When Barbra Streisand was a young girl—she had not yet dropped the “a” from her name to become “different and unique”—she stood in the hallway of her small third-floor apartment one day and thought to herself: “Me: “I need become famous so someone else can make my bed.”
She probably didn’t expect to become so famous that at the age of 81 and after six decades at the top of the entertainment world, Streisand has sold more than 150 million albums, won five Emmy Awards, ten Golden Globes, two Oscars and Tony Award Prize. (coveted pure EGOT) – she will publish the long-awaited, whopping 992-page treatise that took some 25 years to complete.
Written like a morning cup of coffee, full of Streisand’s Jewish-Brooklyn speech and friendly asides (Streisand loves to eat), it’s entertaining but carefully told. , record vol.
Much of Streisand’s story is familiar to you: how she grew up in poverty after the death of her father when she was fifteen months old, and her relationship with an unreliable, cold, ruthless, callous, jealous mother, who was always ready to involve painful humiliation, was a constant curse in her life.
So does fame: her big break at Bon Soir, a Greenwich Village nightclub; when her star comes funny girl on Broadway at age 21 led to an Oscar-winning film adaptation and a Hollywood career (Hello Dolly!, How are you doing, doctor?; Just like we were, A star is born); how her music career began with her Grammy-winning debut album in 1963; her breakthrough directorial success with the award-winning 1983 film. Yentl.
But there are many revelations that will delight fans. In addition to the sky-high fame that Streisand enjoys (which she eventually came to regard as an “empty trophy”), there is also high-level celebrity banter: giving Robert De Niro a back massage; the Clintons are in a good mood; a fun encounter with President John F. Kennedy (“I told him, ‘You’re a doll,’ and she just slipped out”) and a rather flirtatious relationship with King Charles.
And then there are revelations about the men in her life, potential suitors – love letters from the lover Omar Sharif; the numerous advances of her boyfriend Marlon Brando, all of which were rejected (“how stupid!”), as well as her important relationships.
She wasn’t attracted to her first husband, Elliott Gould, until she saw his neck; about the 23-year age difference between her and former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, she writes: “My brain was in love, but not my body”; their relationship with MiamiViceDon Johnson “was funny while it lasted.”
She had also never heard of tennis star Andre Agassi before the couple formed in the 1990s (“emotionally wise beyond his years”). But according to legend, did she ever sleep with Warren Beatty? “I still remember it. I think I did it. Probably one day.”
But in other places, male attention is more problematic. Strength in the face of patriarchy is a recurring theme: on Broadway, in Hollywood, in the press. She wasn’t demanding, unreasonable or diva-like: she simply had high standards and a clear artistic vision, which was only a problem because she was a woman who dared to challenge male-dominated fields.
On the set Hello Dolly!Walter Matthau shouted at her: “I have more talent in farting than you have in your entire body!”; Mandy Patinkin cried and acted tough, refusing to have an affair during filming. Yentl; IN 60 minutesHer interviewer Mike Wallace was so sexist he made her cry; Worst of all was her treatment by Sydney Chaplin, Charlie’s son, who humiliated and threatened her on stage during her Broadway performance. funny girl. “Sydney made me physically sick. But I didn’t let him destroy me.”
The incident left her with stage fright throughout her life, although it’s not just the stage that keeps her from performing: fans who ask her to sing when meeting her “might as well ask me to jump off a bridge.”
For Streisand, work is really just work: “I don’t sing at home,” she writes, “I don’t sing in the shower and I don’t sing at parties.” about the struggle for control against those who do, who want to tell her what she should do and how she should do it: the book takes great care to emphasize that she achieved success on her own terms.
Perhaps this is why she feels the need to include endless rave reviews and words of praise from critics and colleagues, an unnecessary condescension for such a prominent person (though it reinforces the idea that she is not receiving the same necessary validation from her mother). And it is clear that, despite all the resilience, the criticism hurt. “Even after all these years, the insults still hurt me and I can’t quite believe the praise.”
The book begins, interrupted slightly by passages about her distinctive nose; the cruel barbs and the way she resisted every suggestion to do something about it. It feels like a metaphor for her entire career. “I thought: Isn’t my talent enough?” – she wondered. It was.
Source: I News
I am Mario Pickle and I work in the news website industry as an author. I have been with 24 News Reporters for over 3 years, where I specialize in entertainment-related topics such as books, films, and other media. My background is in film studies and journalism, giving me the knowledge to write engaging pieces that appeal to a wide variety of readers.