Love is a many-splendored thing, especially when you\u2019re gawking at it from the outside. In this column<\/a>,<\/a> we examine the celebrity couples who give us hope for our own romantic futures as we try to learn what we can from their well-documented bonds.<\/em><\/p>\n While I gleaned more than my fair share of life advice from Barbra Streisand\u2019s 2023 memoir<\/a>, there is perhaps even more to be learned from the renowned EGOT winner\u2019s nearly three-decade-long marriage to the actor James Brolin. I mean\u2026for two famous people, that is a very long time!<\/p>\n Streisand (who turned 84 today!) and Brolin met in 1996, at a dinner party thrown by Streisand\u2019s friend Christine Peters, who was eager to set them up. \u201cI didn\u2019t know much about him, so she quickly filled me in. He had played the young, motorcycle-riding Dr. Steven Kiley in the TV series that made him famous, Marcus Welby, M.D.<\/em>, but I had never seen it,\u201d Streisand recalls in her book. Another role of his, however\u2014Peter McDermot in the soap opera Hotel<\/em>\u2014put a very specific picture in her mind: that of \u201ca handsome man with dark, thick, wavy hair and a neatly trimmed beard.\u201d So when she saw Brolin in person\u2014and he was in fact \u201cclean-shaven, with a buzz cut\u201d\u2014she was nonplussed, leading to a truly iconic opening line. When the two sat down to eat, Streisand\u2014in her inimitable, straight-shooting, native New Yorker style\u2014ran a hand over Brolin\u2019s head and asked, \u201cWho fucked up your hair?\u201d Needless to say, he was charmed.<\/p>\n Brolin and Streisand at the New York premiere of her film The Mirror Has Two Faces<\/em> in 1996.<\/p>\n <\/span>Photo: Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n At the Los Angles premiere of Meet the Fockers<\/em> in 2004.<\/p>\n <\/span>Photo: Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n The couple made their red carpet debut later that year before marrying in their LA backyard in 1998. Now, a few decades later, they are doting grandparents, with Brolin\u2019s son Josh telling People<\/em> in 2018<\/a>: \u201cMy wife got Barbra a bracelet that said \u2018Grandma\u2019 on it and she started crying. She is really into it, and I love that she is into it. I mean, it\u2019s like a very typical Jewish grandmother who is saturated by this event. It\u2019s awesome.\u201d Aw! We love you, Bubbe Barbra!<\/p>\n Even sweeter? Streisand and Brolin\u2019s relationship inspired not only her 1999 album A Love Like Ours<\/em>, but also\u2014somewhat improbably\u2014the Aerosmith song \u201cI Don\u2019t Want to Miss a Thing.\u201d As songwriter Diane Warren explained in 2016<\/a>: \u201cSomeone told me there was an interview with Barbra Streisand and her husband, and he had said how he doesn\u2019t like to go to sleep, you know, because he misses her<\/a>. And I was like, \u2018Wow, that\u2019s a cool idea for a song if I can figure that out.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Well, figure it out she did, and now Streisand and Brolin have a permanent place in rock history\u2014not to mention in the canon of true Hollywood love.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/picture><\/span><\/div>\n
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