Barbra Streisand put dental hygiene on hold to praise Meryl Streep’s Golden Globes speech blasting President-elect Donald Trump, telling MSNBC’s Chris Matthews from her dentist’s chair, “I don’t know how we’re going to take four years of this.”
Streisand’s surprise Hardball telephone chat turned even more surprising when she paused to tell Matthews, “Uh, you know I’m in the middle of having my teeth cleaned, so I’m kind of at a disadvantage.”
Whatever was going on with her mouth didn’t stop the legendary singer and Hillary supporter from giving full voice to her support of Streep. “I thought that she said what she said beautifully,” Streisand said of the Golden Globes speech, in which the Florence Foster Jenkins actress minced no words in her disgust at Trump’s apparent mocking of a disabled reporter.
“I completely agree with Meryl,” Streisand said. “It was a heartbreaking moment and so beneath the dignity of the presidency.
“What we need more than anything in this world, I think, is kindness and common decency and what he did and how he reacts and how he has a need to talk back and insult anybody who doesn’t agree with him, it’s pretty disgraceful.”
When Matthews pointed out that Trump had previously praised Streep’s talent – today he tweeted that she is “over-rated” – Streisand said, “That’s why you can’t trust anything he says, because if you get on his wrong side he will blast you negatively.” Quoting a Stephen Sondheim song she’s recorded, Streisand said, “Children will listen.”
Unprompted, Streisand brought up Trump’s New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. “Can you understand why he had a New Year’s Eve party but he wasn’t generous enough to give that to his followers as a present,” she asked. “He had to charge for it and put that money into his club. Don’t you think that’s a little strange?” (“He’s a mixed bag,” Matthews responded.)
Summing up, circled back to Streep. “I was very proud of her and she’s a wonderful actress, and that he had to denigrate her talent because she spoke out…As a matter of fact, why isn’t he sitting through briefings rather than tweeting this nonsense in a rating war with Arnold Schwarzenegger? I don’t know how we’re going to take four years of this.
“Thank you so much,” she concluded. “I can go back to having my teeth cleaned?”
Take a look at the interview, above.
