Pop Culture
Barbie’s Real-Life Hot Pink Malibu Dreamhouse, Complete With Ocean Views and a Roller Rink, Is Available to Rent on Airbnb
The mansion has been redecorated by Ken for its return to Airbnb.
The mansion has been redecorated by Ken for its return to Airbnb.
Brian Boucher ShareShare This Article
Comic book characters have taken over Hollywood. Can girls’ toys be next? This summer will see the answer in the arrival of the hotly anticipated $100-million live-action feature film Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie as the beloved children’s doll.
While Barbie is away making her film debut, a life-sized version of her Malibu Dreamhouse is being listed on Airbnb for an overnight stay on July 21, the day of the film’s debut.
The mansion features a personal cinema, an infinity pool, an outdoor meditation zone, and a roller rink, against a panoramic backdrop of the Pacific Ocean. It was previously listed on Airbnb in 2019 to mark the Mattel doll’s 60th anniversary.
This time round, Ken (played by Ryan Gosling in Barbie) is hosting, and certain design touches around the home show his masculine hand, even amid the sea of pink that is Barbie’s preferred hue.
For example, the record player, with an album called Dude Rock nearby. His signature rollerblades will be in action on a light-up floor. There’s a life-size plastic horse; the wall above the bed is hung with an array of his cowboy hats; you’ll also see his boots, his cowboy shirts in the wardrobe, and his guitar and amplifier.
Stays at Dreamhouse will be free (a press release points out that Ken can’t handle math), and guests can take home a piece of the “Kendom” in the form of a set of yellow-and-pink Impala skates and surfboards. Bookings open at 10 a.m. Pacific Time on July 17; guests are responsible for their own travel to Malibu. Airbnb is making a one-time donation to Save the Children.
Gerwig directed the Oscar-nominated coming-of-age films Lady Bird and Little Women, and co-wrote Barbie with her husband, filmmaker Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, Marriage Story, and starring Gerwig, Frances Ha, Mistress America, and White Noise). The film also stars America Ferrara, Kate McKinnnon, Issa Rae, Rhea Perlman, and Will Ferrell.
Writing for Time, Eliana Dockterman (who has covered Barbie’s maker, Mattel, for years) said the film is “a satire of a toy company’s capitalist ambitions, a searing indictment of the current fraught state of gender relations, a heartwarming if occasionally clichéd tribute to girl power, [and] a musical spectacle filled with earworms from Nicki Minaj and Dua Lipa,” as well as a whole lot more. The opening weekend box office is projected at $55 million, even up against the latest Mission Impossible and Oppenheimer.
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