BARBRA JOKES WITH JOHN McCAIN ABOUT HIS SINGING HER HITS ON SNL.

Streisand on The Hill

Barbra paid a visit to Washington, DC to meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill including Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) to press for more funding for women’s heart disease. Streisand posed for a photo with Sen. McCain (above) and Sen. Durbin (below).
Photos courtesy of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center


Barbra joked with McCain about his appearance on SNL when he sang a medley of her hits while criticizing her politics. "Do you always sing that poorly, or were you trying to be off key?" she asked him.

TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES TO SHOW MONROE, LAWFORD FILMS IN JUNE

TCM will show the following films this month:

The Misfits, the last film of both Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. June 14, 4 p.m. EDT

Bus Stop, the film that convinced most skeptics that Marilyn was a serious actress. June 17 8 a.m. EDT

Ocean's Eleven, the last film Peter Lawford made with the Rat Pack. June 21 1:45 a.m. EDT

Streisand: In the Camera Eye Available for Pre-order on Amazon!

 Use this link:

http://www.amazon.com/Streisand-Camera-Eye-James-Spada/dp/1419712411/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399155941&sr=1-4&keywords=streisand

LINK TO AMAZON'S "STREISAND: IN THE CAMERA EYE" LISTING

http://www.amazon.com/Streisand-Camera-Eye-James-Spada/dp/1419712411/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399158231&sr=1-4&keywords=STREISAND

New James Spada Streisand Volume Coming in October

I'm pleased to announce that my latest Barbra Streisand book is coming from Abrams in hardcover on October 21, 2014. Here is the Abrams catalog description:

“Streisand: In the Camera Eye” is a collection of 170 of the most compelling photographs of Barbra Streisand, chosen for their rarity, beauty, and insight into Streisand’s multifaceted life and career. The pictures, most of which have never been published before, document her many phases, from her early days on Broadway, including “Funny Girl,” to her hugely popular TV specials, to her work as an actress in films such as “Hello, Dolly!,” “The Way We Were,” and “A Star Is Born.” Taken by some of the greatest names in photography—including Philippe Halsman, Francesco Scavullo, Douglas Kirkland, Bob Willoughby, and Cecil Beaton—the images also represent her fabled concerts, as well as personal moments away from the set and stage. Seven essays by Spada introduce the various periods of Streisand’s adult life, and, along with substantial anecdotal and quote-filled captions, they combine with the spectacular photos to tell the whole story of one of the world’s most popular and beloved stars.

• Trim Size: 9 x 11
• Page Count: 288
• Cover: Hardcover with jacket
• Illustrations: 170 color and black and white photos
• PRE-ORDER THE BOOK FROM AMAZON.COM HERE

Matt Howe of  Barbra Archives did a short interview with me about the upcoming book.


Matt: After writing three books about Streisand, what made you return to the subject of Barbra Streisand again?
Spada: Four books on Barbra! I never could have imagined that back in 1974 when Barbra: The First Decade was published. But each of my books on Barbra has been different. With this one, I wanted it to be a sumptuous pictorial tribute to Streisand’s beauty and talent. I went to one of the best art book publishers in the world, Abrams, and they signed me up to do it! It will truly be the most lavishly produced of any of my books on Barbra.
Matt: The new book looks like a gorgeous “coffee table” photo book. But there’s text by you, too. Can you explain what you’ve done with Streisand: In the Camera Eye?
Spada: The book’s format is very simple and elegant. On most spreads there is a full page photo of Barbra on one page and on the other page an extended caption written by me that discusses what the photo shows and includes a quote from a costar, director, friend or observer praising Barbra and giving their explanation of why she is so special. There isn’t a negative word in the book about her.
Matt: Barbra rarely talks about it, but she has worked with many iconic photographers. And she is an amazing “model.” Does the new book comment on or illustrate that?
Spada: Absolutely. The book begins with four unpublished full color images by Craig Simpson taken when Barbra was eighteen. In one of them she looks like Audrey Hepburn or a Vogue model! There are four unpublished Cecil Beaton photos plus the cover shot, and he explains why she was the “perfect mannequin” to model the Clear Day outfits. The book illustrates all of her plays, television specials and movies, but also has many photos that are used just to illustrate her beauty.
Matt: Did you make it to any of the 2006 or 2012 Streisand concerts? Still consider yourself a fan of hers?
Spada: I did see her in 2006 but not 2012. Yes, of course I’m still a fan. Her photos, TV shows and movies have given me great pleasure since the mid-sixties and they still do to this day. It was such a joy to do this book. I had a lot of help from Jorge Rodriguez Garcia in Spain, who made his fantastic collection of Barbra photos available to me. We had this transcontinental working relationship!
Matt: What will surprise Streisand fans most about your new book?
Spada: I hope it will be the number of previously unpublished photos. I have a great one by Bob Willoughby of Barbra in the hotel pool in 1963, a few alternates from Howell Conant’s 1966 Look shoot, several unpublished shots by Mario Casilli, three amazing shots taken for the 1963 Look profile and never used, and lots more! And also, many of the previously published photos were used very small or poorly reproduced when they were first published, but in this book they’re full page and beautiful! I put this book together with Barbra’s fans in mind, and I’m confident they will be very pleased.

James Spada wrote “Barbra: The First Decade,” published in 1974; “Streisand: The Woman and the Legend,” published in 1981; and “Streisand: Her Life,” published in 1995. Spada was also one of the instrumental people involved in Barbra Quarterly, a Streisand fan magazine published in the mid-80s. 

Barbra and Jim at the Global Gourmet Games

This weekend, Barbra Streisand and husband James Brolin attended (according to the LA Times) The Global Gourmet Games, a gala fundraiser for FasterCures, “staged as a high-spirited competition that pits guests against one another to answer questions about food, wine and related trivia, such as which country consumes the most chicken per capita.”

The LA Times wrote that “the event raised an estimated $3 million for FasterCures, an organization dedicated to accelerating medical research to find cures for life-threatening diseases.

“The gala dinner also served as a kickoff to the four-day Milken Institute Global Conference, which attracts more than 3,000 people to Beverly Hills to hear more than 650 of the world’s top thinkers discuss some of today’s most pressing issues in business, health, government and education.”

LIZ SMITH DEFENDS MARILYN AGAINST ARTHUR MILLER'S DEFAMATION OF HER

In a letter to his wife, Molly Thatcher, [the director, Elia] Kazan attempts to explain his past affair with Marilyn Monroe: “I took her to dinner because she seemed like such a touching pathetic waif. She sobbed all through dinner. I wasn’t ‘interested’ in her, that came later. I got to know her and in time introduced her to Arthur Miller, who also was very taken with her. You couldn’t help being touched. She was talented, funny, vulnerable, helpless in awful pain, with no hope and some worth and not a liar, vicious, not catty and with a history of orphanism that was killing to hear. She was like all Charlie Chaplin heroines in one.”

KAZAN, who wrote to Molly in 1955, also revealed of Marilyn: “She is not what she appears to be ... she is not a big sex-pot as advertised.” Elia Kazan on MM: "She is not what she appears to be ... she is not a big sex-pot as advertised." The cruel irony/P.S. to this is that Kazan, after years of estrangement with Arthur Miller, would collaborate with him again, mounting one of (I think) the worst moments in American theater history — Miller’s play “After The Fall.” This was Miller’s confession/denunciation of Monroe as a castrating, self-destructive bitch, from whom he had to escape. That Monroe was two years dead and unable to defend herself appeared of no interest to her ex-husband or her ex-lover. Miller’s pretense that the “Maggie” of his play was not Monroe — or his version of her — compounded the insult. Marilyn’s good friend, author James Baldwin, walked out of “After the Fall,” so furious was he over Miller’s characterization of her. (The star, Barbara Loden was costumed, bewigged and given the appropriate Monroe-like gestures, in case anybody didn’t quite get it.)

THOSE who disliked Arthur Miller — and there were many — found some satisfaction in the fact that “After The Fall” was his last success. He would wallow in epilogue and various variations on Marilyn for the rest of his life. Miller’s inactivity as a writer — except for his tedious screenplay for “The Misfits” — was often blamed on Marilyn. He himself said it. But right after the Miller/Monroe divorce, columnist Max Lerner opined that it was less likely that Monroe had constricted Miller, but that he had sought her out precisely because he had run out of material.

1956: Monroe and Miller ... Happily engaged.

Several weeks before her death, an interviewer faced Marilyn with Lerner’s observation. Did she have a comment? She paused, and then said: “If I answer, will you promise to repeat my quote in its entirety?” The writer said yes. Marilyn replied: “No comment.” This is the only thing Marilyn Monroe ever said criticizing a husband — or anybody else in public life for that matter. She was, as Kazan noted, “not vicious.” And it is an indication of her agony, being blamed for the failures of a man she literally saved; standing with him and risking her own career as he was grilled by The House Un-American Activities Committee, in the matter of his youthful Communist flirtations. Miller and Kazan left that Marilyn out of “After The Fall.”

1959: Monroe and Miller ... Unhappily Married