“She had everything, beauty, a magnificent voice. How sad her gifts could not bring her the same happiness they brought us.” — Barbra Streisand, February 12, 2012

Whitney Houston, 'One Voice' guest

Filmed September 6, 1986, and hosted by “up-and-comer” (sorta-kinda) Robin Williams, the concert was star-studded — but they were all star-struck to get to see Barbra. Even the Divine Ms. M, Bette Midler — who would later poke fun at Streisand’s concerts many years later — looked as happy as a school girl.

Guests include Barbara Walters, Whoopi Goldberg (long before ‘The View’ was even a twinkle in Walters’ eye), a very young Whitney Houston (the entire reason I’m uploading this), Goldie Hawn & Kurt Russell, Chevy Chase, Penny Marshall, Sheena Easton (‘member her?), Sydney Pollack, Jack Nicholson (who had a bit part in Streisand’s ‘On A Clear Day You Can See Forever’) and many more…

They were all so young back then…

Related: Whitney rockin’ out to Madonna during the half-time show at the Superbowl.

The Rosie Show is in re-runs….err…”encore perfomrances”….that’s what they call them now, right? So while Rosie goes boating or tries to get into P. Diddy’s party wearing sweat pants, she thought you’d like to take a quick look back at a fun moment in time on The Rosie Show.

I was first introduced to Cole Porter’s timeless, incredibly written song — You’re The Top — as a child, when Barbra Streisand sang it in the movie What’s Up, Doc? The Babs version is still my fav, but this is fun too. (Plus, Ryan O’Neal sings…uhm, sort of.)

* You’re cellophane.

The title of Peggy Pope’s memoir, atta girl: Tales from a Life in the Trenches of Show Business, comes from the movie for which Pope is best known: 1980’s Nine to Five.

In that classic comedy, the actress played Margaret Foster, the office lush who quietly and repeatedly encourages the budding feminism of the beleaguered office workers played by Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton.

Between sips from her flask, Margaret cheers the trio on with rousing cries of “Atta girl!” In the film’s closing scenes, Margaret has sobered up, thanks in part to the workplace innovations that the Fonda/Tomlin/Parton team has put in place.

In the book, published last year by iUniverse, Pope describes her childhood in New Jersey; her years finding her footing as a stage actress in New York City in the late 1950s and early 1960s; and her later stint working in California, where she guested on dozens of TV shows: from Bewitched and Rhoda to St. Elsewhere, Barney Miller, and The Golden Girls.

Elizabeth Montgomery & Peggy Pope: 'Bewitched' Season 4, Episode 26 'Playmates'

On a shivery February afternoon, I met the actress in a café near her Upper West Side apartment in Manhattan. She talked at length, both about her career and about the writing of atta girl.

Peggy Pope’s memoir, 'atta girl' -- Click to buy via Amazon.com

The book is actually a series of brief, snapshot-like stories that Pope set down over a period of years. Eventually she arranged them in a more-or-less chronological order. She took the project seriously–studying with a number of writing teachers along the way, both in and out of New York City.

“It’s a good book for the subway or a train trip…” she says. “It’s a page turner: If you don’t like one page, you can turn it over to the next story.”

There’s something appropriate about Pope constructing economically rendered prose sketches from her life. After all, a character actor often works in miniature: building a fully believable character using only a few lines of dialogue and some smart but-quickly chosen gestures and line deliveries.

One of the models for her book was the late Frank McCourt’s autobiographical Teacher Man (2005). One day in a restaurant, Pope was introduced by a friend to McCourt himself. Normally, she says, she never gushes. But in this case, she couldn’t stop herself from being effusive.

“And he just rolled his eyes,” she remembers. “I apologized to my friend, who knew him…and she said, ‘Don’t worry about it. He was drunk.’”

Pope says that writing the book changed her. “I could feel my psyche movin’ around…” she says. “I think I got to be a better person, but it might be in my own mind…. It was like visiting myself.”

The early part of the book describes her childhood, focusing largely on her relationship with her father, whom she describes to me this afternoon as “eccentric” and “frightened.” Then the book moves to the bustling theatrical scene in New York, where young Pope would pound the pavement in high heels, auditioning for ingénue roles. She says that ingénues are pretty much extinct in 2012: “The world has changed. Everybody knows more—nobody’s naïve anymore.”

Pope landed sizeable roles in regional theatre during these early years of her career. She also studied with acclaimed, controversial acting teacher Lee Strasberg. In atta girl she describes leaving a Strasberg class and walking out into the street with fellow pupil Marilyn Monroe—already a star. She tells how Monroe lied to passers-by who stopped and asked if she was in fact Marilyn.

Recently, Pope saw a trailer for the film My Week with Marilyn. “I thought, ‘Oh, God. I don’t want to see that. That’s not her at all.’ She was soft. Available. I think damaged… That [the scene described in the book] is the only communication I ever had with her. She didn’t come in very often. But when she came in, oh, everybody came alive!… You just couldn’t do anything but look at her.”

Pope’s stage work in Manhattan included roles in Broadway revivals of Tennessee Williams’ “The Rose Tattoo” (1966) starring Maureen Stapleton and Mary Chase’s “Harvey” (1970) starring James Stewart (who had played the leading role in the 1950 film version).

She recalls that newcomer Christopher Walken acted with her in the Tattoo revival: “He was just getting started–very young, very serious. I thought it was very odd the way he would prepare to go onstage. He would pace in the basement and say his lines out loud, over and over and over again. And we were, of course, taught [in classes] that you never say your lines out loud. You never say them at all until you’re onstage…. He was very controlled about everything he did.”

As for the Harvey revival, Pope recalls that James Stewart kept a long-barreled gun in his dressing room and that she occasionally saw the weekly expense accounts he gave to his manager every Thursday night.

Usually, Stewart spent only a little over a dollar per diem. During the day, Pope explains, he was driven everywhere in a limo. He would go to a driving range and hit golf balls into the East River. Then the limo would bring him to the theatre in the evening, where mounted police protected him from crowds. Stewart seldom had to lay out money for anything, she says: “I don’t know what he spent the dollar a night on. Maybe he tipped somebody or something—or stopped for a soda.”

In 1968, Pope won an Obie award for her performance Off Broadway in John Guare’s play Muzeeka. But after a particularly inactive season, she left the East Coast for a 15-year stay in California. She signed with a very helpful agent there and began collecting TV credits.

Peggy Pope & James Coco in 'Calucci’s Department'

She landed recurring roles in two television series that didn’t make it: Calucci’s Department (1973) with James Coco, and Billy with Steve Guttenberg (1979). She feels that the former series, a comedy set in an unemployment office, was ahead of its time. Coco was an especially attentive acting partner. In one scene Pope’s character had to cry, and Pope felt she wasn’t managing it very well. “[Coco] refused to leave the set until I was satisfied. He kept saying ‘Are you sure? You liked that?’ He was such a nice man.”

The actress had better luck with a recurring part she booked in an established sitcom. She had a six-episode arc in Soap, playing the mother of the woman whom Billy Crystal’s gay character planned to marry. In atta girl, Pope writes of how impressed she was with young Crystal’s ease and confidence with his work, and with the showbiz scene in general.

“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” Season 1, Episode 16: “The Third Guy”

It was around this time that Pope was cast in ‘Nine to Five’.

She recalls that she and the other actors playing office workers were asked to bring something personal to place on their desks for the duration of the shoot. “Real Method stuff,” she says. She brought in a miniature telephone booth that she had come from London. When production was completed, all the items were held by the studio in case reshoots were needed at some later date. Pope and her cast mates never got their personal items back.

I ask whether Pope saw the Nine to Five musical play that Parton and screenwriter Patricia Resnick created for Broadway in 2009. She did—and she didn’t much care for it.

Peggy Pope as Margaret Foster in 'Nine to Five'

“They sort of put the movie onstage, and you can’t do that. You have to do more. There was nobody on the production that knew about transferring a movie to the stage…. I’m sorry it didn’t work out better. I loved the songs.”

The Nine to Five film, coupled with the large number of TV credits Pope had amassed, helped her book more auditions in the early 1980s. Another feature film she appeared in was 1981’s All Night Long, starring Gene Hackman and Barbra Streisand (playing a character seemingly modeled after Marilyn Monroe). Pope played a waitress meeting the Streisand character for the first time.

“I remember vividly,” she says of the late-night shoot when her bit with the two stars was filmed. As usual, the scene was shot from different angles to ensure coverage, and—because she was low actor on the totem pole—Pope’s close-ups were slated for last.

“Barbra Streisand just got up and left,” she recalls. “She didn’t say goodnight or nothin’.”

But Gene Hackman said, ‘Would you like me to stay? I can stay, you know.’”

Hackman indeed remained behind to feed lines to Pope from beside the camera. “I mean, it was midnight, and he’s carrying a movie…I thought it was very generous of him.”

In subsequent years, Pope acted opposite everyone from Mr. T to Cynthia Nixon to George Clooney. She appeared in television commercials, too, though she found the ad world to be “phoney.” She recalls that once, after shooting a Dove commercial, she was asked to flit around a room like a dove. She demurred.

She eventually returned to New York, where she feels much more at home. The way in which night would fall suddenly in Los Angeles, without a period of twilight, disturbed her. Plus, she adds, L.A. is a hard place to live alone. “People get nervous if you’re not a couple, and I don’t know why. That doesn’t happen here.”

Pope jokes that she’s not in demand as much these days because “Betty White has the whole field covered” in terms of roles for women in her age group.

That’s one reason she decided to turn to writing. She regrets that a remark she made in the epilogue of her book has been perceived by readers as meaning that she has retired from acting entirely. Though the assignments have tapered off, she is still very much available.

She plans to keep on writing, too. But she has no plans for further chapters of autobiography. “It’s hard to sit and write about your life,” she feels. “You get tired of yourself.” Instead she hopes to turn to fictional subject matter.

On the strength of the talent demonstrated in her first book, I can only echo back to her the dictum of poor soused Margaret Foster: “Atta girl, Peggy!”

Hannah: photo © MichaelRomanMedia.com

Mind you, I’m just the photographer. But after witnessing her talents first hand, I’ve turned into her publicist of sorts.

Hannah was cast in a school production of Thoroughly Modern Millie, and when I watched homemade clips from the show, I instantly knew this 13 year-old girl had that indescribable it factor.

Hannah could SO be Lea Michele’s protégé on Glee.

Imagine this. No auto-tune, no nothing — and she sounds like this? THE VOICE coming out of her — it’s simply God given.

And to make this story even sweeter? Hannah (and her parents) has no interest in fame. None whatsoever. Hannah simply wants to hone her craft, and her parents just want her to do whatever makes her happy.

But this girl is a star-in-the-making and I just have to shout it from the rooftops! After I photographed her last week I became obsessed with putting her name out there. Why? Because she deserves it.

Having this level of talent with no desire for the limelight is not something you hear about every day — in fact, you never hear it. And frankly, it adds to her charm tenfold. Does it not?

Here’s a short montage from her ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’ performance.

Even watching this amateur video her dad shot, there’s no denying the kid is a diamond in the rough.

Rosie O’Donnell, can you hear me?

In my humble opinion, I think it’d be fantastic to do a show on Rosie’s Theater Kids and then include clips of other aspiring Broadway hopefuls. How fun would that show be? Very!

The kid’s got it…and remember. I told you so.

Rosie will get the Streisand reference. I took it from Harold Arlen’s liner notes from Barbra Streisand’s first album.

“I advise you to watch Barbra Streisand’s career. This young lady (a mere 20) has a stunning future. Keep listening, keep watching. And please remember, I told you so….”

SIDEBAR: Check out this clip of Sarah Jessica Parker when she first broke into the biz. My point: The sky’s the limit for Miss Hannah.

Shirley MacLaine & Barbra Streisand

Now they apparently have something else in common. Soon, both will have played Ben Stiller’s mom on film.

Empire announced in January that MacLaine was in talks for the role of the mother character in the upcoming The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, a comedy based on the famous James Thurber story about a nebbish of a guy who daydreams about being an alpha feller. (The story was filmed before, in 1947, starring Danny Kaye.) IMDb is currently listing MacLaine as a cast member for the project.

Stiller will star as Mitty and will also direct the project. The peripatetic Kristen Wiig is also set for the picture. Shooting is expected to start in New York in April. The film will be distributed by Twentieth Century Fox.

Streisand played Stiller’s mother in two films in the Meet the Parents franchise: Meet the Fockers (2004) and Little Fockers (2010). More recently she acted in a film for Paramount, tentatively called My Mother’s Curse. In that film she plays the mother of Seth Rogen. The comedy will release in November.

Of course, Stiller is used to dealing with talented mother figures. His own mama is comedienne Anne Meara of Stiller and Meara fame.

Christy Turlington

-Win a signed deck of cards from David Blaine and he’ll follow you on Twitter for a week
-Win 2 tickets to join Edward Norton at the premiere of the Bourne Legacy
-Win a signed copy of Barbra Streisand‘s book, My Passion for Design
-Win an I Love You Man Poster signed by Paul Rudd
-Win an iChat with Seth Rogen
-Win an F Cancer tee shirt signed by Sophia Bush
-Win a visit to the set of Arrested Development with Jason Bateman
-Win an Elf DVD signed by Zooey Deschanel
-Win an Every Mother Counts tee shirt signed by Christy Turlington
-Win a Cowbell signed by Will Ferrell and some of his Super Sexy Hot Tan Sunscreen
-Win a Milk poster signed by Sean Penn
-Win 2 tickets to Chelsea Lately and meet Chelsea Handler backstage

By the by, here’s the definitive version.

If a cup of bitchiness is more up your alley, tune in to Kathy & Andy, tonight on CNN. Here’s a preview.

Spoiler: Anderson will not be wearing pants.

The Bobbsey Twins

Brinberg’s Streisand lamented that the 2011 CD release of What Matters Most—a collection of songs by Marilyn and Alan Bergman–didn’t sell as well as it might have, since the superstar didn’t have Oprah Winfrey or Larry King on the airwaves to help promote the project. Queried the faux Barbra: “Where am I supposed to go? Chelsea Handler? “I don’t think so!’”

This was the first time I’ve seen the talented Brinberg at DTM since the mid-1990s, when I caught a show that featured a special performance by Audra McDonald, who filled in on the Donna Summer part on “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough).” At the time, McDonald was appearing in Terrence McNally’s Master Class on Broadway. Currently McDonald is on The Street, playing Bess in previews of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.

This time around, Brinberg’s special guest was actor/singer Bill Coyne (Madame X: The Musical), who duet-ed with the headliner and also sang a simple yet disarming solo, “Embraceable You,” by…George and Ira Gershwin. (Isn’t it funny how—in ShowBiz—everything comes within one or two degrees of separation, if you squint just right.)

Brinberg (and Coyne) enjoyed wonderful support from pianist Christopher Denney.

Spot The Differences? Are you freaking kidding me?

“Take a gander at these sly snapshots and see if your eyes are attuned enough to spot the differences we have weaseled in.”

“HINT,” TMZ exclaims — “There are THREE differences in the above picture!”

I only see one difference.

They took a photo of Barbra Streisand and made her look like Jocelyn Wildenstein.

Jocelyn is the woman who had multiple surgeries to make herself look like a pussycat. ‘Member her?

The Cat Lady, Jocelyn Wildenstein

Here are the super obvious changes.

Don't ever ponder a career in plastic surgery, Harvey Levin

Like Star Jones, Harvey Levin is a lawyer and he will tell you so at every opportunity.

We kid you Harvey, you crazy thermal-cup holding joker.

We do not kid Star. Shut it about the lawyer talk, Ms. Jones. Oh wait, you’re not on TV anymore.

Never mind.

When the action star asked, “Why can I not visit this man?” he was shoved violently by the dozen guards in olive green military coats who appeared on the scene.

Look, when visiting a foreign country, you better abide by THEIR rules or all hell can break loose — including imprisonment. Just ask Amanda Knox. This is no time to be a hero, Bale.

Wonder if Bale sang the Chinese Police his signature song?