Kathie Lee Gifford Has Mortifying Cell Phone Fail At Marvin Hamlisch’s Funeral

Kathie Lee Gifford suffered a colossal fail at the funeral of composer Marvin Hamlisch on Tuesday. She attended the funeral with her husband and her ex-television co-host Regis Philbin along with his wife. They arrived to the funeral a little late, and, when they entered, Bill Clinton was speaking about the late Hamlisch. Gifford then realized that her purse was singing a Barbara Streisand tune in the middle of the ex-President’s speech.

Hamlisch died earlier this month at the age of 68. He was one of the most popular composers on Broadway. His credits include A Chorus Line and The Way We Were.

During Bill Clinton’s speech, he said of Hamlisch:

“Genius is rare enough, but a good-hearted genius is rarer still. A good-hearted, humble and hilarious genius? Almost unheard-of.”

When asked about what happened at the funeral, Gifford said to the press:

“The worst thing you can do, you think, is walk into a service late. No, the worst thing you can do is what I did when I got in there.”

Gifford walked into the funeral, which was held at Temple Emmanuel, during Clinton’s speech, and, while she was finding her seat in the nearly silent audience, she heard a very familiar sound coming from her purse. It was the sound of Barbara Streisand singing “Papa, Can You Hear Me?” from the 1983 film Yentl.

Gifford continued talking about the incident and said:

“Barbara Streisand is singing while President Clinton is speaking and everybody’s looking around like, ‘Is Barbara Streisand singing at Marvin Hamlisch’s [funeral]?’ “