Some things to think about while the Oscars are on tonight: Barbra Streisand, who insiders say will sing on the show tonight “sometime after the two hour mark” is performing for her peers for the first time in 37 years. Why is that? The rumor is that Barbra will be announcing a European tour shortly. The quickest way to get international interest going is on the Oscars. As usual, manager Marty Erlichman is a genius. Streisand, I am told, will not walk the red carpet tonight. She won’t even arrive at the Dolby Theater until near her performance time…
…Where is Sixto Rodriguez? The subject of award winning documentary “Searching for Sugar Man” has been AWOL for nearly everything to do with the movie. He probably won’t be at the Oscars, wasn’t at the Grammys, and has generally been absent. Rodriguez just finished a tour of South Africa–where he’s very popular–on February 22nd. You can’t say he really cashed in here in the US on the movie’s success. Did he get a decent publicist? I have no idea. It’s all pretty strange since he was kind of handed a new career on a silver tray…
…Sean Connery’s friends say he turned down an invite to be part of tonight’s James Bond tribute. Academy insiders say they didn’t even get into it. But Connery still has bad feelings about George Lazenby taking over for him as 007 in 1969. Connery remains in the Bahamas. Lazenby is here in Hollywood and coming to the Oscars. He made one James Bond movie and is kind of a trivia question. But he’s here. Life is about showing up.
