An author dishes on everything she loves about the famous Funny Girl.
It’s official: Singer, actress, and all-around icon Barbra Streisand is telling her story in a new memoir. To celebrate, author and journalist Michele Willens wrote this poignant essay about how Streisand has (repeatedly) touched Willens’ life. From teenage adoration of The Way We Were to admiration of Streisand’s passion for activism, Willens speaks for the fans who can’t get enough of this Broadway legend.
Is There Anything More We Can Learn About Barbra Streisand?
The fall list of coming books is out, and high up there (for me) is My Name Is Barbra. Yes, on November 7th, Barbra Streisand is ready to tell all in a book that’s 1,000 pages long. Oy, and yay.
I can only imagine what her editors have dealt with: Likely, hairs have turned gray and stress levels and patience were challenged. It’s no secret that the singer/actress/director/activist likes to have the final words, and they’re rarely short.
I got a taste of this phenomenon many years ago, when I wrote a piece for USA Today on actors directing themselves. I’d written about Paul Newman and Warren Beatty, among others, and figured I should include the lone female star doing this at the time. So I called Streisand’s publicist, who immediately said there was no way Barbra would offer anything, but promised he’d ask. He called back later, astonished that she wanted to be included, and vowed to send me her thoughts.
I reiterated that this was for USA Today, so we were talking one or two quotes at most. I kid you not, her publicist called me every day for a week: first, to say she had five pages written, then to say she didn’t feel any of her words were good enough. I told him to pluck out one or two sentences before she had an anxiety attack. That finally happened. Getting her quotes was considered a journalistic coup, but it also gave me an inside look at how tough she is on herself, perhaps more so than on others.
I’ve been a Streisand fan since seeing her on Broadway in Funny Girl when I was a teenager. I bought every album, watched every TV special, and watched every movie. I saw The Way We Were so many times that when it was finally televised, I noticed a new scene I hadn’t seen in the film version. In an interview, the director, Sidney Pollock, explained to me that it was originally cut because it would have been the third scene in a row where his leading lady was crying. But Streisand fought for it, and finally made a deal that the scene would be put back in when the movie went to television. Just another example of her fighting for what she believed in.
That film is still many people’s favorite love story: In Streisand’s own life, she has managed a great one too, having been wed to actor James Brolin for 25 years. That’s a spectacularly successful run, especially in Hollywood. Her son, Jason Gould, is a singer and actor (and his mother immediately supported him when he came out as gay).
Streisand is no fan of publicity, and has done few in-depth interviews over the years. (Famously, she did a 1991 60 Minutes piece with Mike Wallace that infuriated her.) Now, there will be heavy bidding to see who gets to sit down to hear her candid thoughts. She’s already chatted with Gayle King, but rumor has it that Streisand would also love to be interviewed by Rachel Maddow. It makes sense: The girl from Erasmus High School in Flatbush has always cared as much, if not more, about politics than entertainment. She has put her name, voice, and money where it matters for decades.
I’ll make my way through her 1,000 pages of deep thoughts, though to be honest, I’d rather just listen to that one-of-a-kind voice. I urge you to go to Youtube and watch her and Neil Diamond — another Erasmus High kid made good — surprise and overwhelm a Grammy audience. Or listen to “Somewhere” with Josh Groban. (I dare you not to get goosebumps.) As Fanny Brice first boasted in Funny Girl, “I’m the greatest star.” To me, Barbra just may be.
Michele Willens is a journalist and the author of From Mouseketeers to Menopause (2021), a book of essays.
