Considering he's been rumored to have slept with nearly 13,000 women, perhaps it's no surprise that Warren Beatty and Barbra Streisand couldn't agree on whether they'd gotten together. But it wasn't the actors themselves who overshared about the did-they-or-didn't-they gossip. Instead, it was an unlikely celebrity: Kathy Griffin.
In her 2016 memoir, Kathy Griffin's Celebrity Run-ins: My A-Z Index, Griffin said that when she was at an event in 2012, she was part of a conversation in which Streisand and Beatty discussed whether or not they ever actually hooked up, and they couldn't come to an agreement. Read on to find out which star claimed what.
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Griffin ran into Streisand and Beatty at a party.
Kathy Hutchins / ShutterstockIn an excerpt from Celebrity Run-ins that was published by The Hollywood Reporter in 2016, Griffin explained that she spoke to Beatty and Streisand when she attended Jane Fonda's 75th birthday party in 2012.
"[Streisand] is unapproachable, she’s royalty to me, and yet, when I looked at her, she is a real person," Griffin recalled. "I almost fainted when she sat her real-person [expletive] down at my table."
Griffin then began joking around with Streisand, and soon, Beatty walked over.
"Then Warren Beatty strolled up looking like the movie star that he is," Griffin wrote. "I couldn’t resist acting like I knew him by simply saying, 'Beatty!?! Hello there!' He was wearing jeans and a shirt as if he had just gotten off of the set of Shampoo, albeit 30 years later but just as gorgeous, still rocking the feathered hair."
Griffin got the actors to talk about their past.
Kathy Hutchins / ShutterstockGriffin wrote that she brought up the idea of Streisand and Beatty hooking up, and they launched into a back-and-forth about it.
"He asked, 'What’s going on at this table?' I said, 'Barbra’s rehashing that story about how you always claim to have hooked up in the back of a car,'" Griffin explained.
"Beatty took the bait. 'I thought we did.' Barbra started shaking her head. 'Warren, I’m not going to have this fight with you again. We nev-ah hooked up.' 'Noooo, Barbra, I think we did,' Beatty said. 'We were coming back from that little club in the Catskills.'"
Griffin added that the Bonnie and Clyde star was "bringing up details like it all happened yesterday. 'There was a time when you got a little handsy in the backseat,' he said. Streisand’s casually eating, adding little 'No, Warren's.'"
The comedian said that eventually Sean Penn walked up to the table, which distracted from Beatty and Streisand's playful disagreement.
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Streisand and Beatty do have a connection.
Alexander Sibaja/Getty ImagesWhile there seem to be some discrepancies in their story, Streisand and Beatty do have a known connection. As reported by CBS News, in an interview with Playboy in the '70s, Streisand said Beatty was "one of my flings."
Aside from that, in 1972, Beatty organized a concert in support of presidential candidate George McGovern, at which Streisand performed. In 2008, Beatty was honored by the American Film Institute and Streisand was one of the people who recorded to a tribute to him. (McGovern participated, too.)
The two also made headlines together in 2017 when Blade Runner actor Sean Youngclaimed that when she auditioned for Streisand for a movie in the '90s, Streisand gave her a hard time because Young had previously accused Beatty of firing her from 1990's Dick Tracy after she rejected his advances.
As reported by The Guardian, Beatty denied this. Young said Streisand told her that going public with her claims was "disgusting."
A rep told the Daily Mail on Streisand's behalf, "I have no memory of ever having interviewed Sean Young, and I do not condone harassment of women under any circumstances."
Beatty has a reputation with women in Hollywood.
Featureflash Photo Agency / ShutterstockBeatty's reputation when it comes to women might explain the confusion over whether or not Streisand was someone he hooked up with. Biographer Peter Biskind estimated that Beatty has had sex with 12,775 women. The actor has famously been linked to Madonna, Cher, Diane Keaton, and many more. Since 1992, he has been married to Annette Bening.
In a 2016 interview with AARP: The Magazine, Beatty denied having been with so many people.
"Think about it, sleeping with 12,775 people. That would mean not just that there were multiple people a day, but that there was no repetition," he said.
Asked how he could be with so many women and not have a lot of people mad at him, he said, "Look, I never misled anyone ... And I'm a nice guy."
He continued, "I waited a long time to be married. When you don't get married until you're 54 … well, as Arthur Miller said, 'It comes with the territory.' ... You're participating in a profession that, for obvious reasons, needs to heighten elements of sexuality," particularly, he added, "if you delay marriage a long time."
