I have no flexibility below the ass at all

Married to the daughter of comedienne/singer/actress Fanny Brice, producer Ray Stark wanted to make a musical about his mother-in-law. The musical he eventually made was Funny Girl, written by Isobel Lennart, with music by Jule Styne and lyrics by Bob Merrill. Cast as Fanny Brice was 22-year-old Barbra Streisand (whose Broadway debut in I Can Get It for You Wholesale had been a big success), while Sydney Chaplin was cast in the role of Brice's husband Nick Arnstein. Funny Girl first opened on Broadway in March 1964 and became a critical and commercial hit, prompting producer Stark a year later to start preparations for the film version.  

Sharif and Streisand in Funny Girl

Despite being a sensation on Broadway, Barbra Streisand had yet to make her screen debut. For the film, Columbia Pictures wanted a more established star and instead of Streisand chose Shirley MacLaine to play the lead. Ray Stark, however, wanted nobody but Barbra, even refusing to make the film if she was not cast. The studio eventually gave in to Stark's demand and Barbra got the part, giving a marvellous performance and earning the Oscar for Best Actress (in a tie with Katharine Hepburn for The Lion in Winter). 

For the role of gambler Nick Arnstein, several actors were considered, including Sean Connery, James Garner, David Janssen, Gregory Peck and Paul Newman. Composer Jule Styne wanted Frank Sinatra but Stark found him too old for the part. Also, Sinatra demanded too high a salary —$750,000 against Barbra's $200,000— ánd top billing (being the star of the film, Barbra refused to take second billing). In the end, Egyptian actor Omar Sharif, who had recently starred in the successful Doctor Zhivago (1965), was cast opposite Streisand at a salary of $50,000.

Like the original Broadway production, the film Funny Girl (1968), directed by veteran William Wyler, was a major success, both critically and commercially. It became the highest-grossing film of 1968 in the USA and received eight Academy Award nominations with, as said, Streisand winning the Oscar for Best Actress.

Barbra Streisand on the set of Funny Girl with (above) producer Ray Stark and (below) director William Wyler.

As mentioned above, Paul Newman was one of the actors approached to play Nick Arnstein. Newman, however, felt he was not right for the part and declined via this funny letter, written to Ray Stark and William Wyler in May 1967.

Source: Letters from Hollywood: Inside the Private World of Classic American Moviemaking (2019) by Rocky Lang and Barbara Hall. 

Although Paul Newman and Barbra Streisand never played in a film together, they were professionally linked in a different way. In June 1969, Newman and Streisand along with Sidney Poitier (all three pictured above) founded the production company First Artists in order to have more creative control over their own projects (one of the films the company produced was A Star Is Born (1976)). First Artists eventually ceased to operate in 1980 and was sold to Warner Brothers. 

Postponing the Oscars

Four times in Oscar history, the awards ceremony was not held as scheduled but postponed to a later date. The first time was in 1938 due to the floods in Los Angeles; the second time in 1968 after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King; again in 1981 after the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, and finally last year due to the Covid crisis. 

Sammy Davis Jr. and Martin Luther King sharing a laugh in 1965

The 40th Academy Awards ceremony was scheduled for 8 April 1968 but eventually took place two days later. On 4 April Dr. Martin Luther King had been assassinated and many stars wanted to attend his funeral which was held on 9 April. Among the stars were four African-Americans who were to take part in the Oscar ceremony, i.e. Sammy Davis Jr., Louis Armstrong, Sidney Poitier and Diahann Carroll (the first two as performers, the latter two as presenters). The four had informed the Academy that they would not appear at the Oscars if the scheduled date of 8 April was maintained. On The Tonight Show Davis stated: "I certainly think any black man should not appear. I find it morally incongruous to sing Talk To The Animals while the man who could make a better world for my children is lying in state." (Talk To The Animals was the nominated song from Doctor Dolittle which Davis would perform at the ceremony and which eventually won the Oscar for Best Song.) Faced with the possible absence of several of the ceremony's key players, Gregory Peck, then president of the Academy, held an emergency meeting with the Board of Governors who unanimously decided to postpone the Oscars by two days. With the news of the delayed ceremony, Davis, Poitier, Armstrong and Carroll all announced their return to the show. 

Someone who also wanted the Oscars to be postponed was Barbra Streisand, who was also scheduled to be a presenter at the ceremony. This is the telegram Barbra sent to Gregory Peck two days after King's assassination.

Source: oscars.org

Barbra Streisand with Gregory Peck at the 1969 Golden Globes

Tying at the Oscars

Oscar ties rarely happen. Of the 92 times the Oscars have been awarded, there were only six ties. Four times the ties occurred in minor categories: 

1950 (22nd Oscars) – Best Documentary Short Subject: A Chance To Live (Richard De Rochemont and James L. Shute) and So Much For So Little (Chuck Jones and Edward Selzer) 

1987 (59th Oscars) – Best Documentary Feature: Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got (Brigitte Berman) and Down And Out In America (Joseph Feury and Milton Justice)

1995 (67th Oscars) – Best Live Action Short Film: Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life (Peter Capaldi and Ruth Kenley-Letts) and Trevor (Peggy Rajski and Randy Stone)

2013 (85th Oscars) – Best Sound Editing: Skyfall (Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers) and Zero Dark Thirty (Paul N.J. Ottosson) 

Twice in Oscar history the tie happened in a major acting category. The first time was in November 1932 at the 5th Academy Awards, when both Fredric March and Wallace Beery took home the prize for Best Actor. March won for his role in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Beery for The Champ. Technically, March alone should have won since he got one more vote than Beery. At the time, however, the Academy rules stipulated that if a fellow nominee came within three votes of the winner, both would get the Oscar. By 1950, the rules had been changed, and only if candidates received the exact same number of votes it would qualify as a tie.

Wallace Beery (far left) and Fredric March with their Oscars, pictured here with Lionel Barrymore and Master of Ceremonies Conrad Nagel.

Another tie occurred on 14 April 1969 at the 41st Academy Awards, which is now the best-known tie in Oscar history. In the Best Actress category there were two actresses who had received exactly 3,030 votes each, i.e. Katharine Hepburn for her role as Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter and Barbra Streisand for her debut film performance as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl. Presenter Ingrid Bergman was shocked and surprised after she opened the envelope, exclaiming: "The winner... it's a tie!" It was Hepburn's 11th Oscar nomination and her third win. (She had previously won for Morning Glory (1933) and for Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) and would even win a fourth Oscar for On Golden Pond (1981).) Hepburn never came to the ceremony to receive her Oscar  —"As for me, prizes are nothing. My prize is my work", she once said—  and on this occasion it was the film's director Anthony Harvey who received the Oscar on her behalf. Of course newcomer Barbra Streisand did show up and was very happy with her prize, as can be seen in this clip.

Veteran Katharine Hepburn and newcomer Barbra Streisand in their Oscar-winning roles (above) and Streisand receiving her prize while Anthony Harvey accepts Hepburn's (below).

Following the Oscar tie, Hepburn sent Streisand a congratulatory telegram. Unfortunately I don't have this wire to show you, but below you'll find Streisand's reply to Hepburn. Streisand concludes her note jokingly with the remark "Do you have start singing as well!!!", referring to Hepburn's first and only Broadway musical Coco which would premiere later that year. Hepburn had no illusions when it came to her singing and reportedly later said: "I sound like Donald Duck". (Watch Hepburn as Coco Chanel here; she starts singing 8:15 minutes into the clip.)

Source: oscars.org

Transcript:

Dear Kate — (I feel I should still call you Miss Hepburn)
How very nice of you to send me such a lovely wire —
I, too, am most honored to share this with you —
but, there's one question I have to ask —
It's tough enough being in the same business with you—
but, do you have to start singing as well !!!!
with much admiration
Barbra