Bette Midler got rave reviews last night for her one act play/monologue “I’ll Eat You Last,” playing super agent Sue Mengers, from critics and her high profile celebrity opening night audience.
However, one of Mengers’ clients that was in town but decided to skip the opening night performance and after fancy party at the Russian Tea Room was Barbra Streisand. Instead, she attended her own 71st birthday party at Donna Karan’s studio.
“I have not seem such a star studded Broadway opening in years,” one eyewitness told Naughty But Nice Rob. “It seemed everyone was in town to see Bette except Babs.”
Ryan O’Neal, Anjelica Huston, Marlo Thomas, Kathy Griffin, Jon Hamm, Sting and Glenn Close, Sting and even Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter were all were spotted. However, despite having the same publicist as Bette and being in the same city, Streisand was a no show.
“Barbra fired Mengers after a decade together and isn’t the sort of women that likes to look back,” a friend of Barbra’s says. “She has been told Bette, or rather the Sue, tells stories about her. She was there and knows the truth. She doesn’t need to see a Broadway play to know what happened.”
After the ugly split, it took over 25 years before Streisand and Mengers made peace.
