A STAR'S A BOMB

A STAR IS BORN (1976)
dir: Frank Pierson

Here's something that's been remade several times, including with Judy Garland and Lady Gaga. This is the one from 1976 with Barbara Streisand, the story of the pop star who marries an unknown who becomes more famous than him.

MAD #193, September 1977

We start with MAD doing their usual condescension towards this newfangled rock'n'roll thing they can't understand, which had been around more than twenty years at that point.

John Norman Howard (Kris Kristofferson) is a huge rock star on tour with his group Speedway, showing up late to a concert and brought onstage with the help of Bobbie (Gary Busey) and Brian (Paul Mazursky) who pump him full of booze and coke.

After his concert, John goes to a bar where Esther Howard (Barbara Streisand) is singing with her back-up singers the Oreos (Venetta Fields, Clydie King). He upstages her by talking really loud and getting in a fight with a fan. He's impressed with her and takes her home after being chased out. He goes to her apartment the next morning and invites her to his concert.

John takes someone's motorcycle and drives onto the stage, then falls off and injures himself. Everyone leaves and leaves Esther stranded there. She visits him the next day at his mansion (in the movie, it is him that spraypaints her name on the wall.) They fall in love and he elevates her career as his starts going downhill. When he does a benefit concert, he brings her on stage.

The parody leaves out a few scenes where he shoots at some DJ's reporting from a helicopter then tries to apologize, and John and Esther cut a record together,

John and Esther get married and he has property he brought out in the desert.

Esther keeps moving up while John is increasingly forgotten. She gets nominated for a Grammy. During her acceptance speech, he comes up on stage and interrupts drunk and makes a scene. She's concerned about his downfall and asks Brian if there's any work for him. He has something new he's working on but his management just wants to continue with his old hits.

Esther's grammy is presented by Tony Orlando and Rita Coolidge though here the presenter looks more like Joe Don Baker.

Esther comes home to find John in bed with a magazine reporter (Marta Heflin), They have an argument and he leaves, crashing in a drunk driving accident. The movie ends with a memorial concert for John.

THE STAR'S A BORE
Sick #116, August 1977
w: George Kashdan
a: Dave Manak

This concentrates more on Streisand's supposed ego and breaking the fourth wall with the actress interrupting the movie to make changes.