Barbie jibe allowed

A US appeal court has thrown out a copyright lawsuit brought by toy giant Mattel against an artist who shot a photographic series depicting Barbie dolls naked in a blender, wrapped in a tortilla and sizzling on a wok.

Mattel sued Tom Forsythe, a self-described “artsurdist” from Kanab, Utah, who used the fashion dolls in a work entitled “Food Chain Barbie” to criticise “America’s culture of consumption and conformism”.