{"id":2235,"date":"2004-02-12T14:18:41","date_gmt":"2004-02-13T06:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2004\/02\/12\/biggest-breakup-of-the-year\/"},"modified":"2019-12-09T16:16:42","modified_gmt":"2019-12-10T00:16:42","slug":"biggest-breakup-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2004\/02\/12\/biggest-breakup-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Biggest breakup of the year"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:11758,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.cnn.com\\\/2004\\\/US\\\/02\\\/12\\\/offbeat.barbie.breakup.ap\\\/index.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20081215183003\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.cnn.com:80\\\/2004\\\/US\\\/02\\\/12\\\/offbeat.barbie.breakup.ap\\\/index.html&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-11 19:03:26&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:502},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-06 22:33:47&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:502}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-06 22:33:47&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:502},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:11759,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.amazon.com\\\/exec\\\/obidos\\\/ASIN\\\/0375404252\\\/djwudicom-20&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260311191027\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.amazon.com\\\/exec\\\/obidos\\\/ASIN\\\/0375404252\\\/djwudicom-20&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.amazon.com\\\/exec\\\/obidos\\\/ASIN\\\/0375404252\\\/djwudicom-20&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>Ben who?<\/p>\n<p>J-Lo who?<\/p>\n<p>Get your priorities straight, folks. That gossip mill is <em>so<\/em> yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m talking a breakup of <em>real<\/em> importance here &#8212; one that will be inspiring headlines in all the rags, sending the talk-show hosts into a flurry, and prompting a whole slew of rabid fan sites lamenting the passing of such a long-adored perfect couple.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m talking <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2004\/US\/02\/12\/offbeat.barbie.breakup.ap\/index.html\" title=\"It's splitsville for Barbie and Ken\">Ken and Barbie<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  After 43 years as one of the world&#8217;s prettiest pairs, the perfect plastic couple is breaking up. The couple&#8217;s &#8220;business manager,&#8221; Russell Arons, vice president of marketing at Mattel, said that Barbie and Ken &#8220;feel it&#8217;s time to spend some quality time &#8212; apart.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>  &#8220;Like other celebrity couples, their Hollywood romance has come to an end,&#8221; said Arons, who quickly added that the duo &#8220;will remain friends.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>  &#91;&#8230;&#93;<\/p>\n<p>  Arons hinted Wednesday that the separation may be partially due to Ken&#8217;s reluctance to getting married. All those bridal Barbie dolls in toy chests around the globe are really just examples of Barbie&#8217;s wishful thinking, she explained.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The single most mindblowing piece of information in that article, though&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;CNN revealed Barbie&#8217;s full maiden name. I guess they figured that since she&#8217;s still without a ring, there&#8217;s not much point in hiding it anymore: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0375404252\/djwudicom-20\" title=\"An Original\">Barbie Millicent Roberts<\/a> (and incidentally, take a look at the cover photo for that book &#8212; why, I do think that Barbie has had a facelift at some point! What is this world coming to, that even Barbie is getting plastic surgery&#8230;um&#8230;wait&#8230;).<\/p>\n<p>Personally, though, I&#8217;ve got to give full props to Ken.<\/p>\n<p>Not many guys could duck the altar and still keep their girlfriend for a full forty-plus years.<\/p>\n<p>(via Prairie)<\/p>\n<p><strong>iTunes:<\/strong> &#8220;Resurrection Hex (Giganto)&#8221; by Love and Rockets from the album <em>Resurrection Hex<\/em> (1998, 5:53).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m talking a breakup of real importance here &mdash; one that will be inspiring headlines in all the rags, sending the talk-show hosts into a flurry, and prompting a whole slew of rabid fan sites lamenting the passing of such a long-adored perfect couple.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2028],"tags":[6,39],"class_list":["post-2235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links","tag-humor","tag-links"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}