Barre-bie? Famed ballerina Misty Copeland gets her own Barbie

It's been more than 35 years since the launch of Black Barbie, but Black Barbie was just a browner version of white Barbie - vapid, concerned only about her clothes and her hair.

But as society has changed, Barbie has changed. Monday Mattel unveiled its new Barbie Shero (not to be confused with Fred Shero).

She's Misty Copeland, American Ballet Theatre's first female African-American principal dancer whose doll is the latest addition to Team Barbie.

"I always dreamed of becoming an ABT ballerina and through Barbie I was able to play out those dreams early on," Copeland said in a statement. "It's an honor to be able to inspire the next generation of kids with my very own Barbie doll."

Misty Barbie retails for $29.95 and she's dressed like she's about to dance in "The Firebird," by Stravinsky.

Just wait until there's a Stravinsky Ken doll.

"Misty Copeland is at the center of a cultural conversation around how women continue to break boundaries," Barbie exec Lisa McKnight said in a statement. "As a brand, we want to honor women, like Misty, who are inspiring the next generation of girls to live out their dreams."

"It's just so exciting for this generation of kids to be able to see a Barbie that has muscles and brown skin and a bust and thighs, and for her to be a ballerina," Copeland told mashable.com.

Tattle thinks it's great for this generation of kids to see anything besides the games on their phone.

* On the day Misty Copeland got her own Barbie, postracial America again showed its true colors.

Fox News had to take down the comments section on a story about Malia Obama choosing to attend Harvard because the racist invective would have made the racists on Philly.com blush.

Yeah, because when your mom went to Princeton and your dad the president went to Harvard, you're a real reach as an admit.

Twitter users, meanwhile, brought back #LoveWins after Tweeters started trashing Old Navy for an ad featuring an interracial couple.

Yeah, because "white genocide" is going to come from people buying cheap khakis.

So if you think racism is a thing of the past, just imagine how bad it was in the past.

The Chicago Tribune reports that next season Saturday Night Live is getting into the native advertising game with "original sponsored content from advertisers" partnering with the show's staff and stars.

That annoying Target lady would have been a natural.

Now when Cecily Strong and Vanessa Bayer play two 'luuded-out porn stars promoting some high-end product, it may be real.

In return for the sponsored content, two ad breaks will be eliminated. NBC says this will mean more content, but there are many weeks on SNL we'd prefer more commercials and less content.

* Oprah Winfrey is expanding her participation in HBO's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks to an on-screen role.

The pay channel said Monday that Oprah will star in the TV movie that she's been shepherding as an executive producer.

The film is based on Rebecca Skloot's nonfiction book detailing the story of Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman whose cancerous cells led to medical breakthroughs.

Oprah will play Lacks' daughter, Deborah.

Veteran Broadway director-producer George C. Wolfe will direct from his screenplay.

* NBC execs have fallen in love with skaters-turned-skating announcers Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski. The fashionable pair will serve as correspondents for NBC's coverage of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

It's hard to imagine anyone at NBC more compatible with Rio than Weir, the Carmen Miranda of sports.

* The cast of Broadway's new musical School of Rock has gotten the endorsement of the original Dewey Finn - Jack Black.

Black saw a matinee Sunday and went backstage to high-five cast members and thank them.

"It was so good. There were so many times I went, 'I could not have done it that well,"' he said, surrounded by thrilled kids. "You made me laugh. You made he cry. You made me rock."

* RipnRoll condoms is following up its line of Donald Trump Huge Wall condoms with a new Hillary Clinton line: "Slick Willy Wants Back In."

- Daily News wire services

contributed to this report.

gensleh@phillynews.com

215-854-5678 @DNTattle