW. I was not expecting this, and have to respect the dramatic narrative arc she created here. I thought we got all the examples of her mother's tantrums and emotional abandonment in the earlier chapters, but that was just a prelude to the main event. "She could kill any pleasure I felt in an instant." It's stunning.

R16, Her mother and her friends chose to spend NYE elsewhere and Diana attended her daughter’s concert the next evening.

I wonder what level of relationship did Jason have with Grandma Diana.

[quote] All in all this is a very enjoyable read, often very funny. She comes off as intense, but deliberate, and very human. She was given a few great gifts: that voice, intelligence, charisma, and curiosity, all of them off the scale of mere mortals.

Mary!

What on earth compelled her to participate in that 1959 porno loop? Was she hyper-critical of her co-star, director and production team even on that set?

R19, “charlie” must always mention Streisand’s contributions to charity, so it must be his second cousin.

R15, compared to ANY movie directed by William Wyler, A Star is Born is dreck x 100.

R10. What of DonJohnson.? Really - i want to know.

I watched her Netflix special. She says she edited A Star is Born. Wasn't that news to the editor/director?

(That closing tribute to her dead dog was just plain odd.)

R22 . . .

"He was redoing his house in Aspen, and I gave him a few hints about what a woman might like in her bathroom, like a little sink in the area where she’ll be putting on her makeup. But I had a feeling that it wasn’t me who would be using that sink. I remember asking him to come look at the house I now live in (years before I actually managed to buy it), but he was too busy. Still, he wanted me to come to the opening of his film Sweet Hearts Dance, and I did. But even as he drew me back in, it felt as if he were simultaneously pushing me away. His withholding took me straight back to childhood. Don’s silence was making me feel anxious. And I couldn’t freely express my feelings without getting enormous anger back . . . not a safe place to be. But wait a minute. Why shouldn’t I have been angry? As I’ve learned from therapy, if you repress, you repeat. I’ve been trying for such a long time to change those patterns. I wanted a man who would give and receive . . . who wasn’t afraid of honesty. I was actually glad he was going back to Florida. And then I called him in Miami one day, and Melanie Griffith answered the phone. They had been married briefly a dozen years earlier, and she often called when I was at Don’s house. At that point she was in rehab, and Don had conquered his own drug habit and was trying to help. (By the way, I’m not revealing any secrets. Both of them have been very open about it.) I had no problem with him talking to her, but I did have a problem with him not having the courtesy to tell me the truth about their current relationship. I can’t be with a man who is not straight with me emotionally. So that was it. The romance was over, and it was fun while it lasted. I have no regrets. And now, thirty years later, I’ll sometimes run into Don at a party given by mutual friends. We hug, and he always whispers in my ear, “I love you.” I don’t say it back."

No that was not me at R14, and there is no mention of philanthropy in that post- but philanthropy is one of the major activities of her life from the get go just to continue with the meme that I always mention it!

One of the reasons I do is because my parents were philanthropist and money-raisers for the institutions and causes they believed in. Decades ago my mom made me aware of Streisand’s philanthropy, much of it anonymous. The world of NYC philanthropy is small. I also recall my Dad calling out Trump decades ago as a philanthropic phony.

^ HA HA!

Philanthropy?! Can you imagine?

Charlie @ R25. R14 was me. I didn't feel the need to respond to the miserable cunt who referred to my post and thought I was you.

The only celebrity cock she does not admit to riding is Liam Neeson’s.

Will it do well??? Could.Not.Care.Less.

I thought there would be more juicy gossip in it. It was more about her career, her clothes, and her camera angles. Boring.

You forgot food, R31.

Who knew she dated George “James Bond” Lazenby, Dick Shawn and Graham Nash?

The fact that there ISN'T any juicy gossip makes for a very "old school" star autobiography. I like it.

The married Mandy expecting to have an affair with Barbra stuff was juicy adjacent.

[quote]Who knew she dated George “James Bond” Lazenby

I was in the gossip columns at the time, R33. Though I think he asked her out once or twice, it wasn't exactly "dating."

R34, how OLD school? 45-50 years ago everybody was writing juicy tell alls and ratting everyone out. What I hate about Streisand's book is how she skirts around so many quick affairs that you may not get that she slept with Omar Sharif or Sidney Chaplan. She plays up the ones that make her look good like Pierre Trudeau.

R36, Lazenby would regularly visit her on his motorcycle and they would take off to God knows where.

That’s not dating?

"It helped that I was feeling positive about myself at the time. George Lazenby, who had just played James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, happened to show up on the set one day. He was virile, handsome, and charming, and he liked to flirt. That was fun. He would often ride up on his motorcycle and scoop me up for dinner at some country inn."

[quote] "It helped that I was feeling positive about myself at the time."

That should have been the book's title.

Does anyone get nauseated from the way she analyzes things, even the most mundane detail?

Case in point: the NYC premier of Funny Girl. Mayor Lindsay is doing a brief perfunctory interview with her, and says something like "nothing can rain on your parade tonight." Streisand response with "wait." It was a funny and self effacing response. In her book she analyzes and excuses the response as "there was my negativity coming out again, that old Jewish superstition - don't tempt god by telling him how great things are going to be!"

No, dummy. It was spontaneous and funny. LEAVE IT AT THAT.

I thought the other issue with Don Johnson is that he became insecure after they recorded a song together.

She told it like that, R41, but I think Johnson was trying to brush her off because he was seriously involved with Melanie Griffith again. He treated Streisand badly hoping she'd go away, hoping he wouldn't have to dump her directly.

She wrote that one of the advantages in dating Don Johnson was that he attracted as much attention in public as she did, which made her feel like they were equals when they were out and about.

She mentions that Don introduced her to The Prince of Tides novel but not that he was hoping to star in the film version. Maybe he was just using her all along.

Or maybe she was just using him all along.

She called him in Miami where he was shooting MV - Melanie Griffith answered the phone - and that was that. She says she can’t be with someone who isn’t straight up with her.

I’m halfway through and this memoir honestly is making me like her more as a person than I did - giving a similar effect to the Warhol diaries. She seems meticulous and intelligent. Not always reasonable but I don’t think of her as a diva cunt anymore!

^ Are you reading or listening?

It’s amazing that she can recall the ingredients of a sandwich she ate nearly sixty years ago.

She’s lost most of her longtime posse, Cis Corman, Marilyn Bergman, Marvin Hamlisch, etc.

Marty Erlichman, her longtime manager, is 94.

Totally believable, r49. Sense memory and comfort can be very intense and satisfying.

R45, you don’t understand. Barbra was always looking for true love, just like in a Barbra Streisand movie.

Are we through with this book?

No, R53. It is a very loooong book. I'm reading it in spurts. I completely agree with R47, and it is very entertaining, especially if you were a gayling totally enthralled by her voice. I also lived not far from where she did in Brooklyn. I remember the same bakery she mentions, I think it was on Nostrand, and looking at the Charlotte Russe in the window. Fun stuff.

R53, I think a lot of fans will be receiving it for Christmas.

She repeats the image of standing looking at her unmade bed and wanting to be famous so someone else could make it for her. Is making a bed so hard?

Attention last minute shoppers: People who find at least one copy of my epic memoir under the Christmas tree on Monday are the luckiest people in the world!!! There's still time to get this blockbuster masterpiece up to #1 on the bestseller list, bitches!!

She wrote that Judy Garland used to drop in on her in her apartment in NYC.

[quote] You think those old white men wanted to hear from a young woman upstart?

R15 What does their having been white have to do with it? She's also white. I don't understand. Also, don't you think they directed a lot of other young women? Did all those women (like Joanne Woodward, with Ritt) have the same opinions of them as Barbra?

I like the post in the Mommie Dearest book where an actress who worked with both Faye and Babs said they call themselves perfectionists but what they actually are is abusive. And there was another poster here who said he was standing next to Streisand at a function and she asked him what he did. It had nothing to do with show biz and she just turned and walked from him. Then there is the story that a neighbor witnessed when a girl scout selling cookies came to the apartment door where she and Elliot were living and when Streisand saw who it was slammed the door in the girl's face. Then there is the story about the patio furniture where she cheated the poor guy who didn't have her pay for it first before he sent it.

If you notice of all the people Streisand worked with since she gets so much bad press as a huge diva bitch nobody comes out and says that this is all wrong. That she is a hard working individual who is a generous colleague. They all leave her twisting in the wind with only her saying how misunderstood she is. Even Sinatra who had one of the worst reputations in the business has people saying how wonderful he was to them when they were working together like Betty Garrett and Mitzi Gaynor.

I hope Babs absconded with all of the pills in her bathroom when Judy went searching for them...

R61, Actually, she wrote of Judy attending a party at her NYC apartment once, just once.

Barbra asked Arthur Laurents to bring LENA to her party, but he didn’t ask her. This was after Barbra was starstruck when seeing her at Laurents’ Christmas party the year before.

R62 She probably does say that in the book. In an interview in The New York Times, she said:

“Afterward, she used to visit me and give me advice…She came to my apartment in New York, and she said to me, ‘Don’t let them do to you what they did to me.’ I didn’t know what she meant then. I was just getting started.”

I assumed "she used to visit me" meant that she used to visit her.

Also in this interview Barbra failed to mention that Judy came to a party. So I assumed it meant she visited her in her apartment. Maybe she also visited Barbra in LA. I really don't know. BUT SHE VISITED HER.

Times article...if Babs wasn't clear, don't blame me.

R64, Judy probably wanted to mentor Barbra, like this kid needs my seasoned advice. But Judy had entered train wreck territory by the mid- 1960s, even Liza didn’t listen to her. And of course, Barbra Streisand was an ORIGINAL, and made it all on her own (wink wink).

Streisand writes better than she tweets. Her tweets sometimes contain poor grammar but the book was very well written I thought. (ghost writer?)

R67 Books have editors.

Also she is said to have spoken it and Renata transcribed.

^ Sounds like it

Old pic posted to push Jason's new album.

Is Renata Mamacita?

What is the story of why they fired an unknown actress and replaced her with Streisand in All Night Long?

She doesn't really go into that very much.

Gene Hackman wanted Streisand from the start but she turned it down. They cast Lisa Eichhorn who had scored good reviews for Yanks. The story is that Hackman had an affair with Eichhorn and then wanted her gone. So they fired her saying her performance was wrong and Sue Mengers convinced Streisand to step-in. The director was Menger's husband Jean-Claude Tramont and Streisand was paid the highest feel to date for a female. Hackman was known to give directors hell so Streisand helped Jean-Claude cope. The production was also impacted by the writer's strike of the time which caused a delay in shooting. The film was a flop but Streisand is actually good in it and she has great chemistry with Hackman.

Lisa Eichhorn, the woman Babs single-handedly destroyed.

Eichhorn said she was “banished to purgatory; television.”

Blame Hackman more than Barbra.

Thank you, R74. Finally an informed response.

Christ, Lisa Eichhorn complained an awful lot. She was an okay actress with okay looks. She belongs on TV.

[quote]r74 The story is that Hackman had an affair with Eichhorn and then wanted her gone. So they fired her saying her performance was wrong

[quote]r77 Christ, Lisa Eichhorn complained an awful lot.

Why are you two so okay with a young, basically unknown actress being used sexually by a powerful star, then being fired under false pretenses at that male star’s whim?

I don’t think Streisand should be so proud of being a part of that deal, either. She profited enormously off another actress’ sexual harassment.

Jean-Claude stated that it became apparent during filming that the part was not a good fit for Lisa. But then why did he hire her in the first place? Another claim is that Sue Mengers talked him into firing her, because Hackman was so unhappy. Hackman was also one of Mengers' clients.

R78, she could have said no. That kind of harassment is part of the entertainment industry, this woman knew what she was getting into. If Streisand *should* be responsible for this, which happened before she became involved with the film, where was Streisand in The Way We Were when three of the secondary female characters were hired because they were banging the producer and director?

which actresses r80?

Streisand’s relationship with Sue Mengers goes way back. She was Elliott’s agent long before she was Barbra’s.

She became disenchanted with Sue when she heard her talking shit about clients behind their back and when she discovered Sue was turning down scripts without even running them by her.

Streisand had been rejecting everything Sue DID give her. She was supposed to screen scripts, not just hand Streisand a pile. Of course she would have turned shit down without showing her. More excuses, excuses.

Does Babs discuss being offered the mom role in “The Exorcist”? I know she was routinely given first pass on practically everything back then - but how could they imagine so obviously a Jewish actress (and I adore Jews!) in such a Catholic story??

I mean, that is simply [italic]bizarre!

R83, When Streisand became aware of Sue passing on scripts, Jon Peters asked for everything Sue had passed on and one script/treatment was for what became “A Star is Born”.

[quote]Christ, Lisa Eichhorn complained an awful lot. She was an okay actress with okay looks.

Not everyone can be as beautiful as Barbra, you know.

I found an old interview where Lisa Eichhorn reported on overhearing her agent at a party describe her as a cunt.

I rather she had done The Exorcist, R85.

How do you think Streisand would react to the proposal that Jason needed Catholic rites performed on him in order to save him?

Because that would be analogous to the new story.

Yanks set you on a film trajectory that included The Europeans and Cutter’s Way, but one gets the impression that you then gave up on Hollywood. I think in a lot of ways I wasn’t ready for Hollywood. I had the English way of doing things in my heart and in my system. I went to Hollywood all by myself and didn’t really have any friends or support, and it turned out that I had an agent who was one of the nastiest men alive; he’s since died, God rest his soul. He was awful.

What did he do? He was always saying grotesque things about my boyfriend to the extent that even his own agency would say, “You have to stop that.” It was really vile. The coup de grace was at a party at [director] Norman Jewison’s beach house in Malibu for Swing Shift, on which a friend of mine was the set decorator. At the party, my agent said of me, “She’s a cunt.” My friend said that he had better be quiet, because he was going to tell me and that I could sue for slander.

Has anyone noticed that Streisand vehemently denies being a smoker (I quit when I was 12)? Yet there are numerous photos of her holding/smoking a lit cigarette. She goes on and on about the impromptu photo session for the cover of the 1974 The Way We Were album, yet conveniently ignores the back cover - nails, smoke and cig.

R91, And why is she given a pass on HER shoplifting?

^ I wonder why the DL hasn't added a laugh button, Lainie.

Babs built her basement mall so she could go do her shoplifting there, safe from the press.

I bet she goes over the blueprints every night, planning heists and how she can avoid the security cameras.

Dont know when this was.

That's 1969/1970 during the filming of The Owl and the Pussycat, R95.

During the movie version of Funny Girl:

What will become of her mall and all her stuff after she dies.

Reading the book it sounds like the woman saves everything. Jason will have a lot of stuff to unload.

[quote] At the party, my agent said of me, “She’s a cunt.” My friend said that he had better be quiet, because he was going to tell me and that I could sue for slander.

Would that that were only true!

[quote] What will become of her mall and all her stuff after she dies.

It will be preserved as a museum to showcase her beautiful taste.

That would be cool r100. I'd go.

I doubt she'd want the plebs to go there. I bet she was furious how Stephen Colbert joked about taking something in her interview.

[quote]Jason will have a lot of stuff to unload.

There will be an auction in 2042. Everyone who knew who she was will be dead, so 76 year old Jason will okay a HUGE bonfire.

R74, R80 Who said Lisa Eichhorn, as a young,relatively unknown actress, was “used sexually by a powerful star”, or “harassed”? The only thing said was that Gene Hackman had had an affair with her. Why make so many presumptions, just to fit a stereotypical viewpoint?

There was info in the Brian Kellow book on Sue Mengers which is now hard to access. I think I read that Hackman and Eichhorn had an affair while the film was in rehearsals. She said she went to his house at night to swim in his pool.... The attraction was mutual. But once they started filming Hackman withdrew his interest. You have to also keep in mind that Kellow reports from Mengers point of view.

Kellow's book on Mengers doesn't say Eichhorn and Hackman had an affair; it implies that Eichhorn's turning down Hackman created tension between them, and that Hackman was suddenly cold to her. Kellow says Mengers wasn't happy with Eichhorn because she had wanted Streisand all along (Barbra and Tuesday Weld had both turned down the part), and she pressured Tramont (the director and her husband) to fire Eichhorn once Streisand had agreed to step in, even though he liked Eichhorn and was happy with her performance. Kellow says Eichhorn received her full $2500,000 salary. Streisand received $4 million; and William Goldman said that Universal lost at least $20 million on the movie.

2 MILLION 500 for Eichorn???

$250,000 for Eichhorn--sorry for that extra zero.

Tuesday Weld was even pickier than Streisand. And I always found her dull so never got why everyone wanted her.

Does anyone remember the story told by Sue Mengers describing her small wedding where Barbra Streisand and boyfriend no one would know completely took over the ceremony and dinner? She said that when the wedding cake was brought out it was placed in front of STREISAND instead of the bride. I think it was in a Vanity Fair article decades ago.

Eichorn is very boring and dull in “The Europeans.”

She was brilliant in Cutter's Way.

r84 Was Streisand given a firm offer for The Exorcist or did they just send the script etc.

I saw William Friedkin speak about the film at at TCM event. He said Jane Fonda and Audrey Hepburn were his two first choices for the role.

Fonda said why would I want to take part in a capitalistic story like that and Hepburn would only do it if it shot in Europe. He said Fonda later was shocked that she said that and didn't know what she meant by it when he discussed it with her years later.

It's just not a very good movie, and would not have been no matter who was in it.

which movie are you talking about r114?

R114, Probably the dumbest statement of 2024 and it just began.

Anne Bancroft was also in contention for The Exorcist. But she was pregnant at the time and Friedkin would not wait for her.

Cutter's Way was a big flop and the main star was John Heard as angry Vietnam vet, the Cutter of the title.

Trailer

Barbra in All Night Long.

[quote]R109 Tuesday Weld was even pickier than Streisand. And I always found her dull so never got why everyone wanted her.

I love Tuesday Weld. She’s usually quite a natural actress, mixed with that old school studio system… something.

I think one reason she was offered a ton of projects even as she aged is a lot of male producers and directors had a crush on her in their youth. She really was that perfect sex kitten next door when she started out.

The TV “Diabolique” remake: Tuesday Weld, Joan Hackett, and Sam Waterston (in a rare meanie role.)

Delish.

Yes, the distribution of Cutter's Way was mishandled by the studio and it was a box office flop. But it was critically acclaimed and is rated 92 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Over the years it found its audience and is now regarded as a neonoir classic. Eichorn's performance was named the most underrated performance of the decade by the American Film Institute.

I’ve been reading the Kellow bio of Sue Mengers, and it’s quite excellent. So much better written than Streisand’s book, and plenty of Streisand dish.