Nicki Minaj turned down a couple of songs before recording ‘Barbie World’

The Barbie World keeps expanding!

The “Barbenheimer” opening weekend is finally upon us!

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “Barbenheimer” is officially here, and the battle between the bomb and the bombshell is about to ignite the box office. Greta Gerwig’s cotton candy-colored “Barbie,” starring Margot Robbie as the plastic, fantastic doll, is expected to generate a huge $95 million to $110 million from 4,200 North American theaters over the weekend. Given the omnipresence of “Barbie” (the marketing is practically inescapable, with enough memes and marketing tie-ins to last a lifetime), initial estimates are all over the place. Warner Bros. is projecting a more conservative $75 million to start, while rivals and exhibitors believe the PG-13 movie could make as much as $140 million between Friday and Sunday.

Barbiecore is the trend of summer 2023, and for good reason. We’ve all fallen in love with Margot Robbie, Issa Rae, Dua Lipa and the rest of the long list of Barbies in Greta Gerwig’s soon-to-premiere film. They’ve all been seen rocking pink looks on the red carpet (and in film snippets), but they’re not the only ones.

Greta Gerwig’s much-anticipated “Barbie” movie — which opens in theaters on Friday — “Insecure” actress Issa Rae brings some black power to the iconic doll’s pink world as President Barbie.But it was another African-American woman, Louvenia “Kitty” Black Perkins, who designed the first black Barbie — released in 1980 in a box that touted “She’s black! She’s beautiful! She’s dynamite!”Rather than the long, straight blond tresses and pastel-colored fashions of the traditional white Barbie, the brown-skinned beauty rocked short, curly black hair and a glittering red dress complete with matching dangling earrings.“Everything Barbie [typically] was, I wanted to do the opposite,” Black Perkins, now 75 and based in Los Angeles, told The Post. “I knew exactly how black women wear their hair, how their clothes were different from … all of Barbie’s ball gowns.“Basically,” she continued, “I wanted my black Barbie doll to look more like me.” Although Mattel had introduced a black Christie doll as Barbie’s friend in 1968 — and Cara would follow her in the ’70s — this was the first time an African-American bore the name of the leading lady herself.Not relegated to being an “accessory to Barbie,” this was a main-character creation that Black Perkins made on her way to becoming chief designer of the fashion doll line in the mid-’80s.Coming 21 years after Barbie made her debut in 1959, it was a barrier-breaking move for Mattel as doll demand was changing.“The collectors are the ones that really made a difference because every convention that they had, they were looking for black dolls,” said Black Perkins.

Barbie for a lookalike joke that never made the cut.The actress, who plays the titular character in Greta Gerwig’s upcoming film, said in a new interview that for years she has been compared to the Sex Education star on looks.Robbie told Buzzfeed in the latest instalment of its ‘Puppies interviews’ series, which she took part in with her Barbie co-star Ryan Gosling, that she would just say thank you to fans who would tell her how much they enjoyed her in Sex Education.The mix-up, Robbie said, led to the idea of casting Mackey in Barbie.“[Mackey] plays one of the Barbies in the movie pretty much because Greta and I thought it would be funny. We were gonna do this whole joke about us looking similar,” Robbie said.But the joke didn’t make the cut because “once we got all dressed up as our Barbies, we were kind of like, ‘We don’t actually look that similar,'” Robbie said.

Drake has announced that he and Nicki Minaj have collaborated on a song that will be on his upcoming album, ‘For All The Dogs’.The Toronto 6God is currently on his ‘It’s All A Blur’ tour with 21 Savage, which sees the two rappers performing across North America. It kicked off this month in Chicago and is set to conclude in Columbus, Ohio in October.During the stop in Detroit last weekend (July 8), Drake told the crowd that he and his longtime friend Nicki Minaj would be releasing a song together on his eighth studio album ver soon.“I’m gonna give away one thing for you tonight because I got a lot of love for Detroit,” he said.

Angelique Jackson The pink carpet at the “Barbie” premiere in Los Angeles on Sunday night was riddled with self-proclaimed Barbie Girls, but there was only one run-in that could be described as “When Barbie Met Barbie.” Just minutes before the Greta Gerwig-directed movie debuted before a packed house in the Shrine Auditorium, “Barbie” lead Margot Robbie met the OG Barbie, rapper Nicki Minaj. It’s the latest in a line of meta moments in and around the WB film, with Robbie posing — in a custom Schiaparelli gown that paid homage to 1960’s “Solo in the Spotlight Barbie” — alongside Minaj, who has proclaimed herself a Barbie since the early days of her career. Minaj’s latest track “Barbie World” — a collab with Ice Spice that remixes Aqua’s 1997 hit “Barbie Girl” — serves as the film’s end title song.

Nicki Minaj continues to be one of the most fan-favorite artists among celebrities and A-List stars. This time the acclaimed rapper proved her impact at the ‘Barbie’ premiere in Los Angeles, arriving at the event and causing a commotion among the cast of the film, who couldn’t hide their excitement after seeing her stepping onto the red carpet.America Ferrera was one of the stars fangirling on camera after noticing the singer posing for the cameras at the highly anticipated premiere. “I can’t believe I just did that on camera.

Nicki Minaj is enjoying a «full circle» moment. The «Super Freaky Girl» rapper couldn't help but fangirl at Sunday's film premiere in Los Angeles, hitting the pink carpet to celebrate her contribution to the movie's soundtrack: . «I am so excited to be here and be a part of this entire moment,» Minaj gushed to ET's Will Marfuggi at the event, held at L.A.'s Shrine Auditorium. «I'm glad that they thought of me because I'm excited just like everybody else is excited to see this movie.» Of course, Minaj was a natural fit for the project, as she's long channeled the iconic doll in her public persona.

Bad Girls Club alum Natalie Nunn doesn't seem to mind being name-checked in songs.

Vietnam’s decision to ban the movie has been making headlinesNow Warner Bros. is attempting to clarify its intention.The film, directed by Greta Gerwig, was set to hit theaters in the country on July 21, aligning with its big-screen release in most countries around the world.However, Vietnam announced the movie will not be released due to a scene that includes a map using the “nine-dash line” — a set of line segments that represents China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea — which Vietnam claims violates its sovereignty.But the studio rejects the need for controversy.“The map in Barbie Land is a child-like crayon drawing,” a spokesperson for the Warner Bros.

banned in Vietnam for apparently featuring a map showing China’s claims to the South China Sea that many say includes the territory of other nations.When asked about the controversy during a press conference on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning was dismissive of Hanoi’s outrage.“China’s position on the South China Sea issue is clear and consistent,” the official said, adding that Vietnam “should not link the South China Sea issue with normal cultural exchange.”The nine-dash line shown on the map represents China’s claim to a vast section of the disputed waters, which are also being fought over by Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan.An international tribunal at The Hague found the Chinese Communist Party’s map illegal. Beijing dismissed the ruling at the time.The map’s inclusion in “Barbie” underscores the growing controversy over Hollywood’s reliance on China, which has rivaled the US for its biggest market in recent years.

Lil Uzi Vert has included a cover of System Of A Down’s ‘Chop Suey!’ on his latest album. Check it out below.The cover arrived as part of the American rapper’s third studio album, ‘Pink Tape’, which arrived last week (June 30).However, the cover has remained somewhat overlooked since the album’s release — especially in light of star-studded collaborations from artists including Bring Me The Horizon — as it wasn’t clearly labelled as a cover of the heavy metal hit.Instead, the rendition arrived as the 17th song on the 26-song tracklist, and was simply titled ‘CS’ — leading to a few fans missing it at first glance.Arriving immediately after a song called ‘Fire Alarm’ and just before the Bring Me The Horizon collaboration ‘Werewolf’, ‘CS’ is a straight-up cover of the 2001 hit, taken from the band’s second album ‘Toxicity’.

spirit! On Monday, Lori Harvey took to TikTok to share a video of herself, Kim Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, Hailey Bieber and more vibing to Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice's «Barbie World» song, which will appear on the soundtrack of the upcoming Margot Robbie-led movie. In the video, which also includes Justine Skye and La La Anthony, the women, all of whom are wearing white outfits, strut towards the camera individually, before joining together for a dance party.«And we ain't playing tag,» Lori, referencing the song's lyrics, captioned the post.And we ain’t playing tag

Communist party?Senator Ted Cruz unleashed boxed-up anger at the upcoming “Barbie” movie for including what his office called Chinese communist propaganda in the anticipated summer blockbuster, out July 21.The Margot Robbie-starring film came under fire for its pro-China, on-screen representation of islands in the South China Sea that are disputed — and have been the subject of two separate military campaigns in 1974 and 1988 — between both Vietnam and China.In 2016, a United Nations court ruled that China’s claim to the regions had no basis in international law.

Barbie because the film includes the “nine dash line map” that depicts islands in the South China Sea as being controlled by Beijing.Vi Kien Thanh, director general of the Vietnam Cinema Department under the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, announced that Barbie will not be allowed to commercially screen in the nation, as ruled by the National Film Evaluation Council.“We do not grant license for the American movie ‘Barbie’ to release in Vietnam because it contains the offending image of the nine-dash line,” the state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper stated, citing Thanh (via Variety).The move follows Vietnam banning previous films including Uncharted and Abominable over the same issue.In 2016 the UN ruled unanimously against the validity of the “nine dash line” map, however China responded by saying that it doesn’t recognise the UN’s decision.Meanwhile, in other recent Barbie news, Margot Robbie has revealed the one request she made to director Greta Gerwig before filming the new movie.Set for release on July 21, Gerwig’s film stars Robbie in the titular role, with Ryan Gosling as Ken.Speaking about the film in an interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Robbie discussed how she fell in love with the character as a child when she was gifted a Barbie Dreamhouse for Christmas.Such was the impact the gift had on her, that she revealed she asked Gerwig to allow her to live out the real-life fantasy of the Dreamhouse in the film.“I’ll follow your vision. Whatever you want this Barbie movie to be, let’s do that,” she remembers telling the director.

Reuters. The decision was based on a scene that depicts a map with the “nine-dash line,” a representation of China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, which Vietnam says violates its sovereignty.

highly-anticipated “Barbie” movie has been banned in Vietnam.The film, directed by Greta Gerwig, was set to hit theaters in the country on July 21, aligning with the cinematic release in most countries around the world. However, state media announced the movie will not be released due to a scene that includes a map using the “nine-dash line” — a set of line segments that represent China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea — which Vietnam claims violates its sovereignty.

The Barbie movie won’t be seen in movie theaters in Vietnam.