Smoking?

Ah, yes, smoking most certainly has an effect on the voice, and on breathing properly. You can't possibly take in as much air in your diaphragm after years of smoking, or have a full voice, or hold notes as long as you might had you never smoked. I've been singing for years, and know I'd never be able to hit the high notes I hit (F above high C, above the staff) if I were a smoker.

Streisand has smoked in many of her films (I HATE when she takes a drag while her character Katie is pregnant in The Way We Were, looking out at the beach. WHAT WAS SHE THINKING????). But, Streisand herself doesn't smoke. It's very easy to fake smoking...just don't inhale...keep it in the mouth, and exhale, and you look like you're smoking. I used to do this when I was a student in Paris...I smoked a little bit, but NEVER inhaled.

The Way We Were takes place in the '50s when it was still socially (and medically) safe to smoke during pregnancy since people were unaware of the health complications on the fetus. So it was historically accurate and here's a little surprise: Babs was not actually pregnant when she took that 'long drag of her cigarette while staring out at the beach' because, shockingly, it's just a movie! So what was going through her head was probably: "I wonder when Sydney is gonna yell cut!"
Jesus christ, why do people get so indignant about these things when they are not actually occuring in reality?

I have never seen Barbra smoke in her personal life, ever. Even in film roles, where the script had her character smoking, it was obvious that she was faking it. Fanny Brice was a smoker, so during the opening night argument scene in "Funny Girl," any smoker could see that Barbra was not inhaling, just drawing a bit into her mouth so she could fake exhaling. It was annoying watching Barbra play chain smoker Daisy Gamble in "On A Clear Day...," pitifully faking the smoking. Barbra never had that habit.