Barbra Streisand covers the 2018 Oscars edition of Variety. The interview is actually really interesting – Streisand talks a lot about the history of sexism in Hollywood, specifically how she was perceived as a woman who wanted power and control, and how groundbreaking she really was as an actress-director. She also talks politics (she’s always been a liberal Democrat) and how she… cloned her beloved dog to make two new dogs. You can read the full Variety piece here. Some highlights:
On Donald Trump: “He embodies the nasty remarks he makes about other people. He’s a liar. He’s crooked.”
She wasn’t sexually harassed in her youth: “I wasn’t blond enough,” she says. She recalls a strange experience she had as a 16-year-old Brooklyn teenager. “I went to a guy’s apartment once from the Art Students League. He wanted to paint me. He said, ‘The next time you come here, maybe I could paint you with your top off.’ I said, ‘Huh?’”
On Harvey Weinstein: “I thought he was vulgar,” she says. They had a dispute involving the opening night of his Broadway musical “Finding Neverland.” “He wanted me to come there on his arm and sing a song on the album. I said, ‘No. I can’t do that.’” After she turned him down, he threatened not to work with her on future movies and said he wouldn’t be sending her any of his releases to screen at her home. “That kind of stupidity. So I thought he was a boorish guy.”
On the Parkland massacre: “I think even that shooter was affected because Trump brings out the violence in people. He says, ‘It’s OK — rally, lock her up.’”
She’s good friends with Hillary: “I said to her the last time I saw her, ‘You were just too smart.’” In fact, she’s not convinced that Trump beat Clinton. “I really believe she won the election,” Streisand says. “I’ve talked to senators from Michigan and Wisconsin. I do believe, like I believed during Bush, they were playing with those voter machines. And [Al Gore] lost by 537 votes out of 104 million. And now, in retrospect, Bush looks quite good compared to Trump. At least he’s not mean-spirited. He’s not a guy who is retaliating for what Obama did at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.”
Her dogs: Streisand revealed that two of her dogs, Miss Violet and Miss Scarlett, were cloned from her 14-year-old Coton du Tulear Samantha, who died in 2017. Before Samantha died, Streisand had cells taken from her mouth and stomach. “They have different personalities,” Streisand says. “I’m waiting for them to get older so I can see if they have her [Samantha’s] brown eyes and seriousness.” After the clones arrived, Streisand dressed the dogs in red and lavender to tell them apart, which is how they got their names — Miss Scarlett and Miss Violet.
Re: dog cloning… I loved my late Newfie-mix dog so much, but I never wanted to start over with him as a puppy-clone. It just never crossed my mind, nor would I have the means to do so, but more than that, I would not have the inclination. I believe animals have souls and each one has their own personality, and that’s part of the joy of being mom to a fur-baby. We grieve for them when we lose them and that’s part of life. I don’t know… I’m just uncomfortable with Barbra’s cloned dogs. Hm.
As for what she says about politics and Trump… I used to want her to stay quiet about politics because she really wasn’t winning anyone over. But nowadays… whatever, she should say whatever she wants.
Here’s a video about her cloned dogs:
Photos courtesy of Variety.
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