A look inside Hollywood and the movies. : EBBS AND FLOWS : Name That Tune at Christmastime

Those “Prince of Tides” research screenings held a month or so ago that had everybody coming out all relieved with smiles over Barbra Streisand’s second directorial project also had Columbia Pictures chairman Frank Price scurrying back to his calendar. How to reposition the better-than-expected “Prince of Tides”?

The film’s original release date--September--was no longer a splashy enough platform for what could be Columbia’s biggest film since “Boyz N The Hood.” First, Price angled for October, then after much cajoling of the director-co-producer-co-author-co-star, Streisand was persuaded to let her film version of Pat Conroy’s best-selling novel be the studio’s Christmas movie (opening in Los Angeles and New York the week before Christmas and then wide on Dec. 25) where it will go head to head with Steven Spielberg’s “Hook” and Barry Levinson’s “Bugsy.”

So now Streisand has a few more weeks breathing room, which she is spending in the dubbing room. New screenings are planned for the first week of August before she locks the film and heads off for a brief vacation. In the fall, she will do a small but select bit of pre-opening publicity.

The only thing left to squabble over? Whether the director, who also has a new record album--a 30-year retrospective--coming out this fall from Sony (which not coincidently owns Columbia) will add a new song to the end of her film. Price wants one, Streisand apparently is less anxious to add her vocals to her already lengthy film credits. Meanwhile, “Vanity Fair” is left scrambling for a new September cover story.