Film director, music composer, butter-voiced singer, and all-around legend Barbra Streisand is on the cover of Variety tied to the 90th Academy Awards this weekend. She’s a two-time winner herself, and noted critic of misogyny in the industry which she has observed for decades—in the article she says she was bullied by notorious movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, and has a chapter in her unpublished memoir about Hollywood’s “boys club.” She also spoke about such serious issues as the recent Florida school massacre, laying blame on President Trump whom she says “brings out the violence in people.”
But on a lighter note, the photos in the story heavily feature Streisand’s dogs, three white Coton de Tulears–named Miss Violet, Miss Scarlett, and Miss Fanny–that the singer clearly adores. A particular detail she shares about these dogs is what readers will likely remember most from the story: two of them are clones.
One of the dogs, Miss Fanny, was an unplanned adoption. But Miss Violet and Miss Scarlett were created using cells taken from her 14-year-old dog Samantha, who died last year. “They have different personalities,” Streisand told Variety. “I’m waiting for them to get older so I can see if they have her brown eyes and her seriousness.”
In any case, all three of Streisand’s dogs look exactly the same. The two she had custom-made, as well as the one she adopted, all look like the ghost of Samantha. The only difference is that Miss Violet and Miss Scarlett likely each cost $50,000 or more–judging by the website of ViaGen, a company which makes such clones.
Aside from being an extreme case of rich people rich-peopling, dog cloning is irritating because thousands of adoptable dogs are living in shelters waiting for permanent homes. There’s also the issue of whether Barbra Streisand was meant to play God, which she kinda is, but really isn’t.
