Madame Tussauds in New York is under fire over its Beyoncé wax figure, which has fairer skin and different facial features to the 'Single Ladies' hitmaker.
Photos of the sculpture online have drawn fierce criticisms, with some saying it's 'whitewashed' and looks closer to Lindsay Lohan or Shakira than Beyoncé.
Perez Hilton labels the wax figure "blasphemy", while TMZ suggests it resembles 2004 film White Chicks, in which two Wayans brothers creepily imitate women of European descent with make-up and contact lenses.
Madame Tussauds has released a statement about the controversy, blaming the white Beyoncé look on the venue's lighting.
"Our talented team of sculptors take every effort to ensure we accurately colour match all of our wax figures to the celebrity being depicted," the company says.
"Lighting within the attraction combined with flash photography may distort and misrepresent the colour of our wax figures which is something our sculptors are unable to account for at the production stage."
However, since the original tweet that started the backlash, photos of other Beyoncés from various Madame Tussauds locations point out that none of them look quite right.
Beyoncé herself has not responded to the controversy, but in her song 'Formation' she sings of how much she loves her black skin and 'Jackson Five nostrils', which are clearly missing from the Madame Tussauds figure.
Newshub.
