It was very emotional for Rosie O'Donnell when she introduced Streisand as a guest on her talk show. “For every boy and girl out there watching, dreams do come true, please welcome Barbra Streisand ...”
Streisand, wearing an off-the-shoulder black sweater and slacks, walked through the curtain and she and O'Donnell hugged.
“She held my hand, she wiped my (tear-stained) face and said, ‘Are you OK?’” said Rosie O'Donnell to
USA Today . “She was everything I ever dreamed she'd be and more, so warm and kind to me, all at once like a friend, a sister, a mother . . . I said to myself, I have to get a grip . . . I don't want it to be about me crying because she's here.”
As Streisand sat in the chair across from her, O'Donnell told her idol, “You were a constant source of light in an often dark childhood. You inspired me and gave me the courage to dream a life better than the one I knew. I am profoundly grateful to you in so many ways.”
O'Donnell—one of Streisand's biggest fans—conducted a very satisfying and knowledgeable interview with her idol. She asked Streisand about stage fright, and if she ever missed a show during the Broadway run ofFunny Girl (“I did miss one,” Streisand confessed, after explaining that she performed despite having her wisdom teeth out and a scratched cornea on another occasion. “I must have had, like, 104 fever, total laryngitis, and missed that one ...”) Streisand told stories about finding out she was pregnant during the London run of
Funny Girl ; she also explained why she said “August 29th” was her birthday at the end of the song “I'm Five” on her
My Name is Barbra TV show. “I was married to Elliott Gould at the time,” Streisand stated, “and I was being generous to him, and loving, so I said his birthday.” O'Donnell also surprised Streisand with the gift of an original Playbill from
The Diary of Anne Frank —the first Broadway show Streisand ever saw when she was a girl.
Streisand then explained all about her own Playbill biography for
I Can Get It For You Wholesale , which stated she was “Born in Madagascar, and reared in Rangoon.” She said, “The point was, in those days everybody said they were a member of the Actor's Studio and everything was so pompous and serious. I was playing a Jewish secretary. So to say in my bio that I was from Brooklyn and grew up in Flatbush meant nothing. If they thought that I came from Madagascar ... I changed it. The next Playbill said I was born in Aruba and went to the Yeshiva of Brooklyn. And my last line was ‘I am not a member of the Actor's Studio.’ Now what happened was the Playbill people came to us and said you can't do that. I was trying to be funny. And they said you can't do it, it has to be serious.”
Next, the two discussed eating and food. After a commercial break, Streisand told O'Donnell the story of a spiritual sign she received while visiting her father's grave and how that inspired her to commit to making her 1983 film,
Yentl . Other topics discussed included the inaccuracies about Streisand in the press, followed by Streisand's explanation for why she recorded her new album,
Higher Ground . When O'Donnell tried singing Streisand's hit song, “People,” to her face, Streisand offered the advice “Less is more.”
In the final segment of the show, O'Donnell brought out Streisand's boyfriend at the time, James Brolin.
The episode scored big ratings for Rosie O'Donnell — it averaged a 10.2 rating/26 share. In New York City alone, the show scored an amazing 14.9/47 share. (
Higher Ground went to #1 certainly because of O'Donnell's high ratings as well as Streisand's superstar appeal.)
When asked if Streisand was demanding during her appearance on the show, O'Donnell replied, “There was no diva stuff going on, and I would tell you.” O'Donnell did rearrange her talk show set so that Streisand's left profile was favored by the cameras. “I knew she likes to be shot that way. The truth is that if she wanted me to do the interview in the nude, I would have done it in the nude.” O'Donnell further clarified, “She didn't even want to know what (film) clips we were doing. She said, ‘I know Rosie will be kind to me.’ And I would never in a million years say or ask anything that might offend her. But there was no area we were not allowed to go in.”
