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Published May 20, 2015
Barbra to Be in 'Meet The Fockers?' | Jacko Custody Case Not Happening | W Mag
Barbra Streisand to Be in 'Meet the Fockers'?
Barbra Streisand is seriously considering becoming a Focker.
I am told that the actress-director-singer will likely say "yes" to an offer from the producers of "Meet the Parents" to play Ben Stiller's mother in the upcoming sequel, called "Meet the Fockers" (Stiller played the unfortunately-named Greg Focker in the original.)
Dustin Hoffman is already signed on as a Focker and will play Stiller's father. Robert De Niro and Blythe Danner will reprise their roles as Stiller's in-laws, with Teri Polo as his wife.
Maybe this will distract her from the political action this year in the presidential race.
Streisand's last film project was "The Mirror Has Two Faces," which was released in 1996. She has been mostly inactive in the film world, looking for projects she can direct. But Jay Roach, the director of "Meet the Parents" and the Austin Powers movies, will be calling the shots on this project.
Three screenwriters are credited with the "Meet the Fockers" script, but John Hamburg — the original writer of "Meet the Parents" — is not included. Hamburg wrote the current Stiller hit "Along Came Polly" and was the uncredited script doctor on the very "Parents"-like Miramax flop "Duplex."
If Streisand signs on the dotted line — and I'm told she will — producers De Niro and Jane Rosenthal will really have scored a coup. De Niro, Hoffman, and Streisand in one film promises a box-office bonanza, now matter how repetitive the script is from the first movie.
Streisand will give the group added zest. Many people have probably forgotten this, but her best work is in the comedy field. Just check out Peter Bogdanovich's underrated classic "What's Up Doc?" and see what I mean.
If Streisand can get away from backlighting and dreamy, self-conscious close ups and get back to her comic timing, she could very well quip her way back into a big movie career.
But one question: Doesn't this part suggest she will play a monstrous mother-in-law and cloying, over-powering mother? Isn't that the same sort of role Jennifer Lopez's people want Jane Fonda to play in "Monster-in-Law"? Just asking!
Jacko Custody Case? Not Happening
Don't believe a word of the stories coming out of the United Kingdom about Debbie Rowe suing Michael Jackson for custody of their kids.
I am told that this simply is not true. Rowe is said to have laughed heartily when she heard the British tabloid The Sun made up their latest fiction. Rowe will not be making a "row." She signed away her rights to Prince and Paris for millions years ago and is quite happy with her life as it is.
I have to say I was amused, too, considering The Sun simply stole the scoop from this column about Rowe being Jewish and consequently upset about the Nation of Islam guarding the kids.
But they're not the first to simply pick information from this site and re-purpose it for their own purposes. The New York Times's Sharon Waxman did the same thing earlier this week when she took our column from nearly a year ago — February 18, 2003 — and breathlessly reported it as if it were new!
I still haven't gotten over that. And the subject of her article, NBC, must have gotten a laugh about it, too.
The fact is that I have the memos NBC executives sent to Michael Jackson a year ago offering him millions for an interview. In exchange, they suggested they would kill their "Dateline" show about his plastic surgery. The offer was declined by Jackson, and "Dateline" aired the special.
Jackson, as it turned out, already had a deal with Fox Entertainment. This was at the same time that CBS's Ed Bradley went out to Neverland for a promised interview but didn't get it. Jackson's goods went to the highest bidder — Fox — instead.
Don't believe all the crazy stories you might have read this past week about who the Santa Barbara County District Attorney is questioning in the Jackson case, or who did what to whom. I will tell you in the coming week some real details about the hidden cast of characters in the Jackson case. Everything I've seen so far during my non-Jacko week has been off the mark — and I mean, waaaay off it!
Last night W magazine — the monthly fashion publication owned by Condé Nast division Fairchild — tossed out the first ball in the Golden Globe party weekend. It was not a hit.
Despite early warnings that the party was overbooked and the guest list "closed" for the soirée at the Pacific Design Center, crashers waltzed right through the front door with no trouble. (And no, I was not one of them, but I know who was!)
Inside, celebrities were in short supply, although "Sex and the City" star Kim Cattrall — a staple at New York events — was the big draw. According to my sources, there were a few minor TV stars and some models, but not much to write home about.
There was also no mention of famed fashion photographer Helmut Newton, who died in a car crash here in Los Angeles yesterday when he had a heart attack while driving out of the Chateau Marmont driveway.
The whole W party reminded me of the Blake Edwards movie "S.O.B.," in which a dead producer washes up on shore at the Malibu beach unnoticed by his "friends." After all, the Condé Nast motto is: "Next!"
Of course, the real action continues to be at the Four Seasons, where Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, held court last night. You might say the royal family is like a soap opera, so it was appropriate, too, that stars from CBS's nutty show "The Bold and the Beautiful" blew through the bar from an awards ceremony in the hotel!
Weight Watchers must really work, by the way. Ferguson is the thinnest she's ever been. In fact, she'd do well to have a mince pie or two before she vanishes into thin air!
https://www.foxnews.com/story/411-barbra-streisand-to-be-in-meet-the-fockers