Streisand the scientist! Barbra Streisand opened up to Variety in this week’s cover story about her love for her dogs — and how she’s kept the memory of her late pup Samantha alive.
The 75-year-old Funny Girl actress dished on her three Coton de Tulear dogs and revealed that two of her furry friends — Miss Violet and Miss Scarlett — were cloned from cells taken from the mouth and stomach of her beloved 14-year-old dog canine, Samantha, who died in 2017.
“They have different personalities,” she told the mag. “I’m waiting for them to get older so I can see if they have her brown eyes and her seriousness.”
Streisand’s third furry friend, Miss Fanny, is considered the “distant cousin” of the other two, who was adopted by Streisand while she waited on the clones. The dog was initially named Funny Girl and later renamed to Miss Fanny as a nod to Streisand’s character in the 1968 film.
As previously reported, the legendary performer lost her 14-year-old dog in May 2017 and honored her memory with a heartfelt Instagram tribute at the time. “This is the last time my picture was taken with my beloved girl Samantha,” she captioned a photo of herself cradling the pup on Mother’s Day. “May she rest in peace. We cherish every moment of the 14 years we had with her. May 2003 — May 2017.”
She later opened up about the heartbreaking loss in a November 2017 interview with the Associated Press. “She was at every performance. It was like losing a child. It was kind of awful,” she said at the time.
