Word: streisands
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Honk if you weren't asked to advise Barbra Streisand on her speech at Harvard last Friday. That was the joke among political pundits and media types as Streisand shopped her address, titled ``The Artist as Citizen,'' around to those who might help her in her quest to be taken seriously in front of 750 students and invited guests at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. To give an idea of just how much effort went into this event, says one of her advisers (who reportedly included ABC's Peter Jennings and the Los Angeles Times' Robert Scheer), consider...
...Streisand has been briefed on health care, had dinner with Attorney General Janet Reno and got to use the phone to return calls from the President's study next to the Oval Office. But it's hard to take someone seriously when she can belt out Memory from Cats. Someone has to answer for all that liberal silliness--Jessica Lange testifying on farm policy after starring in Country or Meryl Streep testifying that traces of the pesticide Alar could be harmful to apple juice-swilling children. Her wealth, high visibility and long fingernails make her a much more attractive target...
...only real excuse that one, even the diving one, might proffer on such an occasion is preoccupation. Has God been so backed up by other important business? Sure, the Streisand lecture must have absorbed much of his attention, not to mention the O.J. Simpson trial. (Court-TV is, of course, universal.) Really, is it such a demanding time commitment to drop a few flurries? Condensation we know just isn't that arduous...
...valid as Streisand's social contributions have been, the IOP was not the place for her to extol them. It's not Las Vegas, where her concert sold out last summer at $350 a head...
...name to add to its honor roll of former guests, which includes Bill Clinton, Jack Kemp, Ann Richards, Nobel Winner Rigoberta Menchu and yes, even Newt Gingrich Now they can pencil in Barbra Streisand. Unfortunately, she's rain on the IOP's parade of consistent cutting-edge political relevance...