Going to a bar mitzvah where Barbra Streisand performs honestly sounds like a dream — unless you somehow ended up getting on the wrong side of the EGOT winner. Then the experience is probably pretty terrifying. And that’s exactly what happened to “Saturday Night Live” cast member Laraine Newman.
Newman, one of the original cast members of SNL — which this weekend celebrates its 50th anniversary with an exciting live special — told a wild story on a recent episode of Andy Cohen’s “Watch What Happens Live.” Newman was at her friend’s son’s bar mitzvah, to which Streisand was also invited and even sang at. When the “A Star Is Born” actress spotted Newman in the crowd, she told the comedian: “I want to talk to you.” Newman did the only logical thing when faced with a confrontation with the one and only Babs — she bolted.
Newman, the Jewish mother of actors and comedians Spike Einbinder (“Los Espookys”) and Hannah Einbinder (“Hacks”), knew what Streisand wanted to talk to her about: a 1977 sketch in which Newman, impersonating Streisand, sang a song called “Me,” written by SNL writer Marylin Miller. The song was part of the show’s second season, episode 12 to be exact, which aired on January 22, 1977, just a month after “A Star Is Born,” directed by Frank Pierson and starring Barbra Streisand, became the second biggest box office hit of 1976. In the number, Newman’s hair (or is it a wig??) is styled to look like that dense mop of curly hair Streisand donned while playing Esther Hoffman in the film and she wears a sparkly gold dress. She sings, “I’ll admit the film was weak in places,” specifically when it focused on anyone other than Babs’ face, she adds, but that “even if my movies suck, they still make 4 million bucks.” She laments that she wasn’t in “Lady Sing the Blues,” singing, “cos nobody would listen when I said just make it Jews — for me.” (Major oy, but also, not a bad rhyme for Jews.)
“You can rain on my parade but not on me” and “the best things in life are me” are other choice lyrics from this honestly quite brilliant but even now shockingly vicious parody song — a condensed Barbra Streisand musical roast, if you will (though my personal favorite lyric is a wonderfully nonsensical moment when Newman spells out me as “m-e-e”).
You can perhaps understand why Newman was inclined to make a run for it when confronted by Babs. I can’t see myself making any other choice in her shoes, and if I were there that night, I definitely would have helped facilitate that escape.
@bravowwhl Laraine Newman ran from Barbra Streisand when she tried to confront her about her #SNL impersonation #WWHL
Rewatching the sketch is a wonderful reminder of just how brilliant Newman, whose iconic voice is now part of my kids’ childhood in movies like “Dog Man” and the “Despicable Me” franchise, was in those early seasons of SNL, and her historical place in comedy lore. She was the first to bring a “valley girl” stereotype to pop culture, bringing in her California Jewish identity to play Sherry the Valleygirl. She was brilliant as Connie Conehead, opposite Dan Akroyd; as Christie Christina; as a correspondent for Chevy Chase’s “Weekend Update;” and as an objectifying woman in a hard hat in the sketch that was featured in the recent movie based on the show’s origins, “Saturday Night.” She was also often in great sketches opposite the only other Jewish member of that original cast, Gilda Radner, like one about a hilarious preteen slumber party and in this still very relevant ad for a mysterious feminine product.
Newman shared with Cohen that of the entire cast, she was closest to Radner, who passed away in 1989. In her memoir, Newman writes about the last time she saw her friend, at her 36th birthday party. Everyone knew Radner was sick and kept complimenting her about how great she looked, and Laraine joked with the fellow comedian that, “Yeah, just what I want to hear on my birthday, how great you look,” which made Radner laugh. In the book, Newman recalls not believing that Gilda wouldn’t survive her cancer: “I always think that the person I care about is going to beat the odds. I didn’t think that would be the last time I saw her.”
When Cohen asked Newman what Radner would have thought about SNL reaching such a big milestone this year, she replied, “I just wish she could be here for all of this. It would make it a whole different experience.”
