She’s a Hollywood giant with two Oscars, five Emmys and ten Grammys under her belt.
But despite her glittering 60-year career, Barbra Streisand revealed that she called the chief executive of Apple to complain that Siri had mispronounced her name.
The actress and singer contacted Tim Cook over Apple’s computerised assistant, which called her ‘Strei-zand’ instead of the proper ‘Strei-sand’ with a soft ‘s’.
Speaking to the BBC in what she said was her final ever interview, Ms Streisand said: ‘My name isn’t spelt with a Z. It’s Strei-sand, like sand on the beach. How simple can you get?’
‘So anyway I decided how do I change this? I like solving problems, so I figured I better call the head of Apple, Tim Cook, and he had Siri change the pronunciation of my name to be correct. That’s one perk of fame!’
In what she said was her final interview ever, Barbra Streisand told the BBC she contacted Apple’s CEO to complain that Siri had mispronounced her name
Ms Streisand told Tim Cook to report that Apple’s voice assistant was pronouncing her name with a ‘z’ instead of a soft ‘s’
Ms Streisand also admitted she has not enjoyed fame or ‘had much fun’, and now is focusing on her happiness and having fun at the age of 81 as she wants to ‘live life’.
‘I want to get in my husband’s truck and just wander, go round, and hopefully with the children somewhere near us when they come over,’ she said.
‘They love playing with the dogs, we have fun.
‘I haven’t had much fun in my life, to tell you the truth, and I want to have more fun.’
She said that the ‘dream’ of becoming famous as a child was more exciting than the ‘reality’ of it.
‘I’m a very private person. I don’t enjoy stardom,’ she added.
Ms Streisand spoke from her home in Malibu where she lives with her husband, actor James Brolin, 83, to promote her autobiography My Name is Barbra.
The Woman in Love singer started making pencil notes for her memoir 25 years ago. The finished manuscript is almost 1,000 pages long.
Despite the star claiming her ‘memory is fickle’ the book details backstage arguments, bewildered suitors and the time she fell off a London bus.
The finished manuscript for Ms Streisand’s memoir, which was penned over 25 years, is over 1,000 pages long, and details backstage arguments, suitors and the time she fell off a London bus
When she worked on the Broadway musical Funny Girl, Ms Streisand claimed her co-star Sydney Chaplin would mutter ‘terrible’ words to her.
She said: ‘It’s a painful story. I don’t like to even talk about it.
‘It’s just a person who had a crush on me, which was unusual, and when I said to him, ‘I don’t want to be involved with you’ he turned on me and in such a very cruel way I think.
‘He started muttering under his breath while I was talking on stage, he would mutter terrible words to me, sort of curse words and he wouldn’t look into my eyes anymore.’
The experience contributed to the stage fright that stopped Ms Streisand from performing concerts for 27 years.