The Premise
The story goes that in 1975 Barbra Streisand offered Elvis the role of the leading man in A Star Is Born, a movie she was about to make, but that the deal was nixed by our old friend Colonel Tom Parker - either on the basis that Streisand was getting star billing over 'his boy', alternatively that there was not enough money involved.
It seems in
retrospect that Elvis was in fact not all that concerned about the money, but
had hoped that a part in a movie with a super-star such as Streisand would have
given his career a boost. In the event the role went to Kris Kristofferson.
Until quite recently I had not had an opportunity to
see the movie but managed to catch it on TCM the other day, and thought it
might be an interesting exercise
to examine to what extent Elvis
might just have missed a trick here.
The Plot
The film is the story of two singers, one on his way
down (Kristofferson), the other on her way up (Streisand). After one of his
concerts Kristofferson goes into a
night-club where Streisand is singing. He
