plays the real-life Barbie in the $100 million live-action “Barbie” movie coming to theaters on July 21.Depending on who a Barbie fan believes, however, the genuine, in-the-flesh Barbie who inspired the doll is either the late Barbie Ryan or the now 82-year-old Barbara Handler Segal.The two origin stories could not be more different. Either Barbie exists thanks to one man’s obsession with the “perfect woman” — or because of an apparently sweet story revolving around a mother’s love for her two children.But both come with far darker sides than the innocent child’s toy would suggest, including orgies, sex toys, embezzlement, AIDS, and suicide.The battle over who really inspired Barbie only exploded into the open decades after the doll made her debut at the International Toy Fair in New York in 1959.She was an immediate hit: 11 inches tall, long-legged, slim-waisted, perky-breasted and either blonde or brunette, dressed in a hand-made black and white swimsuit, and soon after advertised on The Mickey Mouse Club.
