ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, November 15, 1996 TAG: 9611150006
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF.
SOURCE: LYNN ELBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
Appearances can be deceiving. But not in Barbra Streisand's case.
At this particular moment, as Streisand huddles in a plush chair in a plush suite at a plush hotel, arms wrapped self-protectively, she looks thoroughly miserable. And she is.
To promote her new film, the romantic comedy ``The Mirror has Two Faces,'' Streisand has submitted to an interview. She looks wary and wan; her only sparkle comes from delicate diamonds at throat and wrist.
Talking to the media is as unpleasant for her, say, as a White House election turnover might have been. It's a struggle, ``horrifying,'' in fact, to dissect her work, her life, herself, says Streisand.
And it's not the only wrestling match she's been in.
There has been a tussle from the start to be perceived fairly, Streisand says, to escape her image as a demon diva who always insists on her way.
``There are so many myths in the media, lies perpetuated over and over again. About my being a perfectionist, being difficult, all those negative words - usually not from people who've really worked with me.
``Friends of friends have heard, have read: Blah, blah, blah,'' Streisand says, resignation settling across her face.
She had to put stage fright in a half nelson to get through her 1994 concert tour (which helped make her one of the highest-paid entertainers for 1994-95 with an estimated gross income of $63 million, just ahead of Sylvester Stallone).
She felt compelled, in a speech at Harvard University, to defend the right of artists to be activists as well - liberal causes and President Clinton being her particular pets.
And the 54-year-old jousts with Hollywood, still, over her worth as an actress and a filmmaker, as if the daisy chain of ``Funny Girl,'' ``The Way We Were,'' ``Yentl,'' ``Prince of Tides'' and more never was woven.
To be middle-aged, gifted and Barbra, it turns out, is no easier than it was to be a dazzling, 21-year-old prodigy of Broadway, movies and records who warned us that nobody was gonna rain on her parade.
``I had to fight to make `Yentl,' fight to make `Prince of Tides.' Gave up my profits, just to get the money to make my films. I wasn't about to do it anymore,'' she says, when the same was asked of her on ``The Mirror has Two Faces.''
Like ``Yentl'' and ``Prince,'' Streisand both starred in and directed her latest picture.
``I thought, `You know what, you can't rely on the fact that I will give up so much of myself and what I think I'm worth just because I want to do this,''' she says.
She does a mental search for evidence of her worth, frowning slightly: ``I'm trying to think of the movie before this. It was `Prince of Tides.' Yeah, it was very successful.
``But it doesn't seem to change. I always seem to have to fight for everything I have passion for.''
What, a doubtful questioner says, a project with Streisand connected isn't an easy sell?
``It's a myth,'' she shoots back. ``It's another one of those myths: The all-powerful woman gets what she wants.''
The conflict, it seems, has left her unmarked, at least physically; great bones and the fine art of Hollywood pampering probably share credit. She looks easily a decade younger than her years, her skin smooth and figure lithe.
Unconventional beauty, it turns out, can wear well. But it takes growing into.
``When I look at pictures of myself when I was 5 or 6, I was quite cute. But I was never told I was cute. I never thought I was,'' she says.
When she captured the screen in the 1968 film version of ``Funny Girl,'' the triumphant Broadway actress-turned-movie star was clearly no Grace Kelly. She was, instead, all defiant ethnicity with an unbobbed, unashamed nose and exotic eyes.
Can Streisand - said to agonize over every potentially unflattering camera angle - look at her screen image and find allure?
``I saw a piece of `Funny Girl' and recalled thinking, `I was quite beautiful.' From certain angles. From certain angles, I look awful. And from certain angles, I think I'm beautiful.''
She has seemed almost eager to dissect her appearance; suddenly she draws back, as if hoodwinked.
``I knew this would be talked about. It's not something I particularly enjoy talking about,'' Streisand says.
Blame her latest movie for raising the issue. ``The Mirror Has Two Faces,'' in which Streisand plays Rose, a funny, frumpy professor turned sexy butterfly and married lady (to Jeff Bridges), is a study of how beauty affects us.
A character's psychology is not hers, insists Streisand, no matter what audiences or critics believe of this or any other film.
``They think the picture's me, [but] I'm playing a character that existed before I came into the picture. They think when I sing `I'm the Greatest Star' in `Funny Girl' that I'm saying it. But I'm not; it was written by someone else.''
Streisand, of course, is shrink-wrapped to perfection by such roles as Rose or by the likes of Fanny Brice in ``Funny Girl.'' And it can take time to find such projects - since the early 1980s, some four years have passed between each movie.
What's she looking at now? Maybe a movie version of a musical (she won't specify which) that's been offered to her, maybe directing a movie sans Streisand as star.
Or maybe just a break from the spotlight, the work, the struggles.
``I just want to take a lot of time off,'' she says. ``I'm so tired.''
LENGTH: Long : 105 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Barbra Streisand in ``The Mirror has Two Faces'' It'sby CNBbeen a struggle from the start to be perceived fairly, she says, to
escape her image as a demon diva who always insists on her way.
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