History has shown us time and again just how freaky celebrities look when translated into wax. Yet another installment joined the pantheon this week: Madame Tussauds Blackpool unveiled a Beyoncé figure that’s already been accused of looking like Leah Remini in a Renaissance leotard.
This is far from the first time Beyoncé has seen her likeness clumsily translated into waxen form. In 2004, Madame Tussauds’s London location debuted a catastrophic replica whose underwear could be seen from the back. Things only got worse from there — the New York City location of Madame Tussauds ended up pulling its 2017 rendition for a makeover after a flood of backlash accused the museum of whitewashing. (The museum claimed the lighting and flash photography had made it appear lighter in photos, but did reportedly replaced it with a different piece.) That same year, Vice investigated a deeply weird Canadian version.
To be fair, this new figure is nowhere near as catastrophic as it could have been, but it is not exactly spot-on. At least one person is pleased: Leah Remini enthusiastically responded to tweets about wax Beyoncé’s resemblance to herself. “I am screaming!” she wrote. “This perimenopausal woman will take any and all comparisons to the beautiful Beyoncé!”
At least they haven’t tried to put a Christmas outfit on her yet.