Featured Image Credit: Facebook/Warner Bros Pics
Topics: US News, Film and TV, Barbie, Oppenheimer
Katherine Sidnell
Topics: US News, Film and TV, Barbie, Oppenheimer
Barbenheimer might have been the summer’s biggest trend, but one woman’s entire life has been leading up to the films’ release.
It turns out there is a real-life woman with the name Barbara Oppenheimer, who is even a distant relative of the famous physicist.
However, her moniker has been causing a fair few problems after Barbie and Oppenheimer were released – with the woman claiming people don’t take her seriously.
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Unless you’ve been living on another planet, you are probably aware of the internet craze with fans going wild over the fact that Barbie and Oppenheimer were released on the same day (July 21).
Not only did it cause a huge surge in cinemagoers, but the viral phenomenon has led to fans merging the two names and creating cross-over art about Barbenheimer.
While studio execs have been elated by the response to the two movies, with Barbie making over $1 billion dollars (£794k) at the box office, the same can’t be said for retiree Barbara Oppenheimer.
In fact, the former health sciences professor has said that people aren’t taking her seriously and don’t believe her when she tells them her name.
The Massachusetts woman even had one employee cross-question her when she checked in on a recent vacation.
She told Slate: “When I checked in at the hotel, I said, ‘Barbie Oppenheimer!’ The guy said, ‘Are you pulling my leg?’”
Even her friends have been getting involved, with Oppenheimer’s loved ones teasing her about her trendy name.
“[I] had college friends around the world texting me that weekend when [the movies] came out, with the whole schmear, you know… ‘the bomb and the bombshell’,” she joked.
Though she admits it’s ‘pretty funny’, Oppenheimer actually had a deeper impact on the retiree as her husband is actually a distant cousin of the famous physicist.
Being a scientist herself, Oppenheimer was eager to see the Christopher Nolan biopic when it hit cinemas.
“I thought they did a good job. It really gets into the moral dilemmas that Oppenheimer faced,” she explained, adding the movie was ‘very compelling’.
However, it turns out Oppenheimer is actually a Barbie girl.
When asked which film she preferred, the retiree said that she actually favoured the pastel pink film as she’d played with Barbie as a kid.
Touchingly, she even gave her granddaughter her beloved doll.
“I was tickled pink, I might say, that they put Barbie in the Barbie world and then Barbie in the real world,” she revealed adding: “I laughed out loud practically through the whole thing.”
It turns out it really is Barbie’s world and we’re just living in it.