- Barbra Streisand, All Night Long, 1981.
The movie was written for Gene Hackman, so he told me all about it… “In the first three weeks, Universal decided Lisa wasn’t right. [Wry laugh]. It wasn’t working too well, but no big fights. Lisa was out, Barbra was in [for $4.5m. and points for 27 days work]. And she was afraid of it. She wasn’t the producer, as usual. Then, they replaced the boy playing my son. Then, they replaced the cameraman. [Wince]. One particular scene, I shot four times. With Lisa, with Barbra, with the boy… I’d have given anything to have been replaced! Then, we had the actors’ strike and were off for two months. [Chuckle]. Came back, worked two more weeks and it was over.” Film was directed by Jean-Claude Tramont, Belgian husband of Stresiand’s legendary ICM agent Sue Mengers (she also repped Candice Bergen, Michael Caine, Faye Dunaway, Ali McGraw, Steve McQueen, Burt Reynolds, Cybill Shepherd, Gore Vidal, Tuesday Weld., etc ). When first seeing Streisand off-Broadway, Sue said: “It sure takes a lot of balls for a mieskayt like that to get up in front of people and perform.” Mengers got her $4m for the film and Barbra refused to pay any commission: “I’m doing her a favour.” After the Night premiere, Streisand switched to William Morris,l eaving it to her lawyers to tell Mengers.. The Hollywood decade’s most famous friendship was over. - Shelley Long, Cheers, TV, 1982-1987. NBC tried matching scores of potential twosomes for Sam and Diane. The final six were Eichhorn and William Devane, Julia Duffy and Fred Dryer – no match for the ace chemistry of Long and Ted Danson. Long quit the hit show early. For two reasons, take your pic… 1. She was “difficult” on-set and fired. 2. She’d had enough after 124 episodes and decided to move on. (Her replacement, Kirstie Alley as Rebecca, survived longer, 149 episodes…
- Brigitte Fossey, Enigma, 1983. Pregnant.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 3