OK, I don't want to shatter any illusions of Oprah's infallibility, but at last night's Barbra Streisand show at Madison Square Garden, she led the standing ovation for Il Divo after they massacred "My Way," which they dedicated to Streisand and their "biggest new fan, Miss Rosie O'Donnell." Rosie has had the sense to say, diplomatically, of course, that the operatic boy band is, um, not so good in the concert. Maybe Oprah was just trying to be polite.
Which is exactly what Streisand told a heckler who, like a handful of others, started yelling during the skit where she chats with a George W. Bush impersonator. The needling was tame (she suggested they sing "What Kind of Fool" or "Guilty" or "Enough Is Enough" before settlilng on "Happy Days Are Here Again"; he said that if he was worried about polls, he'd run for president of Poland) but when one of the hecklers didn't stop, she moved from "Be polite!" to "Shut the ---- up if you can't take a joke!"
(After all, Streisand was a uniter, not a divider, bringing in Republican fundraiser Georgette Mosbacher, who sat with Rosie and her spouse Kelli Carpenter, and Democratic firebrand The Rev. Al Sharpton. Of course, they didn't get nearly as many cheers as the arrival of Oprah and Gayle King or the ovation of Oprah greeting Rosie with a hug.)
What wasn't a joke was Streisand's explanation about her lack of a sound check yesterday, after getting stuck in traffic on her way to The Met to see the Rembrandt exhibit that it took her an hour to go one block. She was also pretty serious about her shout-outs for New York food: a Yonah Schimmel's knish, a Zabar's bialy and Serendipity's frozen hot chocolate.
Streisand's favorite joke of the night: "What? There are gay people here?" She used it twice.