WashPost

Babs, Beware the Bogus Bard!

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By a Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, October 2, 2002; Page C03

Democratic strategist Barbra Streisand last week faxed a typo-ridden memo to House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt -- spelled "Gebhardt" -- that accused President Bush of using Iraq for craven politics and exhorted Democrats to "get on the offensive."

Now she's embroiled in an embarrassing new flap.

Yesterday cybergossip Matt Drudge revealed that a purported William Shakespeare quote that Streisand recited at Sunday's $6 million Democratic fundraiser in Hollywood is a hoax. Streisand promptly acknowledged her mistake and her publicist, Dick Guttman, said she would correct the error on her Web site, BarbraStreisand.com. In a "truth alert" posted there Monday night, Streisand blamed "a new employee" for the misspelled memo and added "the ironic further truth" that "Barbra Streisand is a former spelling bee champion, meticulous in her written communications!"

At Sunday's Kodak Theatre concert, Streisand told the crowd: "You know, really good artists have a way of being relevant in their time -- but great artists are relevant at any time. So, in the words of William Shakespeare, 'Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. . . . The citizenry, infused with fear and blinded with patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader, and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.' "

Drudge wrote that "no record of this quote has been found prior to its appearance on the Internet (in e-mails) last year." And Streisand said through her publicist: "It was just called to my attention, but it doesn't detract from the fact that it is powerful and true and beautifully written. Whoever wrote it is damn talented. I hope he's writing his own play."

Unfortunately, Georgetown University English professor Lindsay Kaplan, a Shakespeare scholar, can't begin to understand how the diva was fooled. "First of all, words like 'patriotism' and 'citizenry' were not even in use when Shakespeare was alive," she told us. "Beyond that, it's just a very clumsy piece of writing."

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2002