Actress Lea Michele (click to enlarge) Image by Getty Images

By Debra Nussbaum Cohen August 10, 2010

When I saw Elissa Strauss’ Sisterhood post about the photo spread in Harper’s Bazaar, in which Jennifer Aniston is made up and posed to try and look like Barbra Streisand, I could not believe it.

I know she was just trying to look like Streisand, and not pretending she could sound like her, but still. If anyone has the right to model herself after Streisand, it sure isn’t Jennifer Aniston. It’s Lea Michele.

Have you seen her on “Glee”? Or were you lucky enough to catch her performance on Broadway in “Spring Awakening”? (That’s where Boychik and I saw her opposite Jonathan Groff, who also plays her evil love interest on “Glee.”)

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis of the crisis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Michele — whose father is Jewish, and who plays a Jewish character on “Glee”, by the way — has an incredible voice, and has both the ethnic look (not Aniston’s more classic beauty) and the ingénue-ish charisma to remind you of Streisand’s early work.

Just check out this video of the young actress singing Barbra’s famous song from “Funny Girl.”.

Now, nobody comes close to the desperate longing, the chutzpah and hunger to break out of the circumstances of her birth that Streisand communicates as Fannie Brice in the sumptuous 1968 movie, but please.

Bazaar put Aniston as Streisand in its pages rather than have Aniston dress up as someone else and hold out for Lea Michele?

That’s just bizarre.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

This year, we have stood together in strength and sorrow. Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount