That Bitch Barbra

The Nose Needs Two Mirrors.

Getting rid of an actor who couldn't remember his lines seems like common sense to me. How was she supposed to know he had a brain disorder, he seemingly didn't even know it yet.

OP's thread is a FAIL.

But not as much a failure as R2 ‘s mother’s abortion.

Moore abused women and was a huge drunk-good for Babs for firing his ass.

Since nobody wrote it yet: She knew he was having a lot of problems. He was a friend. She gave him the role so he could continue with SAG health insurance. When it didn't work out, she recast him. Nice of her to waste some of the studio's money and her time on an actor who wasn't guaranteed to be functional enough to pull off the part. Today, this probably wouldn't happen because the insurance company would require a physical and Moore wouldn't have passed. (This is apparently why Armie Hammer was kicked off of the JLo movie, but my guess is that Armie was too fucked up to even show up for a physical).

Yes. I always heard Dudley was only hired because Barbra wanted to help him out and maybe didn't know how much his disease had progressed. It made me like Barbra more. I usually think of her as an entitled, self-obsessed blowhard, but this made her seem like she does possess some empathy.

I love Dudley Moore! His disease was tragic and he was still quite young when it came on.

Barbra is such a big bitch she kicked Stevie Nicks in HER cuntbone!

I've spoken to studio musicians who work on all of her albums and they only have good things to say about her.

Walter Matthau on the set of ":Hello, Dolly!" detested her, and referred to her as "Miss Ptomaine."

Among his most infamous comments about her to the press:

*“I have more talent in my smallest fart than she does in her entire body."

*“The trouble with Barbra is that she became a star long before she became an actress. Which is a pity, because if she learned her trade properly, she might become a competent actress instead of a freak attraction–like a boa constrictor.”

Reminds me of Richard Rodgers writing a letter to Equity wanting to bring Gertrude Lawrence up on charges for the deplorable performances she was giving (when she even showed up) into the run of the original production of The King and I. He was grateful later that he didn't send it. It turned out she was suffering from advanced liver and abdominal cancer.

And then she died.

^ She was buried in the famous lavender ball gown she wore during "Shall We Dance?"

Walter Matthau was a douchebag so fuck him and his tacky comments. Babs is a pro.

The Mirror Has Five Chins!

Had the filmmakers edit-out much of Anne Francis's scenes in "Funny Girl" because she was too pretty.

Had Lainie Kazan fired as her understudy in "Funny Girl" because she dared to contact some critics to come watch her the one time Babs was sick.

Berated her son Jason on the set of "Prince Of Tides" to "Act like a man!".

It was Wyler who cut her scenes not Babs. Like Robbins on stage he stripped away anything that didn't have to do with Babs. Look at Dolly where the other characters are given the full measure of their roles and because of Kelly's bad direction the movie suffers for it. She also let Kahn run away with Doc. And Babs saw this was going to happen at the reading of the screenplay. 'I feel like a supporting character in my own movie.'

The only saving grace of Dolly is the energetic dancing scenes- without Barbra.

Heard she held up most of a day of shooting Prince of Tides because she didn’t like the way the apples in the supermarket scene were stacked. So she restacked them herself.

Famous for coming to set with a hand mirror during the courtroom scenes in Nuts and she would study her face in the light and then point to areas where she believed her face wasn’t properly lit. Then disappear and come back the next day and repeat the process. An actor friend of mine was hired for the courtroom scenes for one week and worked for almost two months.

"An asshole. A real asshole."

She wouldn't let me sing in Yentl. Every fucking song was just Bar bra, Bar bra and more Bar bra.

Self indulgent cunt. She wanted me to fuck her like I fucked that other shrew I worked with in Evita but I have standards too. I turned her down and so did the rest of the crew. Even Persoff wouldn't. The stupid bitch swallowed all the humiliation of her repeated rejection and turned in into a shitty movie about a mirror and two ugly faces.

She's always been wildly insecure about her looks. She looked like her father, who was a handsome man. But her constant demanding that her audiences see her as beautiful is exhausting. The scene in TMHTF when Jeff Bridges returns from his trip and he looks at her after her makeover - Barbra had the camera pan her from her ankles to her hips while she was posing like she was in the opening credits of a prime-time soap opera!!! This is the same woman who talks about feminism and female empowerment. But in the end, it all boiled down to, "Do you think I'm sexy, Hubble?".

She brought in water cannons and tear gas when the workers at her basement mall tried to form a union.

In her review in the New York Times, Janet Maslin called the film's first hour "light and amusing" but added, then [Barbra Streisand] impresses her audience with good will hubris that goes through the roof. Beguiling as she can be in ugly duckling roles, she becomes insufferable as this story's gloating swan . . . The overkill of The Mirror Has Two Faces is partly offset by Ms. Streisand's genuine diva appeal. The camera does love her, even with a gun to its head.

In the Washington Post, Rita Kempley called the film "Barbra Streisand's latest folly" and added, "Although meant to be a bubbly romantic comedy, the movie is actually a very public tragedy for Streisand, who still can't quite believe that she's not Michelle Pfeiffer . . . at 54, it's time to get over girlish hang-ups, forget the noble schnoz and thank God that unlike Cher, you're still recognizable".

[quote]That Bitch Barbra

Bitch, what bitch?

I offered Dudley a job in the Food Court at my underground mall.

He was too short to pass the tacos over the counter or reach the cash register.

How is that my fault? I'm a bitch?

I remember one review at the time saying that the she looked like a Long Island mafia wife in that scene, R21.

For me the biggest cringe in the movie was the scene where Lauren Bacall shows Babs that picture of her as a toddler and tells her that her dead father thought she was my prettier than her sister and only really loved her - it was so obvious Streisand had browbeat some tame scriptwriter to write the scene so she could exorcise her issues with her dead dad.

I always remember the review that said they acted like Barbra’s character turned into Michelle Pfeiffer after the makeover

[quote] Had Lainie Kazan fired as her understudy in "Funny Girl" because she dared to contact some critics to come watch her the one time Babs was sick.

That's not true. Barbra was not feeling well and called in the day of the performance. Lainie went behind everyone's back to call critics to come review her performance (a total no-no). Barbra got wind of it and showed up that night to perform. She took the next performance off and Lainie tried to get the critics to come back but they rightly told her to fuck off. However, she was not fired (though they would have been correct to do so).

Barbra is a pain in the ass, we all know this. Best news - she's close to retiring. There will be no more movies, and if she's sensible, no more singing live or recorded. At least nor much more, I'd say two years tops. Then we'll only have to contend with her big mouth.

Walter Matthau is and always was a creep, don't quote him. Dudley Moore couldn't perform the job for reasons mentioned, I have no problem with that. Now Lainie Kazan, I love her. Whatever she did, how she did it, Streisand should not have been so fucking insecure, She's insecure. And by the way, Lainie left Funny Girl after she got to go one twice in one day - because of other job offers.

The Mirror may have Two Faces, but the theatre has many exits....

Babs called Lainie when her husband died who had been Babs music director. That was decent of her. In fact I think she herself might have been in love with him. Let's face it the woman is bipolar. She was very fucked up from an early age as a number of people are. She just happened to be a freak in terms of being extraordinarily talented. She just has never gotten over and never will get over not being daddy's little girl who was also a popular pretty cheerleader.

Back in the 90s, AOL used to have special chatroom events with celebrities, and Cindy Adams was the celebrity one night. I was in the chatroom with her(there were only a dozen of us) and I asked her some questions about Barbra. She didn't hold back.

She said that she had just conducted an interview with Barbra on the set of Mirror Has Two Faces and it was a nightmare experience. She said there was a problem on set and Barbra kept her waiting for 2 hours. Cindy said, "She kept me waiting for 2 hours, and when she decided to bless me with her presence, she was rude and uncooperative. It was a terrible experience."

I told Cindy that she was probably preoccupied with the problems on set and in a bad mood, but Cindy wasn't having any of my explanation. She replied back, "She's not a nice lady! Barbra Streisand and Raquel Welch are the two most difficult people that I've ever encountered."

I remember that thread where people imagined what The Exorcist would've been like if Barbra had said yes.

Someone said that after Pazuzu left Reagan's body, she'd look at Chris' (Barbra) face and immediately say "Momma you're SO beautiful!" Cut to the credits. Lmao

I don't doubt the story, R32, but Cindy Adams is an asshole. Pic of her office below. Nothing like saving your clippings.

"In fact I think she herself might have been in love with him (Peter Daniels, Lainie Kazan's husband)"

Um, don't think so. I was under the impression that Peter Daniels was gay, being married to Lainie and all...they probably had an open marriage.

"For me the biggest cringe in the movie was the scene where Lauren Bacall shows Babs that picture of her as a toddler..."

And it's an ugly picture of a kid with its mouth open! That the Streisand character had never seen it/didn't recognize herself is absurd. I'm surprised that Streisand would choose such a repulsive photo to represent a "pretty" child.

R33- That is fucking funny!

R34 wasn't it actually a childhood photo of Babs herself? She also used a photo of her own dad for the character of her dead father in the film.

Can I shop in her mall?

Is it open to the public? My mother would have a fit.

This thread is always REMOVED from mine on the right bar. Is it BARBRA'S DOING?

Barbra and Lauren Bacall, that set must have been fun.

[quote]This thread is always REMOVED from mine on the right bar. Is it BARBRA'S DOING?

Yes. And she has demanded the right bar be moved to the left, her best side.

Bacall is pretty good in the movie. It's fun, but it goes on for way too long. I have no idea why any romantic comedy would need to be over two hours long.

I don't remember which movie or which reviewer (possibly Clive Barnes), but in his review instead of referring to her film, he called it "Barbra Streisand's latest self-enshrinement."

[quote]And she has demanded the right bar be moved to the left, her best side.

R40, If I could, I would give you an unlimited number of FFs.

A total cringe of a film, it's really inept.

The one thing Barbra could never be is "breezy".

I had no idea Cindy Adams was still alive. She'll be ninety-one in April.

I’m watching The Way We Were on ION TV right now.

Isn’t this a remake of Without Love, the Tracy-Hepburn movie? He plays an inventor who needs a place to invent things in wartime DC and she’s a wealthy widow with a house. They enter into a marriage of convenience because he’s an alcoholic and she’s a Connecticut lesbian.

I’ve met Bacall and (arrrgh) worked with Streisand. Betty was a bitch on wheels. Barbra is just...well-defended.

The Mirror Has Two Faces is now on ION TV. 📺

R15, I wish he'd shot back: "Act like a mother!"

or worse: "Act like a director!!"

or "'The Way We Were' made no sense story-wlse!"

Talk about a career nod, Bacall’s Oscar nom and GG win for this was a total retrospective. Holland Taylor played the same role basically to Michelle Pfeiffer in One Fine Day the same year and was much more engaging.

That bitch Barbra directed an actress in each of her films to a Best Supporting Actress nomination - Amy Irving, Kate Nelligan and Lauren Bacall.

That bitch did that!

I'm rather surprised that this thread only has 51 replies.

I read the Wikipedia article on TMHTF because I couldn't remember many details about the movie.

I noticed that it only lists the box office gross, when Wikipedia usually includes a film's budget as well.

It lists the box office as $41 million, and from what I can find online the budget was $42 million.

I wonder if Babs makes an effort to conceal that financial failure.

(Granted I'm very tired and could be misreading the budget info.)

Also, how did Becall win an Oscar for a role in this terrible film? Did they feel she was owed one?

r53, Lauren Bacall was nominated, but did not win the Oscar. The winner was Juliette Binoche for "The English Patient".

R36, absolutely NOT. Babs didn't have a blonde hair on her head until Miss Clairol lent a hand. Childhood pic below.

Betty Bacall was the bitches bitch, but she was also a Streisand fan since way back when she was married to Jason Robards. She was always on her best behavior around Streisand. Another case was Lena Horne, another diva. Bacall managed to have a very friendly relationship with Lena.

Did Barbra try to have an affair with Jeff Bridges during the making of the film? She has always had a thing for WASPY co-stars.

I remember reading about Matthau's ragging on BS during and after the filming of "Dolly" and thinking that he really disliked her. Then, when BS made her big comeback to perform at her Malibu house way back when, one of the first persons to book a seat was Walter. He was shown all smiley and happy in one of the first rows of seats.

His wife dragged him to that, R57. Matthau looked drunk to me.

I was looking up old pics of Babs and found this one. I didn't think she smoked.

I'm surprised "The Mirror has Two Faces" cost $42,000,000, but I'm sure a big part of the budget went to Ms Streisand's hourly manicures.

R59, that's a finger not a cigarette. THIS is a cigarette (yes, she smokes/smoked):

R43, Will you marry me?

The Matthau's defended Barbra in the press after Isaac Singer trashed Yentl in an interview. I think that's when they reconciled.

She smokes in On a Clear Day, right? That's a plot point.

[quote]R33: Someone said that after Pazuzu left Reagan's body....

Oh, dear.

Barbra was fine as Daisy from Brooklyn. Not so much as Melinda, Lady Tentrees from 18th century London. An embarrassing performance. Such a weird film of such extreme highs and lows. Minnelli must have wondered what he got himself into. Wonderful Burton Lane score much better served by the original Broadway cast lead by Barbara Harris and John Cullum.

"The Matthau's defended Barbra in the press after Isaac Singer trashed Yentl in an interview."

Actually, it was Mrs Matthau, not the MATTHAUS (no apostrophe), he just rode along for the ride. If they "made up," it was because Matthau's wife insisted. Curmudgeon asshole Walter, no.

R20 is a sick troll. No one is perfect, but Streisand is at least one of the most successful entertainers in show business history and supremely talented. She is surrounded by the same collaborators for over 50 years. She is one of Hollywood’s most significant philanthropists and has been politically active since the early 60s for progressive causes. She has succeeded in a man’s world in show business and for this she is denigrated- she is a strong woman- no more “bitchy” or demanding than any supremely successful man. During the recent campaign she participated in multiple Zoom events to raise money, she posted a pic on Instagram imploring people to mask up saying if she could get a mask over her nose, everyone could. Dl

DL is often a sick and self destructive board populated by people that clearly don’t know good when it’s staring them in the face. It’s very sad.

What's sad is how Streisand's film career nosedived into shlock with "Yentl" (1983...38 years ago). After "Yerntl" she ceased to care about being an actress.

The woman has supreme talent , but in her she frittered it all away in films of steadily decreasing quality, released farther and farther apart....FOUR YEARS after "Yentl" came "Nuts"...FOUR YEARS later came "Prince of Tides"......FIVE YEARS later came "The Mirror Has Two Faces",.....EIGHT YEARS late came the garbage "Meet the Folkers" ...SIX YEARS later came its ghastly sequel, "Little Folkers", then two years later " Guilt Trip"....and EIGHT YEARS later.........nothing.

What a waste.

She went from being an actress to a dilettante.

I think it may be impossible to be schlockier than "A Star is Born" (1976).

Charlie @R68 spewing his usual DRECK.

R68 James Brolin

I think Yentl and The Prince of Tides are good films. But The Mirror Has Two Faces is just not a good film. Barbra's vanity was on display in the previous films but it's just too much in Faces. There's nothing fresh or clever about the movie.

I wonder if its failure is why she never directed another film. But then again, she barely makes any movies anymore.

Barbra drove the Upper West Side neighborhood so crazy with her constant retakes of the final scene. I took so long people were yelling out their windows to ruin takes and get them to turn the huge lights off.

R74 I think industry backlash against Barbra definitely ate into the Bacall Oscar loss to Binoche. I don’t think she’s universally despised or else there would be many horror stories about her, but she’s not universally adored or even close to it. The lack of director nominations for Yentl and Prince of Tides reflect this. She can’t fall back on the females can’t get nominated thing because Lina Wertmuller got a nomination in 1977, being the first female in that category.

R74, Even Bacall is on record as saying "The Mirror Has Two Faces" was not a very good film.

"I wonder if its failure is why she never directed another film. But then again, she barely makes any movies anymore."

Next year Streisand will be EIGHTY YEARS OLD. Ain't gonna be another movie, not as actor or director.

As far as her film output being so sparse, Streisand is LAZY. She even says she's lazy, and has said it for decades. Sue Mengers would send script after script to her in the 1970s, and it would either never get read or be rejected. And as far as "not being liked," or "industry backlash" at any time in Streisand's career - that's bullshit. The industry, ANY industry, cares about money, the bottom like. Mirror Has Two Faces, lost too much money, and Streisand is getting too old.

That’s bullshit- I lived there R75, 75th and West End Ave at the time and watched some of the filming- the ‘hood loved it.

[quote]And as far as "not being liked," or "industry backlash" at any time in Streisand's career - that's bullshit.

There was a lot of backlash when she got together with Jon Peters. Especially when she started involving him in her career. Read Frank Pierson's article on the making of A Star is Born. It's all in there. It's a time capsule to Streisand's power and bankability, but also her insufferable nature that turned many people off as well as Jon's obsessive need to be taken seriously in Hollywood.

R80, wake up. A Star is Born was made 45 YEARS AGO. Jon Peters. was a jerk, and only involved in Streisand's career for a few years. Frank Pierson was an asshole before and after ASIB. Streisand outlasted all of them and was working and bankable until she got too old and unbankable, which was the natural progression..

I got to observe Babs and Donna Karan shopping in Ptown back in the mid 90s. Both were very relaxed and friendly. Of course this was pre cellphone so no one was asking for selfies.

A Star is Born is a terrible movie. Streisand has terrible taste, though she clearly believes otherwise. Look at the way the bitch dresses? In anything at anytime. Those gross pinstripe suits with floor length skirt slit up the THERE. She's so tacky. On A Clear Day, those recency get ups. Bitch thinks she's Audrey Hepburn or an actual lady? The rest of the time it's floppy hats and off the shoulder shirts with her HUGE ugly ass sticking out. Or velvet thrift store one of a kinds. Skinny legs and a great big honker. The hair? Can we talk about the hair? Barbra you embarrassed yourself in every decade. Turbans, crimping, Lil Orphan Annie Perms, Dora the Explorer and sailor suits - the fake straight hair bob and now the wigs and weaves. Striezand was in one watchable movie. Her first. The end.

r70 Her film career already nosedived after The Way We Were. It was all downhill after that.

charlie is as sickeningly and disturbingly reverential about Barbra Streisand as Squeaky Fromme is about Charles Manson.

Is Charlie Jason Gould's lover by any chance?

[quote] I remember one review at the time saying that the she looked like a Long Island mafia wife in that scene, [R21].

For me the biggest cringe in the movie was the scene where Lauren Bacall shows Babs that picture of her as a toddler and tells her that her dead father thought she was my prettier than her sister and only really loved her - it was so obvious Streisand had browbeat some tame scriptwriter to write the scene so she could exorcise her issues with her dead dad.

Mafia wife...r21, that’s my morning chuckle, thanks.

she was supposed to direct The Normal Heart after The Mirror but i think it was meeting James Brolin that really changed her career, at least on film. She no longer had the passion for it because she finally found a good man to settle down with after being single for so long.

Was Rose the elder sister or the younger sister in the movie? I assumed she was the older one, but a friend who watched the movie thought that the Mimi Rogers character was actually written as the elder of the two sisters.

I hope my friend is right. The thought of Streisand's ego being so out of control that she would cast herself as younger than Mimi Rogers is hilarious.

LOL, R87. I also wonder what Bacall, who was strikingly attractive in her twenties, thought of Streisand trying to portray herself as some sort of desirable beauty whom both Pierce Brosnan and Jeff Bridges were lusting after.

R77 I bet old Betty wouldn't have said that if she hadn't lost the Oscar to Juliette.

Didn't Barbra first want Elizabeth Taylor to play her mother?

"I also wonder what Bacall, who was strikingly attractive in her twenties, thought of Streisand trying to portray herself as some sort of desirable beauty"

Bacall was happy to get the job.

[quote] She no longer had the passion for it because she finally found a good man to settle down with after being single for so long.

I think she was just lazy.

Barbra is a neurotic and perfectionist. Obsessive compulsive disordered, naturally and seismically talented. (at singing) The flip side of that is always laziness and sloth, food, comfort and procrastination. Add extreme wealth and an entourage of supporters and you get what Streisand became. A huge disappointment. She makes perfect sense, if only she didn't insist she was something else. She's ruined most all of her work by overworking it and OVERDOING it. Murdered songs. She chose projects that were shallow explorations of her own neurosis. She surrounded herself in art and artifacts, but Barbra Streisand never came close to being an artist.

But in her youth, 20 years before I was born, we can see her pleasure and some freedom in that expression of her great big voice and love of the music. It took her far, far, far. What a voice. She felt the need to prove something more. Things she could never be. An actress, a beauty, a desirable woman. She's never once been secure about the way she looks and the way she dresses and presents herself proved that endlessly. As do her films and the way she calculates herself in performance. We see you Barbra. You should have let the world see it too. It wasn't ugly. What you've presented instead is a humorless asshole and soulless product. I guess it worked for some. For the usual lifespan of a performer. 50 years of being an obnoxious control freak self satisfied facade of crumbling insecurity is why people won't remember a moment about you, before 1972. A great singer should communicate something more than sound and a gown.

R95- That last sentence resonated actually.

She never did FEEL these songs. There is an arrogance to her.

I was gifted with this amazing voice, so I sing, for money.

She is not a giving performer when she sings. She doesn't even appear go enjoy it much. Its robotic.

I love a singer who gets tears in their eyes on occasion when they sing a song.

60s Barbra is the bomb. After she went down to Stoney End, it was never the same...

What was up with the shitty sailor suits anyways?

Good article from the NY Times, 1965. Most of you never knew that Streisand was considered a rebel beatnik when she first became famous.

A rebel beatnik? LOL. Only crazed Streisand queens buy that bullshit. There was nothing remotely contemporary or rebellious about this bitch even in the 60s. Every fucking thing about her image has been carefully planned. She had a good voice, but as Dodo Kilgallen wrote, she also benefitted tremendously from being Jewish, especially when it came to the media hype and overnight success as a singer.

R100, the key word is KOOK.

Barbra discusses working with Bacall in a new interview. So humble!

^ She's unbelievably obnoxious. It defies belief.

Lauren Bacall was so refined and beautiful looking, at every age. Forget the smoldering sexpot image they created for her. She was fierce. A tawny haired green eyed work of art. Lean, bone structure, angles, beautiful coloring and feline grace. The real deal. She would be a top fashion model at any time.

She was everything Streisand could never hope to be and many times more beautiful than Barbra, even in that clip - when Bacall was "tired." Nobody photographs Streisand when she is tired. Barbra takes 5 weeks at the spa to get ready for a half hour public appearance.

Hanging out in Africa.

R101 the kookiness was not spontaneous or genuine. It was all a calculated move by Streisand and Erlichman to present a certain image to the public. Of course all the kookiness disappeared overnight when she landed Funny Girl on Broadway and suddenly this bitch was some grand prima donna behaving as though she'd grown up on Park Avenue or the Upper East Side.

R102 learn about Bacall Babs. Lauren was a two time Tony winner and an Emmy nominee before she deigned to be in your ridiculous film, so she had been nominated and won for past performances.

Bacall worship? VERY unusual on the DL.

"bitch was some grand prima donna behaving as though she'd grown up on Park Avenue or the Upper East Side."

That would be Upper WEST Side, dearest. That's where all the wealthy Jews landed because the UES wouldn't take them.

I just watched this again, Streisand's most underappreciated and misunderstood work, IMHO. So much to unpack!

We have a more nuanced and humane view of gender roles nowadays. In TMHTF scenario, Barbra is a cis female incel married to Jeff Bridges, who is a cis male asexual, from all appearances. Barbra grows frustrated and unhappy; the film is unwilling to examine how Bridges' sexuality functions at all, a point never fully resolved by the end of the film, suggesting that upon being reunited, the two will indulge in mutual romantic cis-play and verbalize sexual feelings without actually acting upon them. They fulfill their own (and society's) need for heteronormativity without heterosexual intercourse. And Barbra remains an incel, but one with agency, at least.

What say you, DL?

Are there no divas, stars or racing bitches around in the current generation to focus upon? This old lady has seen time pass her by. Go onto someone else .

This is boring.

As someone said upthread, it's unclear if Babs' character is meant to be older or younger than her sister, the Mimi Rogers character. All of the chronology seems a bit off. Here (per IMDB) are the performers' actual ages in 1996:

Barbra 54

Jeff Bridges 47

Lauren Bacall 72

Mimi Rogers 40

Pierce Brosnan 43

George Segal 62

Brenda Vaccaro 57

So, for example, one must accept that Bacall's character gave birth to Babs at 18 and then to Mimi at 32. Okay...

I was a little thrown by Mimi wearing white to her (third) wedding, to the Pierce Brosnan character.