Photos courtesy of On Location News - and must not be saved or copied.
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Exclusive Photos: Barbra and Seth Rogen On Set.
Here's an exclusive look at Barbra and co-star Seth Rogen on the set of "My Mother's Curse". The movie will be released in March 2012.
Photos courtesy of On Location News - and must not be saved or copied.
Photos courtesy of On Location News - and must not be saved or copied.
Sunday, 8 May 2011
Barbra's New Movie - "My Mother's Curse".
Matt Howe at Barbra-Archives has created a wonderful page dedicated to Barbra's new film - which she's currently filming.
Click here for the page and to see photos of Barbra on set.
Click here for the page and to see photos of Barbra on set.
Barbra Remembers Arthur Laurents
From BarbraStreisand.com:
Arthur and I go way back to "I Can Get It For You Wholesale" in 1962. Then we did "The Way We Were" in 1973 and we were about to do "Gypsy" together.
He created people you care about because he cared about people. I spoke to him a few weeks ago and he sounded so strong, as always. He was lucky to have lived a full and creative life up 'til the very end.
I'll miss working with him again. - Barbra Streisand
Arthur and I go way back to "I Can Get It For You Wholesale" in 1962. Then we did "The Way We Were" in 1973 and we were about to do "Gypsy" together.
He created people you care about because he cared about people. I spoke to him a few weeks ago and he sounded so strong, as always. He was lucky to have lived a full and creative life up 'til the very end.
I'll miss working with him again. - Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand and Larry Kramer trade blame for failed 'Normal Heart' film
Entertainment Weekly Exclusive
Film legend Barbra Streisand and gay activist Larry Kramer would both like to set the record straight about their failed attempt to bring The Normal Heart — Kramer’s 1985 play about the dawn of the AIDS epidemic — to the big screen. The problem is, each of them says it’s the other’s fault. In an exclusive interview with EW, Streisand calls Kramer “brilliant, courageous, stubborn, and self-destructive.” The writer’s response? “She never put her money where her mouth is.”
“I love this play, and I love its cause,” says Streisand, who first purchased the film rights to The Normal Heart after seeing its original Off Broadway incarnation in 1985. (A Tony-nominated revival is currently running at Broadway’s John Golden Theatre.) Over the next ten years, she worked with Kramer and another screenwriter to adapt the story, which focuses on the struggles of writer Ned Weeks (Kramer’s literary alter ego) during the early days of the AIDS crisis in NYC. Streisand intended to direct the film and take the part of strong-willed Dr. Emma Brookner, a supporting role in the play.
But a movie never materialized. According to Streisand, Kramer was unwilling to allow adjustments that were necessary to make the script more cinematic. “I was using the best of [the play]. But there are certain things you do for film,” she tells EW. “Larry only wanted to use his screenplay. I couldn’t have my hands tied artistically.”
Kramer has another version of the story. He says Streisand rewrote the script to make her character the star, marginalizing the gay characters who are at the center of the play. “She cut Ned’s part so much that when she offered the movie to a major star who had played the part on stage, he said, ‘I can’t play this. The character has no motivation anymore,’” claims Kramer. “She subsumed all of the motivations into her part, as the doctor.” (A rep for Streisand did not immediately reply to request for comment on Kramer’s remarks.)
Streisand also says Kramer rejected a deal from HBO to turn the play into a TV project after major studios balked at its subject matter. “Larry wouldn’t accept their highest offer of $250,000. He wanted a million dollars,” says Streisand. “Larry held out for the money. I didn’t. Why not advance your cause? Why keep this movie unseen for all these years?” Kramer claims he never heard about such an offer and says Streisand repeatedly abandoned the project to work on other movies.
Even after the rights to the play reverted back to Kramer in the mid-nineties, Streisand says she never stopped supporting the project. Then, last year, Kramer posted a missive on the website of AIDS-awareness organization ACT UP, calling Streisand a “hypocrite” for failing to make The Normal Heart. “When he printed that diatribe on the web, I was very hurt by it, because it’s not true. I started to write [a response] but then decided not to do it,” says Streisand. “It was wonderful to read some of the comments from the gay community about this. They fought the battle for me. It was really lovely for all these people to come to my defense.”
Streisand says she was most upset by Kramer’s accusation that she had sabotaged the fight for gay rights. “At a time when we are all pulling together to achieve such giant steps for gay equality, it is anguishing to me to have my devotion to this cause so distorted. I think my efforts for the gay community and my immersion in securing its constitutional entitlement and other equitable rights is quite evident and a matter of record.”
On that point, at least, the two agree. “She’s a mighty force, and I certainly agree she has done a good deal for the gay world,” says Kramer. “She just wasn’t going to make this movie right.”
But there’s still hope for fans who dreamed of seeing Streisand in a movie version of The Normal Heart. The Oscar winner says she would consider playing Brookner in Glee creator Ryan Murphy’s planned adaptation starring Mark Ruffalo, although it would be difficult for her to let go of her creative vision for the movie. “If I could direct it today, I would direct it today,” Streisand says. “Because it’s been very hard for me to find a piece that I feel as passionate about. I mean, I love this play.”
Film legend Barbra Streisand and gay activist Larry Kramer would both like to set the record straight about their failed attempt to bring The Normal Heart — Kramer’s 1985 play about the dawn of the AIDS epidemic — to the big screen. The problem is, each of them says it’s the other’s fault. In an exclusive interview with EW, Streisand calls Kramer “brilliant, courageous, stubborn, and self-destructive.” The writer’s response? “She never put her money where her mouth is.”
“I love this play, and I love its cause,” says Streisand, who first purchased the film rights to The Normal Heart after seeing its original Off Broadway incarnation in 1985. (A Tony-nominated revival is currently running at Broadway’s John Golden Theatre.) Over the next ten years, she worked with Kramer and another screenwriter to adapt the story, which focuses on the struggles of writer Ned Weeks (Kramer’s literary alter ego) during the early days of the AIDS crisis in NYC. Streisand intended to direct the film and take the part of strong-willed Dr. Emma Brookner, a supporting role in the play.
But a movie never materialized. According to Streisand, Kramer was unwilling to allow adjustments that were necessary to make the script more cinematic. “I was using the best of [the play]. But there are certain things you do for film,” she tells EW. “Larry only wanted to use his screenplay. I couldn’t have my hands tied artistically.”
Kramer has another version of the story. He says Streisand rewrote the script to make her character the star, marginalizing the gay characters who are at the center of the play. “She cut Ned’s part so much that when she offered the movie to a major star who had played the part on stage, he said, ‘I can’t play this. The character has no motivation anymore,’” claims Kramer. “She subsumed all of the motivations into her part, as the doctor.” (A rep for Streisand did not immediately reply to request for comment on Kramer’s remarks.)
Streisand also says Kramer rejected a deal from HBO to turn the play into a TV project after major studios balked at its subject matter. “Larry wouldn’t accept their highest offer of $250,000. He wanted a million dollars,” says Streisand. “Larry held out for the money. I didn’t. Why not advance your cause? Why keep this movie unseen for all these years?” Kramer claims he never heard about such an offer and says Streisand repeatedly abandoned the project to work on other movies.
Even after the rights to the play reverted back to Kramer in the mid-nineties, Streisand says she never stopped supporting the project. Then, last year, Kramer posted a missive on the website of AIDS-awareness organization ACT UP, calling Streisand a “hypocrite” for failing to make The Normal Heart. “When he printed that diatribe on the web, I was very hurt by it, because it’s not true. I started to write [a response] but then decided not to do it,” says Streisand. “It was wonderful to read some of the comments from the gay community about this. They fought the battle for me. It was really lovely for all these people to come to my defense.”
Streisand says she was most upset by Kramer’s accusation that she had sabotaged the fight for gay rights. “At a time when we are all pulling together to achieve such giant steps for gay equality, it is anguishing to me to have my devotion to this cause so distorted. I think my efforts for the gay community and my immersion in securing its constitutional entitlement and other equitable rights is quite evident and a matter of record.”
On that point, at least, the two agree. “She’s a mighty force, and I certainly agree she has done a good deal for the gay world,” says Kramer. “She just wasn’t going to make this movie right.”
But there’s still hope for fans who dreamed of seeing Streisand in a movie version of The Normal Heart. The Oscar winner says she would consider playing Brookner in Glee creator Ryan Murphy’s planned adaptation starring Mark Ruffalo, although it would be difficult for her to let go of her creative vision for the movie. “If I could direct it today, I would direct it today,” Streisand says. “Because it’s been very hard for me to find a piece that I feel as passionate about. I mean, I love this play.”
Barbra Streisand Mentor Arthur Laurents Dies at 93
By Allison Waldman - Examiner.com
Arthur Laurents was a man of enormous talent, the writer of "Gypsy," "West Side Story" and "The Way We Were," he was also a theater director and one of his claims to fame was directing Barbra Streisand in "I Can Get It For You Wholesale." Today, May 6, Arthur Laurents died at the age of 93. He'd lived a rich life and even in these last months of his life, he was intimately involved in a proposed film version of "Gypsy" that would star Streisand.
There are many obituaries about Laurents being published today and there will be tributes to the man who left behind a legacy of amazing work. In addition to the aforementioned works, he also directed the Broadway version of "La Cage Aux Folles" in 1983, wrote the Alfred Hitchcock film "Rope," and penned the screenplay of "The Turning Point." There seemed to be nothing much that Laurents couldn't do if he set his mind to it.
Arthur Laurents' life was interwoven with Barbra Streisand's in many ways, not the least of which was his first spotting her talent in "I Can Get It For You Wholesale." It was at that juncture in Streisand's career when her vast talent and ambition were yet harnessed by her or anyone else. She was a brilliant, but undisciplined performer. Working in a Broadway musical, under Laurents' direction, Streisand learned. It was a contentious collaboration and the two butted heads. However, both got what they wanted from "Wholesale." Streisand catapulted to instant fame by stopping the show every night of the run. Laurents got a star turn that held together a ramshackled musical that would have closed in a week if not for Streisand's "Miss Marmelstein" solo.
Whether they clashed professionally, it didn't matter when all was said and done. "Wholesale" succeeded in buliding a friendship between Barbra and Arthur, one that would last decades. Laurents had taught Barbra many things in "Wholesale," things she would later use when she became a director herself. And Laurents saw in Barbra a once in a lifetime performer. He knew he wanted to work with her again, and he made it happen.
Laurents wrote "The Way We Were" for Barbra Streisand. The character of Katie Morosky was based on a woman he'd known in college -- a woman ironically named Fanny Price -- but she was pure Streisand. Laurents had captured Barbra's soul with that character. When Barbra received the 50-page treatment he'd written, she knew instantly that she had to play Katie…and so she did.
"The Way We Were" wasn't all Arthur Laurents had wanted it to be, and he loudly complained that Barbra and director Sydney Pollack and producer Ray Stark had mucked it up. His vision was less glamourous. He wanted more politics and less love story. Whatever his regrets, though, Laurents could not deny the film's success. Nearly 38 years after it arrived in movie theaters, "The Way We Were" remains one of the greatest romantic movies of all time. In the dozens of biographies of Laurents that have been published today, "The Way We Were" is as much a part of his legacy as "West Side Story" and "Gypsy."
Currently, Barbra has just begun filming "My Mother's Curse," a comedy in which she'll play Seth Rogen's mother. It'll be in theaters next spring, and perhaps after that, Barbra's interpretation of "Gypsy" will be filming or in post-production. Maybe yes, maybe no. Hopefully it will be yes. And if it is, I look forward to seeing it and watching for the film's dedication which should and -- in my opinion -- must be to Arthur Laurents.
Arthur Laurents was a man of enormous talent, the writer of "Gypsy," "West Side Story" and "The Way We Were," he was also a theater director and one of his claims to fame was directing Barbra Streisand in "I Can Get It For You Wholesale." Today, May 6, Arthur Laurents died at the age of 93. He'd lived a rich life and even in these last months of his life, he was intimately involved in a proposed film version of "Gypsy" that would star Streisand.
There are many obituaries about Laurents being published today and there will be tributes to the man who left behind a legacy of amazing work. In addition to the aforementioned works, he also directed the Broadway version of "La Cage Aux Folles" in 1983, wrote the Alfred Hitchcock film "Rope," and penned the screenplay of "The Turning Point." There seemed to be nothing much that Laurents couldn't do if he set his mind to it.
Arthur Laurents' life was interwoven with Barbra Streisand's in many ways, not the least of which was his first spotting her talent in "I Can Get It For You Wholesale." It was at that juncture in Streisand's career when her vast talent and ambition were yet harnessed by her or anyone else. She was a brilliant, but undisciplined performer. Working in a Broadway musical, under Laurents' direction, Streisand learned. It was a contentious collaboration and the two butted heads. However, both got what they wanted from "Wholesale." Streisand catapulted to instant fame by stopping the show every night of the run. Laurents got a star turn that held together a ramshackled musical that would have closed in a week if not for Streisand's "Miss Marmelstein" solo.
Whether they clashed professionally, it didn't matter when all was said and done. "Wholesale" succeeded in buliding a friendship between Barbra and Arthur, one that would last decades. Laurents had taught Barbra many things in "Wholesale," things she would later use when she became a director herself. And Laurents saw in Barbra a once in a lifetime performer. He knew he wanted to work with her again, and he made it happen.
Laurents wrote "The Way We Were" for Barbra Streisand. The character of Katie Morosky was based on a woman he'd known in college -- a woman ironically named Fanny Price -- but she was pure Streisand. Laurents had captured Barbra's soul with that character. When Barbra received the 50-page treatment he'd written, she knew instantly that she had to play Katie…and so she did.
"The Way We Were" wasn't all Arthur Laurents had wanted it to be, and he loudly complained that Barbra and director Sydney Pollack and producer Ray Stark had mucked it up. His vision was less glamourous. He wanted more politics and less love story. Whatever his regrets, though, Laurents could not deny the film's success. Nearly 38 years after it arrived in movie theaters, "The Way We Were" remains one of the greatest romantic movies of all time. In the dozens of biographies of Laurents that have been published today, "The Way We Were" is as much a part of his legacy as "West Side Story" and "Gypsy."
Currently, Barbra has just begun filming "My Mother's Curse," a comedy in which she'll play Seth Rogen's mother. It'll be in theaters next spring, and perhaps after that, Barbra's interpretation of "Gypsy" will be filming or in post-production. Maybe yes, maybe no. Hopefully it will be yes. And if it is, I look forward to seeing it and watching for the film's dedication which should and -- in my opinion -- must be to Arthur Laurents.
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