Beyoncé's wax figure at Madame Tussauds has had some emergency restyling after receiving criticism for whitewashing. Photo / Twitter
Beyoncé's wax figure at Madame Tussauds has had some emergency restyling after receiving criticism for whitewashing. Photo / Twitter
In the first Beyoncé simulacrum crisis, which was actually just last January, wax monstrosities were spotted posing as the singer in multiple cities.
A Vice reporter personally investigated the flat-butted effigy on display in Ontario, which one Beyoncé fan considered an embarrassment to all of Canada. But horror-Beys were reported around the world, including a version described by one witness as "burnt Farrah Fawcett."
Offering a path through the madness, Seventeen magazine recommended one and only one waxwork worthy of the Beyhive: Madame Tussauds.
"Every hair in place. Bedazzled leotard on point," the magazine wrote beneath a photo of Tussauds' Beyoncé.
At least until last week - when a fraction of the internet looked at a single photo of the statue at the museum's New York location, concluded it was too white, and briefly forced its removal for emergency restyling.
Why does Beyonce's wax figure at Madame Tussaud's look less like #Beyoncé and more like Becky With The Good Hair tho? pic.twitter.com/8GevK9T2Mo
"Our talented team of sculptors take every effort to ensure we accurately color match all of our wax figures to the celebrity being depicted ... We love, respect and enjoy a working relationship with Beyoncé," the museum wrote in a statement, as scrutiny of the statue's skin tone spread from @LadyThriller69 to Rolling Stone and the New York Times.
Indeed, Beyoncé herself endorsed the original statue when it was unveiled in 2004. She sat for sculptors who measured her hundreds of times, she said - "from the tip of my chin to the top of my cheekbones."
Beyoncé got to choose her own eyes, approved her own hair - and when it came time for that most superficial of layers, her own makeup artist consulted with the museum.
"It looks perfect," Beyoncé said in a promotional video.
But the years took their toll. While the museum didn't give The Washington Post details on the New York statue's specific history, it has indicated that at least one new version was subsequently created; announced a "world tour" for wax Beyonce in 2013; and has advertised her likeness in cities from Bangkok to Nashville.
And Manhattan, of course - which is where the now infamous photo was posted for the world's scrutiny last week:
Joe thought it was FIERCE, but the prevailing Twitter sentiment was better captured by the commenter who wondered: "where is her melanin."
"I thought this was Lindsay Lohan at first glance," Janan Amirah wrote. Others: Britney Spears. "Or shakira?"
"Whoever she looks like, she's white as hell," TMZ offered, which picked up on the story like countless other U.S. pop culture outlets and was among the first to publish the museum's initial statement:
"Our talented team of sculptors takes every effort to ensure we accurately color match all of our wax figures to the celebrity being depicted. Lighting within the attraction combined with flash photography may distort and misrepresent the color of our wax figures."
But when she arrived, she found no wax figure at all - just a museum representative who would not explain where it had gone.
Beyoncé was back the next day - along with a new statement from Tussauds New York, expressing love to Bey and acknowledging:
"We have adjusted the styling and lighting of her figure."
Asked to clarify that the statue's skin tone had not been altered, a spokeswoman for the museum told The Post - again - that only the light and "styling" were different.
