Of Course Barbra Streisand Had Her Dog Cloned
Barbra Streisand just took her legendary diva status to a whole new level.
In a new interview with Variety, the Hello, Dolly! star and music icon revealed that before her beloved 14-year-old dog Samantha passed away back in 2017, she had cell samples removed from the pet's mouth and stomach. Now, she owns two clones of the late pooch: Miss Violet and Miss Scarlett.
"They have different personalities," Streisand told the publication. "I’m waiting for them to get older so I can see if they have her [Samantha’s] brown eyes and seriousness."
Streisand also has a third dog, Miss Fanny, who is a distant cousin of Samantha's. (The dog is named after Fanny Brice, the character Streisand played in 1968's Funny Girl.)
As for the other two pups, because they look so similar Streisand initially dressed them in red and lavender to tell them apart, which is how they got their colorful names.
Streisand isn't the first celebrity to go to great lengths to preserve a beloved pet's DNA: In 2016, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg and her husband Barry Diller paid a Korean cloning firm $100,000 to duplicate their dog Shannon, a Jack Russell Terrier.
In return, they received two identical puppies they named Deena and Evita.