Streisand

The definitive Barbra Streisand biography. This is the completed revised, updated and expanded (through 2012) of the 1995 New York Times bestseller. It is a compulsively readable, monumental work based on more than 200 interviews with Barbra's family, friends and colleagues. James Spada has followed Barbra's life and career for forty-five years and paints an intimate, frequently surprising portrait of a woman who continues to capture the public's imagination as few others ever have. Every aspect of Barbra's life and work is covered in detail, from her father's upbringing in the teeming ethnic ghettos of New York City to the filming of Barbra's movie, "The Guilt Trip." Her closest childhood friends talk about the gawky misfit who sought surrogate parents; her Broadway coworkers reveal the rancorous breakup between Barbra and her "Funny Girl" costar; the costume designer of "The Way We Were" describes Redford's anxiety about doing a love scene with her; we learn intimate details about many of Barbra's lovers (Tommy Smothers, Omar Sharif, Ryan O'Neal, Warren Beatty, Elvis Presley, Prime Minister Trudeau, Don Johnson, James Brolin) and her often tempestuous, sometimes violent relationship with Jon Peters. Also included are the extraordinary backstage details of her most famous films—"Funny Girl", "Hello, Dolly!", What's Up, Doc?", "The Way We Were", A Star Is Born", "The Prince of Tides" and "Meet the Fockers"—her albums, concerts, television appearances and political activism. This book is an absolute must for Streisand fans everywhere.