Tales of The Knitting Lady
One thing which can be said after reading Christopher Andersen's Barbra - The Way She Is is that the definitive "tell-all" Streisand biography has yet to be written.  That daunting task, it becomes increasingly apparent, must be left for Barbra herself to pen. Much has been ballyhooed about this latest Streisand tome, but truth be told, a lot of what Andersen says has been written before.

His book has a sensationalistic flair to it, and though the author's oft negative tone towards his subject is distracting, I found this latest bio to be an interesting Streisand life-and-career recap. Glance at Andersen's bibliography and you'll know that you're in for a comfortably familiar Nick-at-Nite rerun.

But the fun of reading any book about Barbra is trying to unearth something new. So, as I breezed through Andersen's universally known tales of Barbra's days in Brooklyn, her rise to prominence on the New York nightclub circuit, her conquest of Broadway and Hollywood, and her political activism, I found that Andersen actually offered a few new suppositions. If you choose to go along with him, you'll learn that:

• Barbra had a rather prophetic encounter with Fanny Brice's third husband, Billy Rose. It happened when they met at the cast party for "Funny Girl" in 1964. Some eleven years later, of course, Barbra would reprise her role as Fanny Brice in "Funny Lady," playing opposite James Caan as Fanny Brice's brash impresario husband.
   

• Barbra had actually crafted three separate versions of her stage performance in "Funny Girl," and depending on how she felt on any given evening, she might render an abridged version of her portrayal for unsuspecting audiences. 
   

• Barbra's beloved dog, Sadie was not a birthday present from the cast of "Funny Girl," as was commonly thought. In fact, no one in the cast felt compelled to buy her a gift of any sort. Sadie was presented to Barbra by the owner of the restaurant where the birthday party was held.
   

• Barbra was so disenchanted with "What's Up, Doc?" that she sold her 10% stake in the film's box office back to Warner Brothers before the movie opened, a miscalculation apparently costing Barbra a $7 million windfall.
   

• Warren Beatty had to actually coerce Barbra into performing at the McGovern concert in 1972, promising her that he would costar in "The Way We Were" if she'd sing at the benefit.
   

• President Clinton considered offering Barbra a position as the country's ambassador to Israel.

As for Barbra's romantic life? Well, Andresen relates a lot of third party information through jaundiced eye. We should rely on Barbra to eventually tell the story in proper context if she so chooses. Any other version will always be of questionable credibility at best.

Though minor, the discerning reader will also notice a few factual mistakes in the book:

• President Gerald Ford did not attend Barbra's actual concert performance during the "Funny Girl to Funny Lady" broadcast. (Barbra met the president prior to the event).
   
• Barbra did not attend Andre Agassi's matches at the old tennis center in Forest Hills, New York. (She saw Agassi play in the US Open at Louis Armstrong Stadium in Flushing, New York).
   
• The New York Post headline of January 26, 1993 did not read "Sen. Yentl Flip Flops" (it said, simply, "Senator Yentl").
   
• Barbra's character in "The Mirror Has Two Faces" is erroneously described as "an academic who...has cosmetic surgery." (Barbra's character simply lost weight and began using cosmetics).
   
• And perhaps most egregiously, Andersen refers to the title of Barbra's signature ballad from "Yentl" as "Father, Can You Hear Me?"

So, without offering a rousing endorsement of Barbra The Way She Is, I can tell you that it does serve as a good primer; it provides a decent chronology of the well known story of Barbra's rise to stardom and is sprinkled here and there with nuggets of interesting speculation. Essentially, though, most of the stories contained in this particular biography have been recounted many times before.

I just hope that if Barbra's old neighbor from Brooklyn is still around, she receives a royalty check every time someone tells the Tired Old Tale of the Knitting Lady.