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ONE NIGHT ONLY

Barbra Streisand proved the best things in life are worth waiting for on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

The 72-year-old singer, who last appeared on late-night TV on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1967, made an auspicious return to the show last night and this time she didn’t have to share the spotlight: Streisand was the only guest.

Streisand returned to The Tonight Show to promote her new album Partners, which features her trading vocals with several famous artists including Blake Shelton, Michael Bublé and a production with the late Elvis Presley.

But since none of those collaborators were available, Streisand had to make do with a willing replacement.

“Of course Elvis is no longer with us,” said Fallon. “So standing in for Elvis, Blake and Bublé will be me.”

As per his previous impersonations of Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen, the musically gifted Fallon easily slipped into character as Bublé to perform a snippet version of It Had To Be You with Streisand.

Fallon also donned a Stetson cowboy hat to assume the guise of Shelton duetting with Streisand on the country-tinged I’d Want It To Be You.

And of course, when the time came for Fallon to pose as The King, he sportingly put on an Elvis wig to team with Streisand on his 1956 hit Love Me Tender.

After the opening segment, Streisand and Fallon sat down at the Tonight Show desk (with Streisand in the host chair, where she remained all night) and the eight-time Grammy-winner was effusive in her praise of the host’s musical abilities.

“Actually, I was very impressed with you,” said Streisand. “You’re very good.”

Replied Fallon: “I gotta be honest with you. I thought you might be a nightmare, or a diva. But you were nice to everybody here. You are allowed to be a diva. What did you do with Barbra Streisand?”

Over the course of the hour-long broadcast, Streisand willingly expounded on her brilliant career and even dished details on her home life with actor-husband James Brolin.

“I’m quite ordinary,” said Streisand. “We lead a simple life. We don’t really like the big-time stardom thing. We take little trips in a truck. My husband drives.”

During one point in the interview, Fallon held up the cover for Streisand’s 1977 album Superman that showed the singer wearing only a snug T-shirt.

Joked Streisand: “That’s when the tush was up.”

Streisand wrapped up her Tonight Show comeback appearance with a solo soaring version of the Harold Arlen-Johnny Mercer classic song Come Rain or Come Shine, which she originally sang on her 1979 concept album Wet (and which she covers again on the Partners album with John Mayer).

And it must be said: Babs, you’ve never sounded better.

BAD BLOOD

Rihanna is not happy with CBS removing her hook from Thursday Night Football. Last week, the network excised her musical hook from Jay Z’s Run This Town, which was originally supposed to play in the pregame show for the game between the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers. But since Ravens player Ray Rice had just received an indefinite ban from football for assaulting his wife in a hotel elevator, the network cut the segment for fear of how having a domestic abuse survivor’s song open the broadcast would be perceived. CBS planned on using the song during this Thursday’s game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons, but Rihanna stopped the plan cold with her tweet on Tuesday morning: “CBS you pulled my song last week, now you wanna slide it back in this Thursday? No, F–k you! Y’all are sad for penalizing me for this.”

Source: The Wire

PRAIRIE SNUB

Whoever turns out to be Canada’s Smartest Person, they won’t be from Saskatchewan. CBC announced the contestants for its brain-competition series on Monday and sharp-eyed Web surfers immediately responded to the fact that not a single person hails from the prairie province. Saskatoon native Laura Buhler believes the competition is already flawed because the entire country isn’t being represented. “[It] doesn’t seem like they’re using a very smart process if they’re not covering all of the provinces,” Buhler told CBC News. Canada’s Smartest Person debuts Sept. 28 on CBC.

Source: CBC News

MESSAGE FROM BEYOND

Jerry Seinfeld has paid tribute to Joan Rivers after finding a text message from the late comic legend. Earlier this week, Seinfeld went on the website for his popular Web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee to deliver the following message: “I just came across this heartbreaking text on my phone from Aug. 19. I had asked Joan Rivers to be our lead guest on the new season of Comedians in Cars and she was thrilled. Then we got a call saying she was going in for a medical procedure and needed to postpone.” Rivers, 81, died on Sept. 4 following a botched medical procedure in New York. Seinfeld also expressed remorse that he never got a chance to film the episode with Rivers. “I wanted to tell her how much I admire all she had accomplished, especially in the latter stages of her career. She was one of the greats.”

Source: Hollywood Reporter

LOFTY HONOUR

George Clooney will receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 2015 Golden Globes. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which sponsors the annual trophy-fest, announced Monday that the 53-year-old actor-director will receive the prestigious honour “to celebrate his outstanding contributions both in front of and behind the camera.” Last year, the DeMille award was given to director Woody Allen. The 2015 Golden Globe Awards are scheduled to air on NBC on Jan. 11.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

IT’S A GIRL!

Make it official: Ryan Gosling is a father. According to Us Weekly, the Canadian actor’s longtime girlfriend Eva Mendes gave birth to a baby girl last Friday in Los Angeles. No name for the child was provided. Mendes, 40, and Gosling, 33, began dating in late 2011 shortly after co-starring in the film The Place Beyond the Pines. Shortly after, Gosling told the British newspaper The Times that he planned to “make movies until I make babies.”

Source: Us Weekly