Following the news of former first lady Barbara Bush’s death at 92, condolences to the Bush family poured in from all corners. NFL player JJ Watt called Mrs. Bush “a beautiful light” and the U.S. State Department said she “represented the best of our country.” But if there was one tribute among the many that seemed somewhat unexpected, it was a brief tweet from comedian Roseanne Barr.
Barr paid her respects to the former first lady on Tuesday night by recounting a tale from nearly 30 years ago.
Barr, currently starring in the reboot of her ’90s sitcom “Roseanne,” said that in the midst of her “Star Spangled Banner” fiasco in 1990 (in which the comedian screeched her way through the national anthem at a San Diego Padres game) then-first lady Barbara Bush said that Barr was “brave.” It was a compliment the comedian said she “never forgot.”
But it’s not quite right.
We went searching for the “brave” reference and came up with a 1990 story, “Red Glares for Roseanne,” written by our colleague Paul Farhi.
The article tracks the controversy from Barr’s widely panned performance — she also spat and grabbed her crotch — to the news conference the actress held to then-President George H.W. Bush’s hot take on the entire spectacle.
“My reaction is, it’s disgraceful. A lot of people in San Diego said the same thing,” said Bush, who was aboard Air Force One en route to the family’s summer compound in Kennebunkport, Maine.
As Farhi reported, “Barbara Bush refused to be dragged into the controversy, saying only, ‘Roseanne’s tough.’”
In that swift sentence, the first lady remained characteristically above the fray while also offering what seemed to be a covert “chin up” to the comedian. “Brave” and “tough” might be far from each other in the dictionary, but the sentiment itself clearly sat with Barr for a long time.
Read more: