Streisand serves Siri some serious schooling
The multitalented EGOT winner has personally approached Apple CEO Tim Cook asking that the computerized intelligent personal assistant Siri be programmed to pronounce her surname correctly; Streisand, as she clarified for Cook, has a soft 's' in both its syllables; the change is due to take effect in September.
"I don't care what you say about me. Just be sure to spell my name wrong," Barbra Streisand has facetiously stated in the past. Apparently, the Google-operated program Siri didn't get the joke, as the program has been pronouncing the second "s" in "Streisand" as a "z" for quite some time. The original Funny Girl, though, did not find this a laughing matter, and has recently reached out to help Siri see the light.
In an interview with NPR over the weekend, Streisand shared that upon learning of the mispronunciation, she had personally contacted Apple CEO Tim Cook with a request to program Siri to get it right.
"I called the head of Apple, Tim Cook, and he delightfully agreed to have Siri change the pronunciation of my name," said the celebrated artist, one of a handful to have won all four major entertainment awards: an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony. During their phone call, she told Cook that her name is "Streisand with a soft S, like sand on the beach. I've been saying this for my whole career."
Streisand is excitedly expecting the change, as having her named recognized and pronounced correctly is understandably very important to her. The change should take effect on September 30, when the next Siri update is set to be be implemented.
Some say love, it is a river, that drowns the tender reed. Some say love, it is a razor, that leads your soul to bleed. Some say love, it is a hunger, and endless aching need. And some say love is a devoted fan who happens to run a multi-million dollar tech company and is willing to do what is necessary to ensure you get name recognition.
