Barbra on the Block

You don't mess with the Streisand. Private, early recordings of Barbra Streisand are being auctioned off by an ex-boyfriend of the superstar, whose lawyers are said to be considering legal action. Barry Dennen, the former flame, has set a starting bid for the tapes at $1 million.

The entertainer’s never-before-released recordings include the songs "A Taste of Honey" and "Two Brothers," as well as audition material recorded prior to Streisand's first solo album.

Streisand asked Dennen to return the recordings to her in 1965, but he tells the New York Post, "I said, 'No. They are the only thing I have left of our collaboration.'" He also told the Post, "I'm a little trepidatious. I don't know what the fallout will be. I don't like upsetting Barbra, and I don't want her fans angry at me."

Dennen met Streisand in 1959, when both appeared as butterflies in an off-Broadway play called The Insect Comedy. The two became friends and eventually lovers. He has since come out as gay and writes on his website, "Barbra and I were kids. We were both thrashing around with our own sexuality, and the love we felt, and trying, at the same time, to get our careers together." In 1997, Dennen published a memoir about their time together titled My Life With Barbra: A Love Story.

The tapes are being auctioned on MomentsInTime.com. Streisand's latest album, a collection of jazz standards titled Love Is the Answer, will be released on September 29.