Margot Robbie apparently does not know when to stop. Perhaps she doesn’t want to

Robbie Margot, still as Barbie, at the Golden Globes Awards. Photo: Getty Images

We were hoping that Margot Robbie would surprise us by not turning up as Barbara Millicent Roberts (or Barbie to most girls), but she was not in a mood to astonish with the unexpected. At the “revamped” Golden Globe Awards last night (or this morning here), Ms Robbie strode into the proceedings as the titular character of her blockbuster movie in a form-fitting Armani Privé dress. The Australian actress looked every inch the most popular American doll. She could have been styled by any one of the millions of girls who play with Barbie as the definitive grown-up that embody female empowerment and unattainable glamour. In fact, Ms Margot was Miss Golden Globes Barbie (don’t be surprised that Mattel will release such a doll soon) even when she was supposedly 1977’s Superstar Barbie. She was in full stereotypical splendour, neither aglow with personality or sparkling with irony. In 2024, Barbiecore is still very much alive.

We’re not going into the territory of host Jo Koy, the Filipino-American comedian and his painfully lame jokes about Barbie, so weak and clumsy, and crass that they do not deserve to be repeated here (okay, the Taylor Swift roast was worse). When the stars did not laugh—Ms Margot only bared her Barbie teeth and Ryan Gosling barely moved a facial muscle—he yelled, defensively, “I got the gig 10 days ago! You want a perfect monologue? Yo, shut up! You’re kidding me, right? Slow down. I wrote some of these, and they’re the ones you’re laughing at.” He’s done his job, so appreciate it? Nobody was asking for perfect, they were expecting funny. Few were laughing. It was a tiresome build-up to cringe. This night in Hollywood, it was clear again that comedians are not always funny. Jokes are like fashion: you either have good taste in them, or not.

Back to Barbie. Or, pink, which, as it turned out, was still the colour to wear after a whole, long summer of it. In-character Ms Robbie, framed by some fisherman’s net dyed in the same colour as the Penang bread mi ku (米龟), was not the only one who chose that sweet hue. Hailee Steinfeld looked every bit the superstar (but not Barbie Superstar whom Ms Robbie was emulating) in a slim-lined, dusty pink dress by Prada, avoiding any possible comparison to the Willows, Wisconsin-born doll. Not to be outdone—out-dressed—was Jennifer Lopez in a mermaid number and rosette-festooned stole that Behati’s Tan Kel Wen would adore. When asked about her pink Nicole + Felicia Couture gown (she could not remember the brand!) by host of Variety’s Golden Globes Pre-Show, Mark Malkin, if it was an “ode to Barbie”, she replied, “kind of… a little Barbie.” Little or not, every woman can be Ken’s gal, indefinitely.