Celebrity Gossip /By Liz Smith
Barbra’s best yet to come
“Yes! Mrs. Roosevelt went down into the mines, and she said, ‘I am my husband’s legs.’ Did you tell the cripple jokes, too? Is there anything that isn’t a joke to you people?!”
That’s Barbra Streisand in one of her greatest movie hits, “The Way We Were.” She was Katie Morosky, the liberal political activist, lashing out against indifference. This scene ended with Robert Redford chastising her: “The president’s death didn’t happen just to you. Everything in the world that happens doesn’t happen only to you!”
Later, when Redford comes to break up with her, he opens with, “Look...” and Barbra interrupts: “Oh, God. Please don’t begin a sentence with ‘look.’ That’s always bad news.”
In my humble opinion, for all the glory of her film career, Miss Streisand has yet to have her greatest moment on screen. She came closest as the belligerent hooker in the much underrated “Nuts.” But there are many years to come, and I am certain that someday Barbra will want to leave commercial movies like “Meet the Fockers” and realize her final legacy as a movie star. (Although, natch, “Fockers” was a huge hit—so Barbra is not likely to take my humble opinion too seriously.)
But as a singer, Miss Streisand has perfected herself and reached the heights. You can get a fantastic glimpse of Barbra, the singer, in the new DVD set, “Streisand: the Concerts,” which feature two of her 2006 concerts. This is great stuff, with Barbra in splendid voice, performing songs new to DVD. The set arrived at my office last week and it is an impressive thing, with a recent ‘Hello, gorgeous’ shot of Barbra on the cover, all golden and glittery, like a goddess bathed in “buttah.”
The DVD’s had extraordinarily brisk sales over the last weekend, helped by her CBS TV special, which beat out “Law&Order: SVU,” a “Harry Potter” movie and an episode of “Cops.” In “Funny Girl” she sang: “I can make ’em laugh. I can make ’em cry/someday they’ll clamor for my drama!”
You said it, Barbra. Forty-plus years later, they are still clamoring.
P. S. In fact, “Streisand: The Concerts” has now scored the No. 1 spot on both the UK and U. S. charts. In America, the set has had the highest sales for any music DVD so far this year.
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