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Saturday, Nov. 1, 2003; 4:04 p.m. EST

Streisand 'Tight' With Reagan Biopic Producers

CBS entertainment chief Les Moonves insists that Democrat diva Barbra Streisand didn't have anything to do with the insulting portrayal of President Reagan and his wife Nancy in his network's upcoming biopic "The Reagans."

But only four months ago the anti-Republican songstress was described in mainstream press reports as "tight" with the Reagan-bashing film's producers, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron.

On Thursday Moonves said that neither he nor Streisand had anything to do with the idea of casting Streisand's husband, James Brolin, in the lead role. "It was the producers. ... There were a number of names bandied about and they came to us and they suggested it. It was not having anything to do with his political bent or who he is married to."

Back in July, when plans for "The Reagans" were first announced, Moonves similarly insisted that his network "hasn't asked Barbra Streisand what she thinks about James Brolin playing Ronald Reagan."

At the time, however, the Washington Post's Lisa de Moraes called Moonves on the carpet for the fib:

"That was being a bit disingenuous; 'Reagans' producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron are this tight with Streisand, having worked with her Barwood Films on the NBC movie 'Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story,' about an Army colonel who was kicked out of the service for acknowledging she was a lesbian."

De Moraes noted that Streisand had also teamed up with Zadan and Meron on the Lifetime flick "What Makes a Family," about "a lesbian who has to fight to get custody of a baby born to her artificially inseminated partner when said partner dies after giving birth."

"So we're betting that Meron and Zadan cleared this bit of casting with Streisand before signing on the dotted line," the Post reporter surmised.

And it's probably no accident that Meron and Zadan tapped Australian actress Judy Davis to portray Nancy Reagan. Davis, it turns out, had also worked for the Hollywood duo before, playing the lesbian love interest in their aforementioned "Serving in Silence." Zadan and Meron also used Davis in a TV film about the life of Judy Garland.

Three years ago the crusading producers caused something of a splash when they won the bidding rights to produce "The Dana Rivers Story," a docudrama about a high school teacher who was fired from his job after undergoing a sex change operation and telling the student newspaper that he was ready to begin teaching as a woman.

Meron and Zadan's focus on gay themes could prompt some to wonder whether their interests have anything to do with the portrayal of President Reagan as an unabashed homophobe who believed that gays deserve to get AIDS.

"They who live in sin shall die in sin," the film has Reagan proclaiming, a sentiment those who know him say he never voiced.

"[Zadan and Meron] recognize a 'gay sensibility' in their work but say they have no particular agenda," reported Variety earlier this year, before the duo nailed down the Reagan project.

"I think who we are as people informs what we want to do," Meron told the Hollywood paper. "Being gay men, you can't help but have that there in terms of the choice of our material."