With 150 million records sold, 11 Billboard chart-topping albums, and 46 Grammy nominations to her name, there’s no doubt that Barbra Streisand is an incredibly talented performer. In addition to singing, this star has ventured into stage and screen acting, directing and even producing. She’s even an EGOT winner, meaning she’s won at least an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony throughout her six-decade career.
But, like many other popular celebrities, Streisand has had her fair share of diva moments. It is well known that this star has very strict rules when it comes to interviews. For example, she has specific requests for camera angles that can be used, so she can always show her good side. Plus, Streisand won’t tolerate interviewers mispronouncing her name.
Barbra Streisand has some weird interview rules, including the camera angle
With a career spanning more than six decades, this talented performer has had her share of controversies. For example, she once threw shade at Lady Gage for her role in the remake of A star is born, a role Streisand has portrayed in the past. Also, this Oscar-winning actress and singer is well known for having a strict set of rules in her contract when it comes to interviews.
For example, Streisand has specific requests about camera angles. And she once canceled an appearance on Jimmy Kim’s Late Night Show because the host refused to switch seats with her so the cameras could catch her good side.
During an interview with Andy Cohen, Kimmel opened up about the problem he had with Barbra Streisand. Kimmel admitted that he would have been willing to switch places if he had been allowed to joke about the situation, but Streisand refused to do so. “The stipulation was that we couldn’t talk about the fact that we’d switched, and I was like, ‘I just don’t see how that’s going to happen,'” the late-night show host explained.
Then in 2014, Streisand appeared in The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. And to compensate for the singer’s request to show her good side in front of the cameras, the talk show insisted that Streisand sit at his desk during the interview.
Barbra Streisand once called out an interviewer for mispronouncing her name
Besides the cameras always showing her good side when it comes to interviews, Barbra Streisand has a strict rule about how to pronounce her name. In fact, in 2016, she called out Michael Usher on an Australian news show 60 minutesfor mispronouncing her name during an interview.
After being misrepresented, a visibly frustrated Streisand asked the interviewer, “What’s my name? … You said it with a ‘z’, you had a double whammy.” The host then made sure he pronounced the second ‘s’ in her last name in a softer way, before Streisand replied sarcastically: “That’s it, he there is! My God, he’s got it!’
No one likes their name being mispronounced. So it makes sense why this multi-award winning actress and singer asked the interviewer to pronounce her name correctly. However, fans were disappointed with the way Streisand went about it. Some pointed out that the singer appeared to be mocking the interviewer with her comments after he correctly said her name.
Barbra Streisand even asked the CEO of Apple to correct the way Siri pronounces her name
The incident with this Australian news anchor wasn’t the only time Barbra Streisand had to correct the way someone pronounced her name. In fact, the Grammy-winning singer revealed that she once got Apple’s CEO to change the way which Siri says her name.
Streisand was apparently on good terms with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs before his death. The singer revealed that she even called him more than once to ask for IT support for her computer.
“I couldn’t figure something out on my computer and nobody could figure it out, no IT guy, so I said, ‘Can you call Steve Jobs?'” the singer revealed in an interview, adding: “Of course I asked him about this problem and he could not understand it. He gave me his IT guy who couldn’t figure it out either. That was funny.”
And a few years later, Streisand called Jobs’ successor, Tim Cook, to complain about Siri. All because Apple’s personal assistant tool kept mispronouncing her name. In 2016, Streisand told NPR that Siri kept mispronouncing her name “should be ‘Streisand with a soft s, like sand on the beach.’
I’ve been saying that my whole career.” She then added, “So what did I do? I called the head of Apple, Tim Cook, and he happily agreed to let Siri change the pronunciation of my name finally with the next update on September 30. So let’s see if that happens, because I’m going to be excited.”