HEAVEN AND EARTH CAN'T STOP A BARBRA PRODUCTION

Look at the dictionary under the term "harsh taskmaster" and, gender issues aside, you're likely to see a picture of Barbra Streisand there.

During filming of her movie "The Mirror Has Two Faces," residents of the New York area where shooting took place were miffed at the crew's continual night-time presence.

There was noise from generators and illumination from stage lights. One evening, some residents tried to get even by tossing raw eggs at the set.

In the face of this, Streisand kept her focus. And one night, as a strange glow began to affect the lighting of one scene, she demanded to know the reason. When told that, as it was 5:30 a.m., the glow might be the rising sun, Streisand issued a quick command.

"Well, do something about it!" she barked.

Loose Talk

Marg Helgenberger on why she doesn't get more acting jobs (in Entertainment Weekly: "The comment I get most often is 'Too old and too pretty.' And I'm thinking, So if I were younger and uglier I'd have more of a career?"

He'll celebrate with a little help from his friends

Joe Cocker turns 52 today.

Hey, that was just his Buddy Love side

Hey, folks, Eddie Murphy is sorry for being a gay-bashing youngster. Referring to a 1981 HBO special, Murphy released a statement stating that "I am not homophobic, and I am not anti-gay. I know that AIDS isn't funny.... I was 21... just a kid.... I think it is unfair to take the words of a misinformed 21-year-old and apply them to an informed 35-year-old man.... I deeply regret any pain all this has caused."

And we suppose Keith Moon grew up eating Chinese food

Soundgarden drummer Greg Eklund had an unusual musical start. "My grandmother knitted a scarf for me and I thought that that was so cool," Eklund told Request magazine. "She taught me how to knit after that, and the thing is, I first started playing drums with knitting needles."

He spends a lot of time staring out his Windows 95

One credible writer loves his computer. "Since the first chapter of `Love in the Time of Cholera,"' says Nobel Prize laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez. "Before then, my average was one book every seven years. Since I switched to a computer, it's been one every three years. And I'm much less physically tired. I destroyed my back sitting in front of a typewriter from 8 a.m. until 2 or 3 in the afternoon."

Many an adolescent boy will tell you the same thing

For her role as Marilyn Monroe in the HBO movie "Norma Jean and Marilyn," Oscar-winner Mira Sorvino said that wearing one of Monroe's own dresses "cemented the part" for her. "It was a religious experience," she told Entertainment Weekly.

That's true: Those who could have are dead

And lest we forget: This is O.J. Simpson speaking to British television talk-show hosts Richard Madely and Judy Finnigan: "Not one person has ever said they saw me become violent."

Copyright 1996 Cowles Publishing Company
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.