To the Editor of the Los Angeles Times
November 04, 2018, 7:03pm

It’s always upsetting when my words are taken out of context.

Here is the truth. When I started working on my 1976 movie, A Star is Born, I tried to get my friend Sydney Pollack to direct it. I hired Frank Pierson to rewrite the screenplay, but then he told me he wouldn’t do a second draft unless he also directed the film. And since Sydney was unavailable and we had to start shooting, I had to agree to that.

The writer’s implication that somehow I was trying to take away Frank’s credit as director at the end of the shoot is totally ridiculous. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The only person I took credit away from was myself. I gave away my producing credit and took a lesser credit that I buried in the crawl at the end of the film.

The story of the making of this movie is complex, and if you’re interested, you can read the 50-page chapter on it when I eventually publish my autobiography.

Sincerely,

Barbra Streisand

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