Barbra Streisand has broken her silence on her barbed Instagram comment asking whether close pal Melissa McCarthy was using weight loss drug Ozempic.
Streisand, 82, left fans reeling after publicly grilling McCarthy, 53, about Ozempic use before she quickly backtracked and deleted the remark.
McCarthy first caught Streisand’s eye when she posted an image of herself and pal Adam Shankman, 59, in Los Angeles on Sunday at CTG’s The Gala 2024 at the Ahmanson Theatre.
The comedian – whose weight has fluctuated over the years – showcased her newly slimmed down figure in a stylish mint dress and blazer.
Streisand responded in the comment thread with the question, ‘Give him my regards did you take Ozempic?’ – leading to a tidal wave of online criticism.
Barbra Streisand has broken her silence on her barbed Instagram comment asking whether close pal Melissa McCarthy was using weight loss drug Ozempic
Streisand , 82, left fans reeling after publicly grilling McCarthy , 53, about Ozempic use before she quickly backtracked and deleted the remark
A groveling Streisand later returned to social media on Tuesday to issue a mea culpa and wrote: ‘OMG – I went on Instagram to see the photos we’d posted of the beautiful flowers I’d received for my birthday!
‘Below them was a photo of my friend Melissa McCarthy who I sang with my on Encore album.
‘She looked fantastic! I just wanted to pay her a compliment. I forgot the world is reading!’
The EGOT-winning entertainer was quickly at the receiving end of dozens of responses calling out the nature of her inquiry.
‘Wow really!’ one user said. ‘What happened to not taking about Bodies! As a mother of a daughter that’s not ok we as women need to not focus on appearance.’
One added: ‘I’m so totally taken aback that you could ask her that on Social Media for all to see? I love and adore you, truly, but that disappointed me’;
Another user said, ‘Whether she did or did not is no one else’s business,’ while others described the line of questioning as ‘rude,’ ‘nasty,’ ‘disgusting and disrespectful.’
One user said Streisand’s remark was indicative of a vapid mentality in Hollywood: ‘Movie stars will never stop focusing on appearance.’
A groveling Streisand later returned to social media on Tuesday to issue a mea culpa and wrote: ‘OMG – I just wanted to pay her a compliment’
The actress attended the CTG’s The Gala 2024 at the Ahmanson Theatre Sunday in LA. The star – whose weight has fluctuated throughout the years – is pictured right in 2014
Another user said that McCarthy ‘looks healthy, no matter how she got there’ and that they were ‘surprised at the lack of respect’ Streisand showed with her question.
‘How about just being healthy for the sake of being healthy?’ the user added.
Another user asked Streisand, ‘Did you actually just have the audacity to ask her that?! Especially right out here on social media!!!’
One user questioned the possibility someone was posting under Streisand’s handle, saying that ‘this cannot possibly be the real Babs.’
A user told Streisand, ‘Women need to not focus on appearance’
The thread was full of commenters defending McCarthy
People described Streisand’s line of questioning as ‘rude,’ ‘nasty,’ ‘disgusting and disrespectful’
One user questioned the possibility someone was posting under Streisand’s handle, saying that ‘this cannot possibly be the real Babs’
Barbs’ barbs: Who else has felt the wrath of her acid tongue?
Broadway legend Barbra has also had numerous feuds with fellow celebrities over the years, including Donald Trump, Larry Kramer and Oprah.
Oprah
In 2003, Barbra appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show wearing a white turtleneck and carrying her white dog Sammie around the studio.
Barbra and Oprah (pictured) clashed when she appeared on her talk show in 2003
After a musical performance during which Barbara used a white microphone, Oprah called her out for matching even the microphone to her outfit and dog.
She said: ‘I want to just say this… I own this studio, I’ve been here I don’t know how many years. I’ve never seen a white mic.’
Barbara replied to Oprah: ‘It’s actually off-white, to match my off-white sweater. I like simplicity, and monochromatic frames.’
‘So you had the mic sprayed?,’ Oprah asked again in an encounter that Comedian Kathy Griffin said was eating at Oprah for weeks in her book Official Book Club Selection.
Donald Trump
In 2018, Barbra claimed that President Trump’s politics made her ‘gain weight’
In 2018, Barbra claimed that Donald Trump was making her ‘gain weight’ as she resorted to comfort eating in order to deal with the current state of politics.
She then added to Australia’s Stellar magazine that the ‘lying’ President was making her feel ‘kind of depressed’ as she stayed up until the wee hours after eating chocolate and ice-cream.
‘Trump lied from the beginning, and I just honour the truth – in my work, in my life, I love the truth. I think it’s so powerful,’ Barbra stated.
‘The truth, to me, is the essence of living in a democracy and I guess what offends me so much is Trump seems to care so very little about it, because he continues to lie day after day and make up things, you know?’
Larry Kramer
Barbra and Larry clashed over television adaptation of his play The Normal Heart
Barbra and Larry were embroiled in a saga over the television adaptation of his play The Normal Heart for years.
Barbra optioned the rights to The Normal Heart back in 1986 but apparently could not raise the money to get the project made.
A leaked email from Larry to Barbra back in 2012 highlighted his frustration, as he told her she ‘did not have quite the same burning passion to make it as you always claim.’
Yet Barbra defended herself, insisting: ‘In the press, Larry kept speaking out against me.
‘But I think it’s unfair to keep blaming me for the movie not getting made.
‘I worked on it for 25 years, without pay. Larry had the rights for the last 15 years and he couldn’t get it made, either. Those are the facts.’
Bradley Cooper
Barbra wasn’t impressed with Bradley’s 2018 remake of a Star Is Born
When Bradley’s 2018 remake of her 1976 film A Star Is Born was released, Barbra couldn’t help but show her disappointment in the finished result.
She confessed she was initially on board before she heard about Bradley’s involvement.
Barbra explained: ‘At first, when I heard it was going to be done again, it was supposed to be Will Smith and Beyoncé, and I thought, that’s interesting.
‘Really make it different again, different kind of music, integrated actors, I thought that was a great idea.
So, I was surprised when I saw how alike it was to the version that I did in 1976..,
‘I don’t care so much about success as I do originality.’
Another suggested Streisand ‘meant this to be a private message,’ while one user said, ‘It doesn’t sound like something Barbra would say.’
Not everyone was offended, as one user said they were ‘in shock with that comment’ with a pair of hysterical laughing emojis.
One user opted to tell The Prince of Tides star explicitly: ‘BARBRA YOU CANT JUST ASK IF SOMEONE IS ON OZEMPIC HAHAHAHAHA SAVAGE.’
While Streisand did not respond to the users comments, she did quietly delete her comment.
Of course, Streisand is not the first to wonder if McCarthy’s transformation is a result of Hollywood’s new favorite weight loss drug.
For months, fans have speculated if McCarthy was using Ozempic, but she hasn’t publicly confirmed or denied the rumors.
The Bridesmaids star has had ups and downs whereas it comes to weight loss, as she lost 70 pounds in 2003 via an all-liquid diet for her part in Gilmore Girls.
She told People in 2011: ‘I’d never do that again. I felt starved and crazy half the time.’
McCarthy, speaking on CBS This Morning on Jun 3, 2015, said that she ‘truly stopped worrying’ about her weight at that time.
Streisand and McCarthy have past worked together professionally
They worked together on the song Anything You Can Do for Streisand’s 2016 album Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway
McCarthy said of Streisand, ‘She’s really funny,’ adding that her down-to-earth demeanor dispelled expectations the Funny Girl star would have a regal demeanor about her
She added: ‘I stopped over-analyzing, over-thinking, over-doing anything… I just stopped constantly being worried about it and I think there’s something to kinda loosening up and not being so nervous and rigid about it that, bizarrely, has worked.’
McCarthy told Extra in March of 2016 that there was ‘no trick’ nor ‘nothing to tell’ in regards to losing 50 pounds.
‘Just super boring life,’ McCarthy said. ‘You bring it real down, you don’t do anything fun and you go to bed at 7:30 – that’s the trick.’
Streisand and McCarthy have past worked together on the song Anything You Can Do for Streisand’s 2016 album Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway, a collection of duets that also included collaborations with Hugh Jackman, Alec Baldwin and Jamie Foxx.
McCarthy last June told Entertainment Weekly she initially thought the offer to perform along the legendary entertainer was a practical joke.
McCarthy said of Streisand, ‘She’s really funny,’ adding that her down-to-earth demeanor dispelled expectations the Funny Girl star would have a regal demeanor about her.
‘That’s what I almost wanted,’ McCarthy said. ‘And then, I think when she opened the door she had leggings on and lunch meat in her hand. And I was like, none of this is what I expected.
‘She’s so who she is. And also, when someone who you think you should be curtseying to keeps eating lunch meat, it really kind of levels the playing field. It was really charming. I was like, “You’re really pounding lunch meat.” She’s like, “Yeah.”‘
Streisand has a reputation for speaking her mind and has famously clashed with the likes of Oprah and Bradley Cooper in the past.
She confessed last year that she thinks her movie making days are over because she’s ‘lazy’ and doesn’t want to see a project through to the end.
‘It gets exhausting, trying to come up with the structure of the movie and then have it not happen,’ she told People magazine.
‘I had many movies that I wanted to make, and then I get lazy. I go, “Oh yeah, to do this one, I have to have all these fittings for period clothes. This one, I’d have to live in Arkansas to do this one.” I don’t know. It’s complicated, but I am complicated, I guess… I get lazy.’
She revealed in her autobiography that her The Way We Were co-star Robert Redford was concerned about her reputation before they worked together.
‘She has never been tested,’ Redford told director Sydney Pollack about Streisand at the time. ‘Her reputation is as a very controlling person. She will direct herself. It’ll never work.’
After beginning her career with performances in nightclubs and Broadway theaters in the early 1960s, the New York native seemed to put an emphasis on her singing career, releasing two studio albums a year from 1963 to 1967.
She was also recognized for her Broadway performances during that time in I Can Get It for You Wholesale (1961-1963) and Funny Girl (1964-1965), both of which earned her a Tony Award nomination.
Her big breakthrough in film came with the adaption of the musical comedy-drama Funny Girl (1968), resulting in her winning an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Streisand has a reputation for speaking her mind and previously revealed that her The Way We Were co-star Robert Redford was concerned about her reputation before they worked together (pictured in the film)
Whether it was in film, as an actress or director, television, or the stage, Streisand succeeded in all avenues of show business.
In fact, her wide-raging abilities over a career that spans more than six decades also put her on the short list of people to win an EGOT, which is someone who has won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.
As of April 2024 , only 19 people have achieved competitive EGOT status and six others, including Streisand, have done so with honorary or special awards.
While allocating the time to her wide-ranging talents and interests, her film career seemed to take the biggest hit, not for a lack of love but for the sheer time it takes for a film production.
After scoring hits as the star and director in The Prince of Tides (1991) and The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996), the Brooklyn native has only appeared in three comedy films in 27 years.
Hello, Stroppy! Barbra’s diva demands over the years
Barbra’s staff have spoken out about some of the Hello, Dolly! star’s extraordinary tour requests over the years, which include:
Five suites of living- room furniture, all fabric-covered – but ‘no vinyl, please’
120 bath towels to be provided ‘immediately on arrival’ for her production team
The Hello, Dolly! star has had a few extraordinary tour requests over the years
Ten floor lamps, ‘torchere’ style
Peach-coloured toilet roll to match her complexion
Rose petals in the toilet bowl
35 banqueting tables and 150 folding chairs
Plain-clothed security guards should be neatly dressed in dark jackets, blazers or sweaters
A police dog unit to sweep the auditorium before sound check
Metal detectors at all entrance doors, including backstage
Two TVs, 19in or larger, with remote controls
Boxholders must be told to turn off their lights during the performance
