Barbra Streisand Swears She Can't Remember If She Slept With Warren Beatty

Did you read My Name is Barbra, the 1000-page doorstop memoir of the iconic Barbra Streisand? I did, and it was a blast. One of the undisputed icons of 20th-century American pop culture had a lot of stories to tell about her long and illustrious career (and a lot of her favourite meals over the past several decades she really just had to talk about. Take a drink every time she discusses food.)

While the book is still cagey in the way most megastar memoirs are, the notoriously private Barbra did open up on a number of topics, from her childhood to her struggles to retain creative control to her futile years-long battle to direct The Normal Heart. She also delves into some of the great loves of her life, and hell yeah, Babs has done it with a succession of absolute hotties. Elliott Gould, Pierre Trudeau, Omar Sharif, Richard Gere, Andre Agassi, Liam Neeson, Don Johnson… she had her fun!

One of the greatest power moves in My Name is Barbra regards perhaps the most famous lothario in Hollywood history: Warren Beatty. Before settling down with Annette Bening, Beatty was linked to *deep breath* Julie Christie, Diane Keaton, Cher, Madonna, Isabelle Adjani, Joan Collins, Natalie Wood, Carly Simon, Goldie Hawn, Leslie Caron… According to one biography, Beatty had slept with 13,000 women, a claim he disputed, but the legend has stuck around. And according to Barbra, she can’t remember if she was one of those women. In the book, she says she truly doesn’t know, which, let’s be honest, reads like incredible shade towards Beatty. Oh, Hollywood’s biggest playboy? I might have. Can’t recall. I was busy.

In a recent interview with The New Yorker, Streisand reiterated that claim and said it was totally earnest.

But then, possibly the greatest line in the whole book, to my mind, is you say you can’t remember if you slept with Warren Beatty. Now, I don’t think anyone has ever written that line in the history of sex, or Hollywood, or anything.

I know I slept in the bed with him, but I can’t remember if we actually had penetration. I swear to God, I can’t. There are certain things I block out.

I didn’t think I would ever say this in my entire life, but it might be that I’m calling bullshit on Barbra Streisand. Is that possible?

You’re calling what?

I’m calling B.S. on that. You can’t remember?

No, that’s right. I can’t—

Well, I bet he remembers one way or another.

But I know we’re still friends. Every year on my birthday, he calls me and we have a wonderful talk about our lives, our children, and so forth. So we’re still friends. I met him when I was fifteen years old, and he was twenty-one, I think.

‘I can’t remember if we actually had penetration.’ See, this is why we need more divas in pop culture. Who else could get away with saying that?! I bet Beatty 100% remembers. Maybe he’s become too much of a gentleman in his old age to bring it up during those birthday chats. How do you casually bring that up in between chit-chat about your personal life?