Streisand Bard-boozled

Thesp delivers pseudo-Shakespearean speech at fundraiser

By ARMY ARCHERD

Streisand

Despite repeated applause Sunday night for her rendition of a supposed cautionary speech from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," Barbra Streisand woke up Tuesday to find that she as well as the audience had been Bard-boozled.

The words were nowhere to be found in Shakespeare. A bit taken aback by the fact she'd been had, Streisand used her Web site to set the record straight.

"The authorship of this is important, but it doesn't detract from the fact that the words themselves are powerful and true and beautifully written. Whoever wrote this is damn talented and should be writing their own play," she told Web users.

Streisand had recited the pseudo-Shakespearean lines during a Democratic Party fundraiser at the Kodak Theater. The speech is essentially a warning of the perils of warmongering:

"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor. For patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword" And so on.

On Tuesday morning, Streisand talked with close friends and fellow Oscar-winning lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman, who had for the occasion parodied their song "The Way We Were" as "The Way We Are," citing the Bush administration's record.

The Bergmans, too, had been taken in by the fake "Caesar" speech.

"Shakespeare's' words had been passed on to Barbra by 'a friend,' " they said.

So how does Streisand feel about having been fooled?

" 'He' happens to have said what she believes. She's very brave."