At a fundraiser for Daniel Ellsberg, a journalist on trial for leaking the Pentagon Papers, the audience bids on songs requests for Streisand. The fundraiser raises fifty thousand dollars, letting Ellsberg’s trial extend until the Watergate hearings begin. The experience makes Streisand feel even more like her politically motivated character from The Way We Were. She films another TV special in London, fulfilling her five-special contract with CBS. When she plans on releasing an album titled The Way We Were, Stark threatens legal action against her—the movie soundtrack will have the same title, so he worries the two releases will compete with one another. The title is removed from Streisand’s album without her knowing. Additionally, in the album cover’s photo, her nose bump is edited out without her approval.

Streisand turns down several roles that she would later regret and instead takes a role in For Pete’s Sake (1974), which is her manager Martin Erlichman’s first producing credit. On set, she meets hairstylist Jon Peters, who cuts her wig for the movie, and they begin an affair, but she is somewhat wary of him from the beginning. Though Peters shields her from the paparazzi and provides her and Jason a respite from her stardom, he also manipulates Streisand financially, convincing her to put a house she buys in his name.