After Sinead O’Connor’s death at the age of 56 was announced on Wednesday, her colleagues, friends and fans took to social media to offer their tributes.
Many of those honouring the Irish singer, who famously covered Prince’s Nothing Compares 2 U and also went by Shuhada Sadaqat in recent years, were well-known names from show business.
Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s prime minister, similarly paid his respects to O’Connor, saying that “her talent was unmatched and beyond compare.”
Although many of the celebrity tributes appeared on Twitter (aka X), Outlander star Caitriona Balfe honoured the singer with an Instagram post.
The death of Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor has prompted many people to revisit her most controversial moment – and her later thoughts on how it defined her career in a “beautiful fucking way”.
O’Connor became a music industry pariah after appearing on the late-night US comedy show Saturday Night Live in 1992,
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A critic of the Catholic Church well before allegations of sexual abuse were widely reported, she ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II during the live television appearance.
“Fight the real enemy,” the 26-year-old said as she tore the photo, which was met with a deafening silence from the studio audience.
in 1992, sinead o’connor shocked the producers of SNL when at the end of her performance, she tore up a photo of the pope to protest child sex abuse in the church. her career was totally derailed and the church’s abuse did not re-enter the national spotlight for another 10 years pic.twitter.com/MwfO73qSZv
Thirty years later and this remarkable moment has lost none of its power. Sinéad was protesting the covering up of sex crimes by the Catholic Church. Imagine the courage it took to do this live on US television. And she was right. All along, she was right. pic.twitter.com/WbUmRBBLRW
During the dress rehearsal, she held up “a photo of a Brazilian street kid who was killed by cops” instead, so no-one knew what was coming.
The next week, Joe Pesci hosted Saturday Night Live, held up a repaired photo of the Pope and said if he had been on the show with O’Connor he “would have gave her such a smack”.
Days later, she appeared at an all-star tribute for Bob Dylan at Madison Square Garden and was immediately booed. Although consoled and encouraged on stage by her friend Kris Kristofferson, she left and broke down. Her a capella performance of Bob Marley’s War – which was a choice made as the cacophony of boos rained down – was kept off the concert record.
<img class="img-sized__img portrait" loading="lazy" alt="Sinead O’Connor stands alone amidst boos in 1992 in New York City.” width=”720″ height=”1080″ src=”https://www.wellnessmaster.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/sinead-oconnor-thought-tearing-up-the-popes-picture-defined-her-career-in-a-beautiful-fing-way-2.jpg”>
Sinead O’Connor stands alone amidst boos in 1992 in New York City.
via Associated Press
There were protests and death threats, and a bulldozer was used to flatten a pile of her records in Times Square. It led to O’Connor – still fresh off the global success of Nothing Compares 2 U two years earlier – being effectively blacklisted, as she acknowledged in an interview the Guardian almost 30 years later.
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Asked whether the moment had defined her career, she told the newspaper in 2021: “Yes, in a beautiful fucking way. There was no doubt about who this bitch is. There was no more mistaking this woman for a pop star.
“But it was not derailing; people say, ‘Oh, you fucked up your career’ but they’re talking about the career they had in mind for me. I fucked up the house in Antigua that the record company dudes wanted to buy. I fucked up their career, not mine.
“It meant I had to make my living playing live, and I am born for live performance.”
In 2010, Pope Benedict apologised to the victims of child sex abuse by Catholic priests in Ireland.
The quote was being shared widely on social media in the aftermath of her death, aged 56.
i feel like this statement from Sinead O’Connor is required reading for anyone who has ever seen video of her “controversial” SNL appearance where she ripped up the picture of the pope to protest the church’s child sex abuse scandals https://t.co/mqVYhRTLb6
You could say Barbiefans are going Oppenheimer on some far-right criticisms of the film.
Late last week, some fans of the patriarchy attempted to discourage people from going to see the new Barbie movie, with one critic on Twitter calling it a “two-hour woke-a-thon” full of “nuclear-level rage against men”.
Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro seemed to lead the charge on Friday — the day the movie premiered — by tweeting that his producers “dragged” him to see the movie, and called it “one of the most woke movies I have ever seen”.
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He also promised to release a full review of the “flaming garbage heap of a film” the next day on YouTube, which he did, in a video called “Ben Shapiro DESTROYS The Barbie Movie For 43 Minutes”.
But Shapiro wasn’t alone in his hatred for the movie’s feminist themes.
Billionaire and Twitter X.com owner Elon Musk also ridiculed the film, tweeting: If “you take a shot every time Barbie says the word ‘patriarchy’, you will pass out before the movie ends.”
Far-right media figure Jack Posobiec struck a similar tone, calling Barbie a “man-hating Woke propaganda fest” and “possibly the most anti-male film ever made”. Ginger Gaetz, wife of Republican Representative Matt Gaetz, called for a boycott of the film despite attending a premiere event all decked out in pink and posing in a Barbie box. She criticised the movie for neglecting to “address any notion of faith or family”, trying to “normalise the idea that men and women can’t collaborate positively”, and for portraying Ken as not masculine.
The movie has been described as highlighting very basic feminist themes by many people on Twitter, with HuffPost’s culture writer, Candice Frederick, describing the tone as “feminist-lite”.
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“Barbie is not particularly feminist. It’s a lot more complicated than that, just like most people are — and how any great character should be presented,” Frederick wrote.
Regardless of whether or not Barbie is too woke or not feminist enough, many Twitter users had some pretty funny responses to the whole conservative backlash — and female camaraderie they felt while watching the film in theaters. To read the most hilarious responses, strap on your favourite rollerblades and roll, er, scroll on down!
Ok so Barbie is “anti-male” but Oppenheimer is fine??? Sorry but who killed more men?
Look I don’t think Barbie was or needed to be subversive but I will say the first thing my daughter said after we got out of the theater was “what’s patriarchy” so it’s doing enough work, guys
Every pink-covered woman at this theater greeted one another with enthusiastic “hi Barbie!!!”s and I feel like I have transcended from this plane to a feminist dreamscape hello
with the barbie movie coming out, i think we should start treating men. the same way they treat us when a new superhero movie comes out. you spot a man in the theater, you ask: oh you’re gonna watch barbie? name every barbie movie ever made. who’s bibble? sing every word of i’m –
No, of course I never played with Barbies as a kid. Those were for girls! I was doing boy stuff, not stuff for little girls. Anyway, as a grown man, here is my review of the Barbie movie, which made me furious because it didn’t cater to me.
the way barbie isn’t even revolutionary but called “anti-men”. shows you how most men are easily uncomfortable, even by the Most liberal feminist take like that’s sad….
the funniest part about conservatives calling barbie woke is like what did they expect. did they want barbie to promote being a stay at home wife and homeschooling children or whatever? barbies whole thing is she could do any job men could do lol, she has never been “antiwoke”
fuck they made barbie woke. fuck. FUCK! how am I supposed to go about my day knowing my favorite doll isn’t in the freedom caucus? i need mom to get me a milk before i pass out pic.twitter.com/loQYIntPP4
It’s funny to see conservative losers crying about the Barbie movie like Mattel hasn’t been selling Barbies that are progressive, inclusive, feminist and diverse for literal decades. pic.twitter.com/iFrmMhiOAQ
BBC News presenter Clive Myrie has said “journalism has lost a giant” as he paid an emotional tribute to his colleague and friend George Alagiah.
The award-winning journalist and presenter died on Monday, the BBC said. Alagiah had been diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2014.
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Announcing his colleague’s death during the lunchtime BBC News broadcast, Myrie appeared emotional as he spoke about his “mentor and friend”.
Myrie said: “On a personal note, George touched all of us here at in the newsroom with his kindness and generosity, his warmth and his good humour.
“We loved him here at BBC News and I loved him as a mentor, colleague and friend.
“His spirit, strength and courage in the later years of his life is something his family can be so proud of. Journalism has lost a giant.”
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On the BBC News at Six, Sophie Raworth, who launched the “new look” show with Alagiah 20 years ago, shared that his “final” wish to return to work one last time.
Raworth said: “I saw him a few weeks ago. He told me he had hoped to come back to work one last time, to say thank you and goodbye right here live on air in the studio.
“He didn’t get a chance. So we have done it for him. I will leave you now with George Alagiah in his own words.”
This is a beautiful tribute to George Alagiah by Sophie Raworth. He was such a special colleague to all of us – and, as Sophie writes, the ‘kindest, most thoughtful, generous soul’. https://t.co/sfFo5qKa8h
Alagiah first joined the BBC as a foreign affairs correspondent in 1989, and won accolades for his reports on the famine and war in Somalia in the early 1990s, and was nominated for a Bafta in 1994 for covering Saddam Hussein’s genocidal campaign against the Kurds of northern Iraq.
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He was also named Amnesty International’s journalist of the year in 1994 for reporting on the civil war in Burundi and also won the Broadcasting Press Guild’s award for television journalist of the year.
Since 2003, Alagiah had been the regular presenter of BBC News at Six, as well as hosting News at One and News at Six.
Alagiah, who was appointed an OBE for services to journalism in 2008, underwent 17 rounds of chemotherapy to treat his advanced bowel cancer after he was first diagnosed in 2014.
He returned to presenting duties in 2015 after making progress against the disease, and said he was a “richer person” for it.
His cancer returned in December 2017, and the presenter underwent further treatment before once again returning to work.
With ITV1 splitting TV coverage of the Women’s World Cup with the BBC, there’s set to be disruption to regular programming in the coming weeks.
The tournament is currently underway in Australia and New Zealand, meaning that many games are taking place in the morning hours for sports fans in the UK.
So, if you’re flicking on the telly disappointed not to see Susanna Reid, Lorraine Kelly, Alison Hammond and co on your screens, here’s the full schedule for ITV1 daytime this week…
If you’ve watched TV, gone online or even just ventured outside your home lately, it can’t have escaped your attention that Greta Gerwig’s long-awaited Barbie film is finally almost here.
The hype has been building ever since we caught our first glimpse of Margot Robbie in character as the iconic doll, but things ramped up when the first meme-ready trailer dropped in the spring, followed by a marketing campaign that dominated social media.
As a result, the film has undoubtedly become the most talked-about of 2023, and while we’re happy to hold up our hands and say we’ve been as swept up in the pink tornado as much as anyone… it’s also been hard to ignore that tiny voice in the back of our heads that just kept on questioning: “Can the Barbie film – or, indeed, any film – actually live up to all this hype?”.
Well, we’re pleased to report that it can. Not only is Barbie an effective dose of candy-coloured escapism, and one of the funniest new comedies to come out in recent history, it’s also genuinely thought-provoking and, at times, quite devastating. What a relief.
Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as seen on the poster for Barbie
Warner Bros
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In case you’re one of those who hasn’t spent the last three months watching the Barbie trailer at least once a day (we can’t be the only ones, right?), the film centres around the titular doll, played by Margot, who spends her days in Barbie Land hanging out with her Barbie pals, having Barbie dance parties and generally living her best Barbie life. Until she’s not.
From nowhere, things quickly start to unravel in her life. Her unnaturally-arched Barbie feet suddenly hit the floor, her perfect routine is thrown out of whack and, oh yeah, she starts to be consumed by thoughts of impending death. Fun!
Guided by the oracle “Weird Barbie” (and accompanied, begrudgingly, by her always-eager right-hand man Ken), Margot’s character ventures to the “Real World” to help set things right, where she discovers she and her Barbie pals haven’t quite impacted society for the better in the way they’d hoped.
It also turns out to be an eye-opening experience for Ken, who – after a lifetime in Barbie’s shadow – begins to flourish in his new surroundings, with genuinely unsettling results.
Ryan Gosling in character as Ken
Warner Bros./Jaap Buitendijk
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This is just one of the areas the Barbie movie managed to surprise us. Our biggest worry heading into the film was that a lot of the plot may have already been given away in the trailer. While admittedly much of the first act plays out like an extended version of the teaser, with a few clever gags added in , there were still plenty of satisfying twists ahead – particularly involving Ryan’s Ken and Rhea Perlman’s mysterious character – that we’re happy were kept under wraps until now.
It’s hard to play favourites among the cast, but we have to shout out Margot for her stand-out performance, helping us root for a character who could so easily have become one-dimensional or even irritating in the wrong hands.
Much has been made of Ryan’s performance as Ken, and he deserves it, taking the character to places we truly didn’t expect, and supporting players Issa Rae, Kate McKinnon, America Ferrera and Will Ferrell all deserved to be singled out for praise, too.
But it has to be said, the true star of the show is Greta Gerwig, who directed and co-wrote Barbie. The three-time Oscar nominee created a film that’s visually stunning and so jam-packed with fun details and Easter eggs that the only way to spot them all would be through repeated viewing.
She’s also gifted film fans with a script that manages to be both laugh-out-loud silly and heart-breaking – often within the same scene – and it’s pretty much guaranteed to be a quote-along sleepover go-to for Generation Alpha, akin to Clueless, Mean Girls and Easy A before it.
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Ken and Barbie prepare to take a journey to the “Real World”
Warner Bros
The filmmaker mostly manages to toe the line between irreverence and outright disrespect, sending up Barbie and pointing out its critiques without turning the whole thing into a hatchet job. She also makes it clear that there’s room for all viewpoints on the brand – love, hate, apathy – in her Barbie Land.
Of course, a Mattel-endorsed Barbie movie is still a Mattel-endorsed Barbie movie, and even the teenager who at one point brands the character a “fascist” who’s responsible for “setting the feminist movement back 50 years”, glorifying capitalism and “destroying the planet” is won over by her in the end.
Still, to anyone nervous about Barbie living up to expectations, take a sigh of relief, gather up your Barbie pals and get ready for some big laughs. Life in plastic, we’re relieved to say, is every bit as fantastic as Aqua promised all those years ago.
Barbie is in cinemas from 21 July. Watch the trailer below:
","type":"video","meta":{"author":"Warner Bros. Pictures","author_url":"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjmJDM5pRKbUlVIzDYYWb6g","cache_age":86400,"description":"Giant blowout party ✅\nPlanned choreography ✅\nNew #BarbieTheMovie Trailer ✅\nOnly in Theaters July 21.\n\nTo live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken.\n\nPre-order/save Barbie The Album: https://barbiethealbum.lnk.to/BTA\n\nFrom Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig (“Little Women,” “Lady Bird”) comes “Barbie,” starring Oscar-nominees Margot Robbie (“Bombshell,” “I, Tonya”) and Ryan Gosling (“La La Land,” “Half Nelson”) as Barbie and Ken, alongside America Ferrera (“End of Watch,” the “How to Train Your Dragon” films), Kate McKinnon (“Bombshell,” “Yesterday”), Issa Rae (“The Photograph,” “Insecure”), Rhea Perlman (“I’ll See You in My Dreams,” “Matilda”), and Will Ferrell (the “Anchorman” films, “Talladega Nights”). 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The film’s producers are Oscar nominee David Heyman (“Marriage Story,” “Gravity”), Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Robbie Brenner, with Gerwig, Baumbach, Ynon Kreiz, Richard Dickson, Michael Sharp, Josey McNamara, Courtenay Valenti, Toby Emmerich and Cate Adams serving as executive producers.\n\nGerwig’s creative team behind the camera included Oscar-nominated director of photography Rodrigo Prieto (“The Irishman,” “Silence,” “Brokeback Mountain”), six-time Oscar-nominated production designer Sarah Greenwood (“Beauty and the Beast,” “Anna Karenina”), editor Nick Houy (“Little Women,” “Lady Bird”), Oscar-winning costume designer Jacqueline Durran (“Little Women,” “Anna Karenina”), visual effects supervisor Glen Pratt (“Paddington 2,” “Beauty and the Beast”) and music supervisor George Drakoulias (“White Noise,” “Marriage Story”), with music by Oscar winners Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt (“A Star Is Born”).\n\nWarner Bros. Pictures Presents a Heyday Films Production, a LuckyChap Entertainment Production, a NB/GG Pictures Production, a Mattel Production, “Barbie.” The film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. 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The daytime TV panellist told viewers of Monday’s show that she underwent treatment for basal cell carcinoma on her shoulder, before being told she has a melanoma on her face.
Coleen – whose sister Bernie died from breast cancer in 2013, before her other sisters Anne and Linda were later diagnosed with the cancer – explained how she had put off getting a red patch of skin on her shoulder checked for a year, explaining that it “wasn’t bothering” her.
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It was only when she visited a doctor for a different issue around six months ago that she was told it was a basal cell carcinoma, which the NHS describes as a non-melanoma skin cancer that does not usually spread to other parts of the body.
Coleen has since used topical chemotherapy cream to successfully treat it, which she confirmed means she will not need to have it removed.
“My first instinct, typical me, was to laugh hysterically because I just thought that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard anybody say,” she said of being told the news.
“I’m sick of cancer and I also my first instinct was, I’m not telling anybody in my family because this, that I’ve got at the moment, seems nothing compared to what my sisters have been though.
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“And now, what Linda is going through, where it has gone to her brain and she’s having chemo.
“It just seemed so pathetic for some reason to go back and go: ‘Oh yeah, I’ve got a carcinoma’.”
However, Coleen recently had a mark underneath her eye checked out, which doctors confirmed was melanoma skin cancer, which can spread to other areas of the body.
She will now use chemo cream again to treat the area, before a decision is made whether to remove it.
Coleen discussed her diagnosis with Ruth Langsford, Brenda Edwards and Gloria Hunniford on Loose Women
S Meddle/ITV/Shutterstock
While Coleen said she had “not been ill” with either of her skin cancers, she explained she was speaking about it on Loose Women to raise awareness, having previously done this when participating in The Real Full Monty series.
“The one thing we keep putting out is awareness. It’s all about getting checked out, even if it could be nothing,” she said.
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“I thought I need to take a leaf out of my own book.”
Coleen’s sister Linda is was told she had incurable secondary breast cancer in her hip in 2017, four years after Bernie’s death from the disease aged 52.
The cancer later spread to Linda’s liver in 2020, before she was told earlier this year that the cancer had spread to her brain.
The Nolan Family – Maureen, father Tommy, Bernie (back) and Linda, Anne and Coleen
Manchester Daily Express via Getty Images
The siblings’ sister Anne successfully underwent treatment for stage three breast cancer following her diagnosis in 2020, having previously undergone treatment for the disease 20 years prior.
Bringing the most iconic doll in the world to life on the big screen is no small feat – but if the first reactions from critics are anything to go by, it seems like Greta Gerwig has pulled it off with her Barbie movie.
As soon as the first trailer dropped earlier this year, it was clear that Greta, along with star and executive producer Margot Robbie and the rest of the film’s production team, went to painstaking lengths to immerse viewers in Barbie’s plastic fantastic world.
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The film features full-size Dream House sets, costumes inspired by famous Barbie looks and even nods to Barbie controversies (like the inclusion of pregnant Midge, a doll who caused outrage upon release) – the attention to detail looks impeccable.
From Greta’s unusual pitch to film executives to the cameos that didn’t happen and Ryan Gosling’s costume brainwave, these behind-the-scenes facts should tide you over until the film arrives on Friday 21 July…
The woman who inspired Barbie’s name has a cameo in the film
Barbie meets her namesake in the new film’s trailer
Warner Bros
If you’ve watched the Barbie trailer over and over again (guilty!), you might be familiar with one sequence showing Margot’s character meeting an older lady on a park bench, who tells her: “Humans get one ending. Ideas live forever.”
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That woman is none other Barbara Handler, who the first ever Barbie was named after. She’s the daughter of Barbie inventor Ruth Handler (who also named Ken after her son, Kenneth).
The production used so much pink paint, they ‘cleaned out’ their suppliers
Barbie Land is a pastel paradise – causing a shortage of pink paint the world over
Warner Bros
Bringing Barbie Land to life required a lot of pink paint. So much, it turns out, that the film industry’s go-to paint suppliers, Rosco, basically had to hand over all their stock.
Lauren Proud, Rosco’s vice president of global marketing, confirmed that the film “used as much paint as we had” in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.
“There was this shortage, and then we gave them everything we could,” she explained.
This Barbie doesn’t need CGI effects
This shot of Barbie’s perpetually-arched feet appeared in the first trailer
Warner Bros
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Sure, Christopher Nolan may have recreated a nuclear explosion without CGI for Oppenheimer, but Barbie still features some pretty impressive practical effects of its own too.
In one instantly memorable shot from the film’s trailer, we see Barbie step out of her fluffy high heels, only for her feet to remain perfectly arched (just like the doll’s).
Greta decided against using CGI for Barbie’s feet (perhaps she’s still traumatised by the Cats movie). “I thought, ‘Oh god, no! That’s terrifying! That’s a nightmare’,” she told The Project.
The shot eventually took “about eight takes”, according to Margot. “I was holding on to a bar, but that’s it,” she told Fandango. “I wasn’t in a harness or anything. I just walked up and kind of held onto the bar above camera.”
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Margot and Greta had to perform a scene for a Mattel exec to win him over
According to TIME magazine, at one point during production, Mattel’s Chief Operating Officer Richard Dickson flew over to London to intervene as he believed that one scene was “off-brand” for Barbie.
“[Dickson] says he took a flight to the London set to argue with Gerwig and Robbie over a particular scene, which he felt was off-brand,” the report says. “But Gerwig and Robbie performed the scene for him and changed his mind.” Who could argue with that?
A chance encounter with a Ken doll persuaded Ryan to take the role
Ryan Gosling at CinemaCon earlier this year
Greg Doherty via Getty Images
After reading the Barbie script, Ryan headed outside to mull things over.
“I walked out in the backyard and you know where I found Ken?” he told Jimmy Fallon during an appearance on The Tonight Show. “Face down in the mud next to a squished lemon.”
He took a photo of poor downtrodden Ken, and sent it to Greta.
“I shall be your Ken,” he wrote in the message. “For his story must be told.”
He also came up with the idea that Ken would wear his own branded underwear
Ryan Gosling in character as Ken
Warner Bros./Jaap Buitendijk
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When the first promotional picture showing Ryan in full Ken get-up, complete with bleach blond hair, landed online last year, fans quickly honed in on one hilarious detail: the fact that Ken’s underwear was specially branded with his name on the waistband.
According to costume designer Jacqueline Durran, the idea came from the actor, who had the brainwave in a late fitting. “We just rushed to make it,” she told Vogue.
The Barbie gang attended ‘movie church’ during filming…
When production was in full swing, Margot’s production company LuckyChap put on weekly film screenings at Notting Hill’s Electric Cinema, a tradition which came to be known as “movie church”.
Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig at Barbie’s London premiere
Gareth Cattermole via Getty Images
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That wasn’t the only event that the cast got to attend together. Before filming kicked off, Greta hosted a Barbie sleepover at Claridges and invited some of the female cast (the Kens could attend too, but they weren’t allowed to stay the night).
“Honestly, it just felt like it would be the most fun way to kick everything off,” the director told The Guardian. “And it’s something you don’t get to do that much as an adult. Like, ‘I’m just going to go have a sleepover with my friends…’”
… And went on a night out to see Magic Mike Live
In an interview with Rolling Stone UK, Ncuti Gatwa (who plays one of the Kens) described the cast’s trip to Magic Mike Live as “one of the best nights of my life”.
“I don’t know how I made it through any filming in the week after, my voice was gone from screaming so much,” he admitted. “The videos in the group chat the next morning were the best.
“Greta Gerwig’s assistant was pulled up on stage and given a lap dance and Greta was screaming in delight. Afterwards, we went and danced our hearts out. Margot is a very, very good party host. She’s queen of the vibes.”
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Margot left a special ‘beach-related’ gift for Ryan every day during filming
Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as seen on the poster for Barbie
Warner Bros
Not only did Margot help cast and crew get into the Barbie spirit by mandating a “pink day” dress code once a week on set, she also channeled her character by providing her co-star with some extremely on-brand gifts.
“[Margot] left a pink present with a pink bow, from Barbie to Ken, every day while we were filming,” Ryan told Vogue earlier this year. “They were all beach-related. Like puka shells, or a sign that says ‘Pray for surf’. Because Ken’s job is just beach. I’ve never quite figured out what that means. But I felt like she was trying to help Ken understand, through those gifts that she was giving.”
Oh, and Margot took that ‘pink day’ very seriously
“Margot had this pink day once a week, where everyone had to wear something pink,” Ryan told People magazine.
“If you didn’t, you were fined. She would go around collecting the fines, and she would donate it to a charity.”
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Greta wrote Mattel and Warner Bros executives a ‘surreal’ poem to get them on side
Greta at a Barbie photocall in London
Stuart C. Wilson via Getty Images
As part of her initial pitch, Greta came up with a poem that she has since described as “surreal” in an interview with The Guardian.
So far, she’s kept quiet on the poem’s contents, but she has likened it to religious writings like the Apostle’s Creed, a Christian prayer, and the lament of Job.
“Shockingly, it does actually communicate some of the vibe of the movie,” she said.
Greta really wanted these two long-time collaborators to make a cameo – but the timings didn’t work
Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet appeared in Greta’s first two solo directorial efforts, Lady Bird and Little Women, and the filmmaker had lined up Barbie cameo roles for them too. Unfortunately, the timing didn’t work out, with Saoirse working on an adaptation of The Outrun and Timothée also being ridiculously in-demand.
Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet looking – it has to be said – not unlike Barbie and Ken at a Little Women photocall
David M. Benett via Getty Images
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“It was always going to have to be like a sort of smaller thing because [Saoirse] was actually producing at the time, which I am so proud of her for,” Greta told CinemaBlend.
“And of course, it’s brilliant. But it was going to be a specialty cameo. I was also going to do a specialty cameo with Timmy.
“Both of them couldn’t do it and I was so annoyed. But I love them so much. But it felt like doing something without my children. I mean, I’m not their mom, but I sort of feel like their mom.”
There was another star who didn’t make it into the film either
“Gal Gadot is Barbie energy,” Margot explained.
“Because Gal Gadot is so impossibly beautiful, but you don’t hate her for being that beautiful, because she’s so genuinely sincere, and she’s so enthusiastically kind, that it’s almost dorky. It’s like right before being a dork.”
Gal Gadot
MICHAEL TRAN via Getty Images
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Unfortunately for Margot and Greta, however, Gal wasn’t available at the time of filming either, meaning we never got to see the Wonder Woman star in Barbie Land.
Margot’s connections with Chanel shaped Barbie’s wardrobe
The majority of Margot’s outfits were custom-made by Jacqueline Durran and her team, but “if Margot wears anything that we didn’t make, it’s pretty much Chanel,” the costume designer told Vogue.
Margot has been an ambassador for the French fashion house since 2018, and the company “sent us anything and everything that we wanted”.
Margot didn’t initially think she’d be the one to play Barbie
Barbie’s journey to the big screen has been a long one. First, Amy Schumer was cast in the role, but later left the project when it became clear that it didn’t align with her vision for the film.
She later revealed that an early sign was when the team behind the movie sent her a pair of Manolo Blahniks to celebrate her hiring. “The idea that that’s just what every woman must want, right there, I should have gone, ‘You’ve got the wrong gal,’” she told The Hollywood Reporter last year.
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Amy Schumer was originally supposed to play Barbie
NBC via Getty Images
Anne Hathaway then joined the film, but plans fell through.
And even when Margot’s LuckyChap production took the helm, it still wasn’t a given that she would take the lead role, eventually being announced in July 2019, two years before Greta signed on to direct.
The Barbie dreamhouse sets play with scale to make the actors appear more doll-like
In Barbie Land, all the proportions are deliberately a little bit off.
Set decorator Katie Spencer told Architectural Digest that they adjusted the dreamhouse rooms to be 23% smaller than the usual human size. So, for example, the ceilings were “quite close to one’s head”, as Greta put it, “and it only takes a few paces to cross the room”, as would be the case in an actual Barbie house.
The overall effect was to make the actors “seem big in the space but small overall”.
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You won’t see any proper writing in Barbie Land – instead, the Barbies communicate through scribbles, Margot explained.
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“There’s no actual writing in Barbie Land,” she told Architectural Digest. “It’s just scribbled the way kids kind of write endless amounts of, you know, nothing. But it’s all very beautiful.”
Playing Ken helped Ryan ‘make peace’ with his Disney Channel days
Before Ryan was an Oscar-nominated movie star, he was an all-singing, all-dancing member of The Mickey Mouse Club (you’ve almost certainly seen the video clips of his fancy footwork). He thought he’d turned his back on his Mouseketeer past, but playing Ken helped him reconnect with his inner child star.
“At a certain point I thought I had left that kid behind, and I realized that I needed his help to make this movie,” he told EW. “So I had to go back and make peace with him and ask for his help. It was good for me.” We’re certain that his Disney past came in useful when he was filming his epic musical number, “I’m Just Ken”.
Barbie arrives in UK cinemas on Friday 21 July. Watch the trailer below:
","type":"video","meta":{"author":"Warner Bros. Pictures","author_url":"https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjmJDM5pRKbUlVIzDYYWb6g","cache_age":86400,"description":"Giant blowout party ✅\nPlanned choreography ✅\nNew #BarbieTheMovie Trailer ✅\nOnly in Theaters July 21.\n\nTo live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken.\n\nPre-order/save Barbie The Album: https://barbiethealbum.lnk.to/BTA\n\nFrom Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig (“Little Women,” “Lady Bird”) comes “Barbie,” starring Oscar-nominees Margot Robbie (“Bombshell,” “I, Tonya”) and Ryan Gosling (“La La Land,” “Half Nelson”) as Barbie and Ken, alongside America Ferrera (“End of Watch,” the “How to Train Your Dragon” films), Kate McKinnon (“Bombshell,” “Yesterday”), Issa Rae (“The Photograph,” “Insecure”), Rhea Perlman (“I’ll See You in My Dreams,” “Matilda”), and Will Ferrell (the “Anchorman” films, “Talladega Nights”). The film also stars Michael Cera (“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” “Juno”), Ariana Greenblatt (“Avengers: Infinity War,” “65”), Ana Cruz Kayne (“Little Women”), Emma Mackey (“Emily,” “Sex Education”), Hari Nef (“Assassination Nation,” “Transparent”), Alexandra Shipp (the “X-Men” films), Kingsley Ben-Adir (“One Night in Miami,” “Peaky Blinders”), Simu Liu (“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”), Ncuti Gatwa (“Sex Education”), Scott Evans (“Grace and Frankie”), Jamie Demetriou (“Cruella”), Connor Swindells (“Sex Education,” “Emma.”), Sharon Rooney (“Dumbo,” “Jerk”), Nicola Coughlan (“Bridgerton,” “Derry Girls”), Ritu Arya (“The Umbrella Academy”), Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Dua Lipa and Oscar-winner Helen Mirren (“The Queen”).\n\nGerwig directed “Barbie” from a screenplay by Gerwig & Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach (“Marriage Story,” “The Squid and the Whale”), based on Barbie by Mattel. The film’s producers are Oscar nominee David Heyman (“Marriage Story,” “Gravity”), Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Robbie Brenner, with Gerwig, Baumbach, Ynon Kreiz, Richard Dickson, Michael Sharp, Josey McNamara, Courtenay Valenti, Toby Emmerich and Cate Adams serving as executive producers.\n\nGerwig’s creative team behind the camera included Oscar-nominated director of photography Rodrigo Prieto (“The Irishman,” “Silence,” “Brokeback Mountain”), six-time Oscar-nominated production designer Sarah Greenwood (“Beauty and the Beast,” “Anna Karenina”), editor Nick Houy (“Little Women,” “Lady Bird”), Oscar-winning costume designer Jacqueline Durran (“Little Women,” “Anna Karenina”), visual effects supervisor Glen Pratt (“Paddington 2,” “Beauty and the Beast”) and music supervisor George Drakoulias (“White Noise,” “Marriage Story”), with music by Oscar winners Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt (“A Star Is Born”).\n\nWarner Bros. Pictures Presents a Heyday Films Production, a LuckyChap Entertainment Production, a NB/GG Pictures Production, a Mattel Production, “Barbie.” The film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. 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There’s been no end to the discourse among fans and critics over how And Just Like That is progressing.
The show has made for uncomfortable viewing on more than one occasion — from poorly executed storylines about transgender people to Carrie’s rampant ageism. However, nothing has felt quite so uncomfortable as watching Che’s continued lack of respect for Miranda.
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Given the lack of diversity that dogged Sex And The City many fans welcomed the presence of a prominent nonbinary character and the exploration of LGBTQIA+ relationships beyond cisgender gay men and women.
Unfortunately, what fans envisioned hasn’t aligned with what appears on-screen. As much as many of us have tried to embrace the complexities of Sara Ramirez’s character, Che’s unlikable personality has made it difficult.
No, a character doesn’t need to be likable for a show to succeed — we’re looking at you, Carrie — but the fact that Che represents a marginalised community not regularly seen in the media meant scrutiny would be swift and acute.
Sara Ramirez as Che in “And Just Like That…”
Craig Blankenhorn/Max
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Those of us who identify as nonbinary want to see a multifaceted, nuanced character who doesn’t adhere to stereotypes. By challenging stereotypes, such characters can break down misinformation about gender nonconformity.
Instead, Che only succeeds in reaffirming them. Most notably in episode four of season two, Alive!, Che assumes Miranda will be OK with a threesome with Che’s estranged husband, Lyle.
All the tell-tale signs were there that Che and Lyle’s relationship was still close, and so seeing the two finally in bed together wasn’t a shock. What was, however, was Che ignoring Miranda’s feelings by instigating a threesome without prior consent.
It was tough enough not to cringe at Che expecting Miranda to sleep in the same bed as Lyle, with the cringe factor only intensifying when Che starts making out with Miranda right next to him. But sex is still very much at the heart of the show, and the thrill of maybe being caught is one many viewers can understand.
Less understandable is Lyle joining in without asking, apparently not as asleep as everyone thought. Nor is it acceptable that Che asks a half-hearted “Are you OK with this?” before continuing.
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Cynthia Nixon plays the shock well, with her character Miranda admitting that she needs a second because her initial response is to say no. Even when Miranda eventually says it’s OK and tries to join in, Cynthia’s character represents someone tentatively exploring multiple sex partners with uncertainty.
The issue with the scene isn’t the threesome. And Just Like That would vastly improve if we saw more than monogamous, heterosexual, cis couples having perfectly choreographed sex. No, the problem is the lack of communication, as well as blatant disregard for potential boundaries.
Che never asked Miranda about threesomes prior to this; the couple hasn’t really discussed much of anything in terms of having sexual transparency. Such a portrayal is already questionable for a monogamous couple, but add into the mix a polyamorous one, and the need for authentic representation is crucial.
Nowhere in AJLT has a polyamorous throuple been discussed, so this might not be what Che and Miranda’s relationship will become. Still, while their relationship isn’t set in stone, the importance of communication and trust, especially in a multiple partnered setting, is crucial.
Cynthia Nixon as Miranda in And Just Like That
Craig Blakenhorn/Max
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At every stage of the relationship, Miranda is on the back foot, struggling to find her equilibrium because Che doesn’t offer her any. In episode five, Trick Or Treat, we see how an ill-equipped Che lashes out at Miranda after their TV show is canceled.
The way they shut Miranda down, talking to her as if she’s never experienced loss, speaks of the sheer ignorance Che has when it comes to other people.
It also doesn’t matter that this is a comedy series – that doesn’t excuse feeding the fires of misinformation and stereotypes of LGBTQIA+ people being promiscuous. Moreover, it doesn’t help challenge the outdated beliefs that Sex And The City relied upon, largely due to when it was released.
But it isn’t just the fact that Che’s character is a walking red flag that’s the only problem here — it’s also that the creators chose Che for such a subplot.
Yes, you could argue that Che and Miranda are an obvious choice because their relationship is new, and a lot of the other characters are married. However, that argument is flimsy at best: Carrie is single now, Sarita Choudhury’s Seema is also single, and Dr. Nya (Karen Pittman) has left her husband and is looking to find herself.
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Each one of these characters could embark on the same journey as Miranda, yet they don’t. Although only the writers could say with certainty why that is, but the concern is that it’s because the creators know such a story wouldn’t track well with fans. (TV and film writers, including those who worked on “And Just Like That” are currently on strike over pay and working conditions.)
Fans already dislike Che and Miranda together; they have ever since their affair in season one. Consequently, having these two unlikable characters testing out less traditional sexual activities is a safer bet.
If viewers don’t like it, it simply reaffirms how “awful” these characters are, which some fans enjoy because they relish seeing unfavourable protagonists feeling the swift justice of karma.
Unfortunately, the characters in the line of fire here are the ones who are representing a marginalised group that’s deeply misunderstood. Due to the weight of that reality, AJLT needs to start thinking about Che beyond filling the role of anti-hero and almost villain in the series.
Kristin Davis has played Charlotte York for so long, it’s sometimes hard to separate the actor from her Sex And The City character.
But the And Just Like That star recently revealed that she has one distinct difference from twice-married Charlotte, in that she never wants marriage for herself.
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“We have very different lifestyles, you know?” Kristin said of her on-screen persona during an appearance on the Best Friend Energy podcast.
“I’m not married, I have never been married ― it’s not my thing,” she continued. “I was never focused on it. It was never, like, a goal, let’s say?”
While one of the hosts pointed out that Charlotte was incredibly focused on finding a husband, Kristin quipped: “I know, and that took some acting, let me tell you. It really did.”
Kristin said Charlotte’s obsession with finding a husband and getting married would stress her out at times, as she would struggle to make her lines “real and believable”.
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Kristin with her Sex And The City co-stars in the early years of the show
Getty Images via Getty Images
But she loved how the writers shifted Charlotte’s “narrow” way of thinking about marriage over time.
“Her first husband looks so perfect and everything was so beautiful, but yet it was not perfect,” she said of her character’s on-screen marriage to Trey MacDougal (played by Kyle MacLachlan).
“And then, of course, we meet the wonderful Harry (Evan Handler) and everything is perfect. So I loved it, but it definitely took some work in the beginning.”
And despite not wanting to be married herself, Davis said she “loved” her first on-screen wedding on SATC.
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“I’m not really a wedding girl. But you know, Charlotte loved it, so I loved it,” she said, adding that she tried on around 35 Vera Wang dresses before finding the perfect one.
Kristin has spoken about her single status many times before. She’s made it clear that if anyone were to join her life, they would have to be the perfect fit for her family. The actor has two children ― Gemma and Wilson ― whom she adopted in 2011 and 2018.
“I certainly intellectually feel like I’d like to have another romantic relationship, but I don’t know how to make the day-to-day of it happen. I don’t have time!” she told Haute Living back in 2013.
“It has to be someone so awesome that I would bring him in and potentially share time with Gemma.”
