Entertainer and political activist Barbra Streisand says she’s standing by a passage she read at a Hollywood Democratic party fundraiser earlier this week, despite the fact that she erroneously attributed the piece to William Shakespeare.
Barbra read the quote, which begins, “Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor” at Sunday’s Democratic National Gala, saying it was from Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar. However, the prose is not by the classic author – it’s an anonymous composition widely circulated on the internet.
After the gaffe was discovered and revealed by on-line pundit Matt Drudge, the star faced up to the error, but said she still stood by the message. “The authorship of this (quote) is important,” she said in a statement, “but it doesn’t detract from the fact that the words themselves are powerful and true and beautifully written.”
She then expressed her admiration for the unknown mind behind the work. “Whoever wrote this is damn talented,” she announced, “and should be writing their own play.”
In a letter to Drudge, also posted to her official site, the diva offered “two other quotes that impress me” – one by John F Kennedy and one by Theodore Roosevelt – adding: “I've thoroughly checked out their authenticity, so I don’t buy into another terrific but internet-generated statement.”
Photo: © Alphapress.com
