Barbra: The Way She Is

485 Pages·2007·4.65 MB·English

by  Christopher Andersen

BARBRA
The Way She Is

Christopher Andersen
For my own funny girl, Valer ie
Contents
Preface v
1
What?” Barbra Streisand blurted into the phone, her voice
hovering… ix
2
She had no idea The Lion on New York’s Ninth Street… 13
3
I want a steak and a baked potato,” Barbra said. 57
4
You are such a fucking selfish bitch, you really are.” 139
5
Who the hell does she think she is?” Walter Matthau… 171
Photographic Insert
6
The candy-apple-red Ferrari roared up Carolwood Drive,
paused as the… 223
7
OH MY GOD!” Francesco Scavullo cried out as the
reddish-brown… 255
8
The kid’s gay,” Jon Peters blurted to Arthur Laurents as… 291
9
Why the hell isn’t he returning my goddamn phone
calls?”… 313
10
She stood at the top of the wide staircase, a… 343
11
She reached up and ran her fingers through his
hair—or… 373
Acknowledgments
Sources and Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Other Books By Christopher Andersen
Credits
Cover
Copyright
About the Publisher
I always knew I’d be famous.
I knew it. I wanted it.

PREFACE

S
he is a one-name legend, a global icon, the ultimate diva—one
of the most beloved and detested, worshiped and feared, ad-
mired and reviled figures of the age. The word superstar was in-
vented to describe her, and she remains the very definition of the
word today.
Yet most of what we know about Barbra Joan Streisand is the
stuff of caricature: the Brooklyn goil-made-good, the ugly duckling
who blossomed into a modern-day Nefertiti, the brash upstart ac-
cepting an Oscar in see-through evening pajamas, the political dilet-
tante driving to the barricades in her Rolls-Royce, the Hollywood
powerhouse capable of turning her hairdresser boyfriend into a
bona fide movie mogul, the greatest female interpreter of popular
songs who ever lived, a skinflint, a philanthropist, a connoisseur and
a boor, the woman whose physical characteristics were instantly
identifiable around the planet—the tapered nails, those slightly
crossed eyes, that nose, the voice.
Long ago she achieved the vaunted status of a one-name legend,
and with good reason. Her life and career are described almost ex-
clusively in superlatives. She is, according to a Reuters poll, simply
the greatest female singer of the twentieth century (Frank Sinatra
was deemed the greatest male singer). With over thirty platinum al-
bums, thirteen multiplatinum albums, and fifty gold albums, she is
second only to Elvis in record sales—and ahead of such groups as
the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Barbra is also the only artist,
male or female, to boast number one records spanning four
decades—the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and the 1990s. She is the only
viii
P R E F A C E
artist to have won the Academy Award (twice), the Tony, the Emmy,
the Grammy, the Golden Globe, the People’s Choice Award, the
Peabody, and the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award.
Moreover, Streisand has proven herself not only as “an actress who
sings,” as she puts it, but also as a director, a producer, a songwriter,
a collector, a businesswoman, and a political activist.
With such unparalleled accomplishments comes unparalleled
speculation—about her Callas-size ego and the awe-inspiring tem-
perament that goes with it, about her many failed love affairs, her
unbridled ambition, her fiery politics, her cringe-making tantrums,
her relationship with one president and her vendetta against an-
other, and her unfortunate habit—so common among those who
claw their way to the top and stay there—of using people and then
discarding them.
Whether she’s a bulldozer or a whirlwind, Barbra stirs passions
with her talent and a mystique she tends as carefully as her roses.
Even to the multitudes around the world who idolize her, Streisand
remains aloof, unknowable, tantalizingly just beyond reach. To un-
derstand the woman behind the voice is to realize that, whether you
love her, hate her, or are simply spellbound by her titanic talent,
Barbra is one thing above all others—a true American original.