INTRODUCTION

HER STORY

QUOTES

In 1968 she performed in Central Park to 128,000 people, leading to a CBS special called A Happening in Central Park. During this concert she forgot the lyrics to a couple of her songs, which started her long-time fear of performing live.

She donated her five-home 24-acre Malibu estate to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

The Streisand Foundation has directed $10 million towards equality for women, civil rights, and the environment.

Her reluctance to discuss her private life (she's never written an autobiography) has led to a dozen unauthorized biographies, plus there are several magazines devoted to her, including one called Just Like Buttah.

Originally wanted Marlon Brando or Elvis Presley to star opposite her in the 1976 remake of A Star Is Born. The role was eventually offered to Kris Kristofferson.

The Egyptian press denounced Omar Sharif for playing Nick Arnstein, the Jewish husband of Fanny Brice in 1968's highest-grossing film, Funny Girl.

Legend has it that her 1970 star vehicle The Owl and the Pussycat was first released with a topless shot of the actress. When Streisand heard about the revealing scene, she had all prints of the film pulled and re-cut.

Requires peach-colored towels and toilet paper in her hotel room because it matches her peachy complexion.

When she was staying at the MGM in Las Vegas for her last concert, she made all the hotel workers enter and leave her room backwards. No one was allowed to look at her.

She changed the spelling of her first name - from Barbara to Barbra - for her nightclub debut in a talent contest; she won.

Her habit of demanding a discount for her purchases is legendary, as is her sense of investment value: A Tiffany lamp she purchased for $45,000 was later sold at auction for $1.2 million.

The salary and contractual agreements she received for her second movie, Hello, Dolly!, made her the highest-paid performer in films at the time.

In adolescence, she had a crush on classmate Bobby Fischer, who was already an internationally ranked chess player; he did not reciprocate her feelings.

She favours monochromatic design to the extent that her family snapshots are printed in black and white.

Has become the 2nd singer in history to win 40 gold record albums. Her closest female contender is Reba McEntire with 19. Elvis Presley remains the King, with a total of 62 gold albums. The Beatles are a disc behind Streisand with 39.

Started online share trading early last year, after a doctor friend told her about the impotence drug, Viagra. She bought Pfizer stock at $ 89 and became hooked when the price quickly shot up to $ 120.

John Travolta may be making a surprise guest appearance at her special 1999 New Year's Eve concert in Las Vegas. Streisand is reported to be being paid $ 10m for the event.

A helicopter pilot who buzzed her wedding to actor James Brolin has been sentenced to two years' probation for disturbing the peace. 

Is developing a movie based on the lives of Yassir Arafat and the assassinated Israeli Prime Minister, Yatzhak Rabin.  The TV movie will be titled Two Hands That Shook The World.

Is planning to flog her glass-fronted cabinets by Gustav Stickley for up to $ 60,000 each at Christie's.

At the 1975 screening of Funny Girl she asked Queen Elizabeth II why women were required to wear gloves to meet her and not men.

She is the only artist ever to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Peabody, and Golden Globe.  She also received a special Tony.