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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Daniel Bird

Carol McGiffin says Barbie movie is hugely offensive and slams Margot Robbie casting

Former Loose Women star Carol McGiffin has lashed out at Greta Gerwig's new Barbie movie as stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling continue their mammoth press tour.

Broadcaster Carol, who is known for her brutal shutdowns, says everything she knows about the soon to be release flick has 'offended her more than anything'.

The ex ITV star also slammed the casting of Margot Robbie as America's favourite doll and said UK star Katie Price would have been a much better fit in the lead role.

Early Barbie reviews have been hugely positive, with some critics insisting Gosling could earn an Oscar nomination for his portrayal as Ken.

But Carol, 63, doesn't share the same views as she hit out in style in her latest column.

Carol McGiffin has lashed out at the soon-to-be-released Barbie movie (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

"I have nothing against Barbie, the Seventies doll," Carol wrote in Best magazine, before adding: "But everything about the new movie offends me like nothing has before and I've not seen it, nor will I. Because you just know that even though she was an icon of an age gone by, Hollywood will somehow turn her into a professional feminist.

"And Margot Robbie so miscast. The obvious person to play the plastic, out-of-proportion doll with the pink house was Katie Price!"

The movie portrays what the dolls created by Mattel would do if they were left completely alone, with no real human interactions. However, their life is thrown into chaos when they travel to what is said to be the real world in their car which spins around in the air.

Despite receiving widespread praise, writer Greta Gerwig explained she was terrified to take on the job after Margot Robbie and Warner Bros had purchased the rights to the movie.

She also believes that Margot Robbie has been miscast (FILM STILL / HANDOUT)

"It's not like a superhero, who already has a story. It felt very much like it was going to be an adaptation," she told The Guardian, before adding: "Except what we were adapting is a doll – an icon of the 20th century."

But while Gosling and Robbie may have taken the lead roles, Gerwig also had her eyes set on Timothée Chalamet and friend and co-star Saoirse Ronan making a cameo appearance. Gerwig had previously worked with Chalamet and Ronan on the 2019 coming-of-age movie, Little Women.

Speaking about cutting Saoirse's cameo from the movie, Greta said: "Well, it was always going to have to be like a sort of smaller thing because she was actually producing at the time, which I am so proud of her for," and of Timothée, she added: "But it was going to be a speciality cameo. I was also going to do a speciality 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."

Last year, Ronan told People that she was supposed to play "another Barbie" while the crew were filming in London but she was left gutted when she discovered she couldn't take part.

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