Oscar-winning actress Barbra Streisand is famous not only for her many awards but also for having a very unusual feature in the basement of her home.
In 2023, while promoting her memoir, My Name Is Barbra, the actress, 84, gave Stephen Colbert of The Late Show a tour of her home in Malibu, California.
The tour showcased an unusual and irresistibly glamorous interior design feature, an antique emporium in the lower level of her house. Speaking in the video, the host referenced the famed shopping mall, to which she corrected him by saying, "It's a little, tiny mall, if you want to say".
Barbra, who is famed for many films including Funny Girl and The Way We Were, has built the centre to display her "vast antique collection", including an array of china dolls and a pair of antique Chinese shoes.
© The Late ShowBarbra Streisand's vast antique collection
"Isn't she beautiful?" she asked the host as they inspected the assembly of dolls. Barbra even admitted her collection was so large she no longer knew how many she had.
Stephen jokingly asked how many of the antiques were haunted, to which she answered sternly, saying "none of them".
© The Late ShowThe actress, also a singer and filmmaker, then introduced Stephen to a room she calls "the gift shop" in her basement. "I have a 20 per cent off coupon for Bed Babs & Beyond," he joked.
The shop is so precious to Barbra that she even admitted she is sometimes worried someone will come in and steal some of the collectables.
The mall also features a faux sweet shop that serves frozen yoghurt and popcorn to guests invited to movie screening parties.
© The Late ShowDesigned to showcase her extensive collection of treasures and trinkets, each shop features a vintage storefront displaying the collectables.
She first shared details about the legendary basement in 2010 in her book, My Passion for Design. Speaking about it at the time, she said: "Instead of just storing my things in the basement, I can make a street of shops and display them." Afterwards, it became something of a legend, with a selection of celebrities delivering different accounts of what it really looked like.
Ryan Murphy, for example, recalled the experience, saying: "We had dinner with Barbra and Jim, and Kelly [Preston] and John [Travolta], and Gaga and I, and after dinner, she said: 'Do you want to see the mall?'"
