We’d expect nothing less: when Barbra Streisand found that Siri couldn’t pronounce her name, she didn’t just give up in defeat. She made them fix Siri.
That news came out in a lovely new NPR interview in which the star charms the pants off of Scott Simon (probably not literally but then again you never know). At one point during the interview, she showed off by asking Siri “who’s was [sic] the only female vocalist who’s had hit records for six straight decades?”
“Barbra Streisand,” Siri replies, but she flubs the last name: “Stry-zand,” Siri pronounces it. We tried to replicate this behavior and Siri simply brought us to Bing, so in other words she was completely unhelpful. But ask her “Who’s in the movie Yentl” and you’ll get her to mispronounce the name.
“I called the head of Apple, Tim Cook, and he delightfully agreed to have Siri change the pronunciation of my name, finally, with the next update on September 30th,” Barbra said. Was it known that Apple has an update coming on September 30th, or did Barbra Streisand just leak a Mac rumor?
The rest of the interview is an unmitigated delight, with stories about Marvin Hamlisch and Jamie Foxx. She also tells Melissa McCarthy not to call her Babs. It’s wonderful. If you want to hear the whole conversation, go stand near a radio for several hours in the hopes that it comes on. Or just head here.
