I'd read a rumor last week that Streisand would pay tribute to Redford at this year's Oscars, but I dismissed it as just that. My girl Babs is a perfectionist, and a live performance in front of a worldwide audience just doesn't seem like her jam. Besides, at 84 (next month), she doesn't perform anymore.
But there she was last night. Onstage, reminiscing about her most indelible leading man. (He seems to have been the first one to call her "Babs," at least to her face.) And then she sang the last chorus of "The Way We Were." Katie said farewell to Hubbell one last time. Yeah, I cried. Of course I cried.
This came after a tribute to Rob Reiner. First Billy Crystal spoke about his best friend, then the casts of his most famous films wordlessly stood together onstage. (This one was really fraught since we all know – from police reports – that the last place Rob Reiner and his wife ever visited was the home of Oscar host Conan O'Brien.)
Then the tribute to Diane Keaton. Her Family Stone co-star Rachel McAdam shared that, on set, Keaton would sing The Girl Scout Friendship Song. ("Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold. A circle is round, it has no end, that's how long I'll be your friend.") How very sweet and authentic!
Redford was 89. Keaton was 79. Reiner was 78. They were a huge part of my movie going, and since movies are a big part of my life, they mattered to me. While Redford hit me hardest personally, he died peacefully at home in his sleep. I wish we could say the same of the other two.
Anyway, last night's Oscar In Memoriam segment was beautiful and, for me, cathartic.
PS When she first came out, the piano was too loud and we had a hard time hearing Babs over it. I am sure she demanded a complete accounting of how that happened. And I wouldn't have her any other way.
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