‘It was crazy, I felt I came from an immaculate conception, you know? Eventually in 1979 I went to my father's grave. I had never been before. I had my picture taken at the tombstone. At last I had a picture with my father. I always felt different from other girls on the block because I was the girl with no father. I wanted to have a father.'

With ‘Yentl' in 1983 -- Issac Singer's novel on which the film was based begins ‘After my father died ...' -- she became the first woman to produce, direct and star in a major movie. She says she felt a burden:' I thought:'' My God, if this doesn't succeed in some way, it will hurt a lot of women.'' But you don't go into making a movie for the results but the statement you want to make with it.It's really nice when it's successful but that's the icing on the cake.'

In ‘Yentl' her character's father is a teacher and scholar. She says the film allowed her to relive her childhood and exorcise the ghost of her father. In 1950 her mother married used car salesman Lou Kind who Streisand says did no live up to his name:' He was not a nice man.He never talked to me. He was mean to my mother.'

Five years after ‘Yentl' she starred in ‘Nuts' playing a high rent call girl who is charged with murdering one of her clients. Her mother and her stepfather, the problem, want her to plead insanity. It was a Streisand showcase but she says:'

‘It was about mystery of appearances. One's integrity is not necessarily judged by surface appearances. The mother and the father appeared as wonderful, loving parents -- on the surface. I had a miserable relationship with my stepfather.I was abused -- not sexually but emotionally. I don't think I had a conversation with this man. I don't think this man asked me how I was in seven years we lived together as a family. I didn't have my own bedroom. I slept in the living room.

‘When I was in ‘'Funny Girl'' (on Broadway) he finally came to see me. And that morning I woke up with a scratched cornea so I almost couldn't go on. But this was the day my stepfather was coming to see me in this play. So I had a doctor anaesthetise my eye so I could go on. And he sent me the only thing he ever sent me -- a basket of candies.'

She was 22 then. She was 45 when ‘Nuts' was released in 1987 and she threw out the box of candies:' I took a long time but I got rid of him. I find these films are kind of cathartic. One is given a chance to express certain feelings and they get easier. They get easier to live with.'

And with ‘The Mirror Has Two Faces' she said:' I have to identify closely with every role I play.This wasn't written for me. It's not about my life but mother never encouraged me and my father went to Columbia University Teachers' College and my mother never told me I was pretty so that kind of thing is very personal. It made me look into my innermost thoughts.'

The film was made on location during one of the stormiest winters in New York history. There were delays, difficulties. There were also many reports of discontent on the Streisand film set. During filming there were fifteen changes of personnel including Dudley Moore being replaced in the movie by George Segal.She admits that reports of her being a prima donna upset her but says that word that she wants control don't bother her:' I used to be embarrassed and defensive.

‘ ‘' Control? Whaddya mean control? ‘' Now I say:'' Are you kidding?'' Of course I want utter and complete control over every product I do. The audience buys my work because I do control it, because I am a perfectionist, because I care deeply.

‘Y'know no one says:'' Why isn't your doctor more of a perfefectionist?''

‘I still sell records. Why? Well, some of that has to be because of the care I put into recording.'

She says she is happy to have overcome her aversion to performing live. Her 1994 concert tour was a great success and more than $10 million of the money earned went to charities. Among other donations she gave her 24-acre Malibu compound to the Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy.

‘ I was frightened of performing live and my challenge was to overcome the fear. Before I did the concert tour I felt a lot of pressure about singing. I wanted to give back to my fans, people who had bought my records, and wanted to see me live. But I finally did something about it and I really appreciate my voice now. I didn't for many years.Somehow, I took it for granted.

‘You can't do that.'

Susan the hairdresser was hovering. Photographs were to be taken but Streisand had another point to make:' My film editor's daughter came to watch her father work in the dubbing one day. I'd heard she was in a play so I asked her if she really wanted to be an actress and she said she wasn't sure.

‘I said:'' Then don't try to be one.''

‘The one thing you have to have is passion for it and you can't have a choice.When you want to do this desperately it's like that's what you're here to do. You're put on this earth to be some sort of channel of expression. You don't have a choice.'

Of course, some do it better than others. Arguably America 's greatest film critic Pauline Kael's observation of Streisand is most appropriate in regard to the storyline of ‘The Mirror Has Two Faces'.

The total message of Streisand, she said, is that talent is beauty.

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