Surprise! It’s not slumming in the Fockers franchise. Iconic entertainer Barbra Streisand says that, besides the lack of attention given her 1972 box office flop Up The Sandbox, she regrets turning down roles that garnered Oscar attention for her pals Jane Fonda and Liza Minnelli.
The star, who won an Academy Award as best actress for her film debut in Funny Girl, answers fan questions submitted by the New York Times in advance of receiving the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Chaplin Award for lifetime achievement today. Besides lots of chatter about Yentl and confirmation that she still intends to star in Gypsy, Streisand says she wishes she’d have starred in Cabaret, Klute, and Julia saying she was offered the films before they had directors attached.
“If I had known that the directors were going to be Bob Fosse, Alan J. Pakula and Fred Zinnemann, I would have said yes immediately,” Streisand offers, before magnanimously adding, “But I’m glad my girlfriends Liza Minnelli and Jane Fonda delivered such strong performances.”
The legendary singer-actress, so often portrayed by the media as taking herself and her career much too seriously, reveals that she was flattered, not insulted, that her name inspired the silly Duck Sauce dance hit in 2010.
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Streisand, who was scheduled to present GLAAD’s Advocate for Change award to her buddy Bill Clinton Saturday but was a last minute-no show, demonstrates she still has a fondness for politicos. Asked for half a dozen notables she’d break bread with at a fantasy dinner party, she names two former presidents, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, plus famed physicist Albert Einstein, as well as artists Edward Hopper and Gustav Klimt. To keep dinner conversation from being too stuffy, Streisand would also offer a nosh to Fanny Brice, the funny lady she portrayed in the musical that launched her to superstardom.
niles
Streisand as Sally Bowles? Not sure about that, but it certainly would have been interesting.
sfbeast
I’ve always thought Barbra was a great singer but not a very good actress. She’s much too self-conscious and fake when she acts. Thank goodness Liza got to do Cabaret.
Crankycub
She should have regretted turning down singing “It’s raining men” – it was offered to her first. 🙂
Crankycub
@sfbeast: Her performance in The Way We Were is amazing. She can definitely act.
Snapper59
There is a YouTube of Streisand on Oprah that is almost moving: It’s a tribute to Babs and she sings “Way We Were” and Oprah says “You and Redford have never ever done an interview together” and Babs says “No” and Oprah says “Never ever” and Babs says “No” and looks confused. Then Redford walks out.
During the chat Redford says “I never thought I could get in a word in edgewise” had they done one before together then Oprah asks him something – and Babs answers. Hilarious. One of the best Oprah shows ever.
Chelsea21St
Barbra can’t dance, so frankly I don’t think Fosse would’ve wanted her as Sally Bowles after he signed-on to direct “Cabaret.” Still, nice that she has the confidence to think that he would! lol
jackpapa
I love her, but she would have completely unbalanced Cabaret, and there is no way she could/should have played Julia – Fonda OWNS that part.