Dear Gossips,  

The Barbie global press tour is now underway and here in Toronto, where I live, there’s a big fan event happening today. As Sarah noted a couple of weeks ago, the marketing for this movie has been outstanding. Like right now our nation has had a name change – it’s not CANADA, it’s KENADA. 

 

Look at the way Warner Bros Canada has changed its handle:

Which makes all the sense, right? Because two of the most high profile Kens in the movie are Kenadian. It should be pretty obvious then which two cast members are in Toronto today. 

While the two Kenadians are handling the maple leaf stop on the tour, Barbie herself arrived at home in Australia this morning ahead of the Barbie event on Friday. Here’s Margot Robbie in a pink checked blazer over a cropped tank and jeans at the airport in Sydney and I love how even her travel outfits have been strategically Barbie-fied. 

 

Is this the only way they can work Chanel into her promotional wardrobe? It’s a smart decision by her stylist Andrew Mukamal. Keep the Chanel off the red carpet on Margot and work it into her press closet in other ways. 

 

Barbie Margot might be at home in Sydney but given the ubiquity of Barbie right now, she’s also everywhere, including the cover of TIME, alongside all the other Barbies in the movie. 

 

This isn’t just a puff piece though. Eliana Dockterman’s piece explores the relationship between the movie and the Barbie brand – which is essentially the push-pull between creative and corporate interests. Because, as should be obvious by now, Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie and Issa Rae and Ryan Gosling aren’t signing onto a project that’s about the fun life of a doll. There is no doubt that the movie will have something to say about women, body image, perfectionism, and feminism. And there are moments in the article where you sense that the artists behind the project and the business executives who are overseeing it may not share the same perspective. I can’t wait to see what the discourse will be about Barbie when the movie finally opens. 

Yours in gossip, 

Lainey