Shaun Considine, the author of the controversial 1985 bio “Barbra Streisand: The Woman, the Myth, the Music,” wasn’t around for last month’s announcement that the diva is finally writing her memoir for Viking Books.
After weeks of trying to locate the author, I learned Considine — who also wrote a biography of screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky and “Bette and Joan: The Divine Feud,” (about Davis and Crawford) — passed away April 14 after a long illness.
I hope he didn’t suffer as much as he did in the ’80s when Streisand, a notorious control freak, did everything she could to kill the book or alter it.
“Streisand got lots of people who had weighed in, to retract their quotes,” one source told me.
The late Paul Jabara, the brilliant co-writer of “It’s Raining Men,” recanted, and was rewarded with the opportunity to produce some cuts on Streisand’s subsequent albums.
A Streisand associate told me, “It was thought Considine was writing a serious book about her music career. It turned into a trashy unauthorized biography.” There are now more than 50 unauthorized bios of the star.
Viking Books has been begging Babs to write her life story for a long time, and settled in 2010 for her decorating book, “My Passion for Design,” which inspired the off-Broadway play “Buyer & Cellar.”
Viking president Brian Tart said, “Barbra Streisand’s memoir is the entertainment story that has been on the top of every publisher’s wish list for years.”