Don’t make Babs angry, because the 83-year-old singer will not forget.
In a new interview with Variety‘s Marc Malkin, Barbra Streisand (who’s gearing up to release her new duets album, The Secrets Of Life: Partners, Volume Two, on June 27) revealed that we probably won’t see her on the big screen in the recently announced Meet the Parents 4.
“They’d have to pay me a lot of money because I didn’t get paid what the other people got paid and I’m so pissed off,” explained the EGOT winner, who portrayed Roz Focker in the franchise’s second and third films.
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The Meet the Parents series began with the eponymous film in 2000. In it, Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) hopes to propose to his girlfriend (Teri Polo) but first has to survive meeting her parents: the pleasant enough Dina (Blythe Danner) and retired CIA officer Jack (Robert De Niro).
Of course, 2004’s Meet the Fockers and 2010’s Little Fockers introduced Stiller’s character’s parents, the freewheeling and sex-positive Bernie (Dustin Hoffman) and Streisand’s Roz.
Although the three films have grossed over $1 billion worldwide, Streisand revealed she wasn’t exactly given a salary that reflected her worth.
“I was in the time when women were getting paid less than the men,” she said. “The head of Universal was Ron Meyer at the time, and he actually sent me a bonus check. It was very sweet.”
So while details around the upcoming fourth film are scarce, apart from the fact that Ariana Grande has joined the cast in a starring role, it appears that she won’t be acting alongside Streisand.
That said, we will hear the two alongside Mariah Carey on “One Heart, One Voice” from Streisand’s new record.
“They’re the hottest, biggest, most wonderful voices,” she gushed.
But as far as films go, Streisand essentially ruled out directing again (“I think I’ve probably had it,” she said), though she’s currently working on a “definitive multi-part documentary” about her life with Frank Marshall.
“I’ve always wanted to end my career, my movie career, doing Gypsy,” she added. “That would’ve been the book end to my Funny Girl play. I couldn’t get that done. Time goes so fast.”
Honestly, after she blessed us with 2023’s massive, 970-page memoir My Name is Barbra, we think she deserves to rest as long as she wants.
After all, she’s just like us at the end of the day: “I’m very lazy,” she explained. “I don’t like to have to work.” LOL.
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