Barbra Streisand Tells Stephen Colbert About Her Unconventional First Date With Future Husband James Brolin: “Who F***ed Up Your Hair?”

Monday night’s episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert featured a very special interview between host Stephen Colbert and EGOT-winning superstar Barbra Streisand. Colbert traveled to Streisand’s Malibu home to discuss her new 900+ page memoir, My Name Is Barbra, and ended up chatting about everything from Taurus traits to barbecue sauce.

Colbert began by thanking the icon for welcoming him into her home, adding “I know you don’t do these interviews very often and this is an honor for me.”

The two quickly got into how Streisand’s memoir has been a long time in the making. She began writing My Name Is Barbra in 2014, but former American First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis asked Streisand to start a book as early as 1984. It wasn’t until the performer attempted to do a film remake of the classic musical Gypsy (which ultimately did not come to fruition) in the early 2010s that she felt it resonated enough to make her want to share her own life story.

“I understood the story from a very personal point of view because it was about a jealous mother who was jealous of her daughter, which I talk about in my book, and came to the understanding I understood her at the end of this book, which is 992 pages.”

Streisand said she stopped at the 992 page mark because she ran out of stories, some of which were not so easy to tell, but nevertheless necessary so that they could be shared in her own words.

“You have to understand, I stopped giving interviews to the press because they got so much wrong,” she spoke of past interviewers misinterpreting her words and misrepresenting her stories. “I like to be truthful. I’m a Taurus,” she said, which Colbert quickly echoed. The two then bonded over their shared Zodiac sign by linking hands to do “the Taurus lock.”

The second part of the interview saw the pair dig even deeper, as Colbert asked Streisand about the latter’s difficult with self-identifying as a movie star and accepting compliments.

“The psyche of a performer is quite complex, I think,” Streisand mused. “I mean, I know if my father had lived, I probably would never have had the desire to become an actress and play other people in roles, become someone else. I would probably have been more satisfied with myself.”

Colbert then probed a bit further, leading Streisand to vulnerably share, “I guess I was looking to play people that would take me out of the feeling of not being enough, or something. Characters were more interesting, I thought, than I was.”

Streisand went on to express that fame isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, sharing an anecdote of how an instance of misplaced rose petals led to a rumor that Streisand insists on having petals in every toilet she uses. Colbert then segued to talking about Streisand’s relationship with her husband, actor James Brolin, to whom she has been married since 1998.

The two performers were set up on a blind date through a friend, but upon arriving to the agreed spot, Streisand didn’t even recognize Brolin.

“I go there and I see a man standing across the room, and ‘Is that him? Where’s the hair?'” The actor’s a buzzcut and clean-shaven look threw Streisand for a loop, to the point where as they got close to one another, she touched his head and asked, “Who fucked up your hair?”

Luckily, that didn’t put Brolin off, and instead did quite the opposite, as he immediately fell for her blunt honesty. Brolin was straightforward in his own right, which Streisand marveled at as she recalled him saying on the first date, “I’m taking you home.” Even if his candor made her a bit nervous, Brolin’s move helped to kick-off a relationship that thrives to this day.

“We watch series and movies with the dogs,” Streisand shared of their current everyday married life. This led Colbert to ask about the star’s unique bond with her pets and the unique action that inspired her to take.

“Your dog Sammie was so special to you that you had her cloned. What is that like when you have a dog that looks just like your old dog? Is the behavior the same?”

“Let me say this,” Streisand answered, “They only look like Sammie, but you cannot clone a soul.”

All of this was only the beginning for Colbert and Streisand, as they delved into Mandy Patinkin’s misbehavior during Yentl, thoughts on President Joe Biden, and Donald Trump‘s potential reelection.

“I will move. I can’t live in this country if he became President,” Streisand said of Trump before taking on an even bigger topic in anti-semitism and fascism both in the U.S. and around the world.

“I hope for the best because this is heartbreaking what’s happening now with these people. The children, the mothers. It doesn’t matter what religion they are,” Streisand said. “This is beyond religion. This is insanity for us not to learn how to live together in peace.”

“Is part of your drive to create beautiful art related to the sadness you see in the world?” Colbert asked.

“I think so, I think that’s true” Streisand replied, “Art can teach.”

The final part of Colbert’s in-depth interview with Streisand tackled her book’s coverage of the various relationships with men throughout her life.

“Here’s another thing, I was not going to write about any of them, and my editor kept saying to me ‘You can’t not do this.’ Her phrase was, ‘You have to leave some blood on the page.'”

Streisand was protective of the more intimate details of her romantic history throughout her memoir, but Colbert used his interview as an opportunity to see if he could get her to kiss and tell about some past co-stars. Though the star was reluctant to share much in terms of detail, she at least gave favorable mostly non-verbal reviews to the smooching skills of Robert Redford and Jeff Bridges before good-naturedly refusing to play the rest of the game.

A pairing that Streisand was willing to entertain, however, was the possibility of a future duet between herself and Colbert. “You have a good sound,” she said to the late night host, who quickly returned the compliment before moving onto the final piece of the agenda… barbecue sauce.

“You missed a branding opportunity,” Colbert said as he presented Streisand with a bottle of “Sweet & Saucy Streisand BarBraQ Sauce.” Streisand was immediately visibly tickled. “That is hysterical,” she said before holding it up to the camera in an impromptu advertisement before Colbert wrapped things up. After an interview this in-depth, thoughtful, and entertaining, we’re sure that Streisand fans are feeling like the luckiest people in the world.