Barbra Streisand was doing a guest spot on NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday when the host, Scott Simon, brought out his iPhone, asked Siri a question:
Scott: Siri, who’s the only female vocalist who’s had hit records for six straight decades?
Siri: Barbra Streisand
Barbra: (laughs) She pronounces my name wrong. Streisand with a soft “s”, like sand.
Streisand then goes on to tell the story of her phone call to Tim Cook to complain, and Tim’s personal response.
Streisand is a surprisingly polarizing figure. She’s got a tremendous voice, has a legendary body of work, but then there’s this.
Listen to the audio below. The Siri question kicks in at about 3 minutes in.
I contacted Tim Cooke once about a ‘legitimate complaint’. Still waiting for him to get back to me.
http://tinyurl.com/hzgov8p
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I don’t understand – how often does Siri say her name that it bugs her this much? Does she have Siri respond to her as “Ms Streisand”? Or is it just utter vanity?
Eh, if I had Tim Cook’s private number and Siri regularly mispronounced my name, I’d probably talk to him about it too.
My favorite such anecdote is still the one where Ginger Rogers, at a White House dinner, complained to then-President Reagan about how close our navy’s ships were passing to her private island while on maneuvers.