Looks like Barbie is causing trouble - and it's not because she caught Skipper at Starbucks with Ken.
In celebration of everyone's favorite Ferrari-driving plastic blonde turning 50, two South Florida museums have planned retrospective exhibits, but Lori Durante is crying foul.
The founder and director of the Museum of Lifestyle and Fashion History, which will debut "Barbie: The Golden Anniversary Exhibit" next month, claims that the Old School Square's Cornell Museum, whose "Barbie's Back and She's 50!" exhibit opens today, isn't giving her credit for curating their 1999 exhibit, "40 Years of the Barbie Doll."
"Old School Square is presenting the 2009 Barbie exhibit by using my work from 1999," Durante told the Sun-Sentinel. "Their entire promotional plan is based on the success of the 1999 Barbie doll exhibition and [they're presenting it] as something they created in-house."
Durante, who is black, is also crying racial foul, claiming that the museum ignoring her requests to be acknowledged is proof that Delray Beach is still stuck in its racially divided past.
Joe Gillie, executive director of the Cornell Museum, whose Barbie exhibit will include a Barbie and Ken look-a-like contest, said that no one is disputing that she had the idea, but that Durante came to them the "moment it became an exhibit."
Perhaps it's time to call in Mediator Midge (briefcase not included).
