It's a Barbie World for Courteney Cox-Arquette and Coco

Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic

There isn’t much guesswork involved when it comes to Christmas shopping for Courteney Cox-Arquette‘s daughter Coco Riley, 4 ½. For the last few years, Courteney says it’s been all Barbie, all the time in the home she shares with husband David Arquette. "She’s obsessed with Barbies," Courteney, 44, said of Coco on Thursday’s episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. "She has all the Barbies that David gives her, which is almost daily." Calling her husband a "shopaholic," Courteney added that "David feels like if he just goes away for an hour, he has to [give Coco a Barbie]."

The couple found themselves in over their heads last year, however, when they sat down late on Christmas Eve to assemble Coco’s big gift — the Barbie mansion. "We went out to dinner, as we always do on Christmas Eve, with all the Arquettes," Courteney recalled. "We came home and it’s 11 p.m., and we get out the Barbie mansion, in this big box." To their shock, they then discovered the small print on the packaging!

"It says, ‘Please allow nine hours for assembly.’  And this is at 11 p.m. There was nothing we could do; I’m not kidding, we had to get a contractor to put this house together. It is huge, it is pink, it is ugly…I can’t give this thing away."

Host Ellen DeGeneres was able to deduce that, given the late hour and the holiday the next day, it was unlikely that Coco’s Barbie mansion was waiting for her on Christmas morning. Conceding the point, Courteney admitted that the couple instead "gave it to her six months later for her birthday." This holiday season has already gotten off to a good start for Coco, who had a blast at a tree-trimming party held last weekend at the home of Courteney’s good friend Jennifer Aniston. Guests — who included both Courteney and Ellen — were invited to bring an ornament and place it on Jennifer’s tree, but Coco wound up performing most of the manual labor herself! Said Courteney,

"Coco was the only person taking care of the tree. She put [all the ornaments] only on, like, a 3-feet-high level."

Source: The Ellen DeGeneres Show

Comments

Is that nine hours thing true? Or was she kidding? If it’s real, it makes me glad my daughter has never liked Barbies!

- phoebe on December 16th, 2008

I love the show FRIENDS and still watch the reruns and I love reading about them (Courtney, Jen, Lisa, etc…)

My daughter loves barbies too…I wonder what mansion she was talking about…

I would love to see pictures of Coco and Jen. I bet Coco is such a funny girl! I love reading stories about her!

- XOXO on December 16th, 2008

OMG! 9 hours!?!
Who has 9 hours to spent building a barbie mansion? It must be SSOOO big.

I love to hear about this family. They’re great! I love Coco. I wonder how many Barbies she has and how many exists?

Happy Holidays to everyone!!

- Stéph on December 16th, 2008

Ha! That kind of reminds me of my childhood. I am the oldest of three girls (no boys) and for years and years when we were younger, my dad spent the whole Christmas afternoon sticking on decals and assembling all of our Barbie “treasures”!!!

Cute story! And Coco is a doll!

- Lis on December 17th, 2008

I’m so glad to hear of a little girl still playing with Barbie!! It seems they all want Bratz (which I am fundamentally opposed to) and Hannah Montana (which I don’t hate as much, but I still find the pursuit of fame thing attached to her a little unnerving). What I love about Barbie is she has always told girls they can be whatever they want to be; I distinctly remember having Army Officer Barbie (with short hair that I LOVED) along with the more usual Beach Time Barbie. She’s gotten a bad rap in recent years, but I think she’s still a better role model out there than some of the options (while I totally understand that little girls don’t get the implications of the Disney Princess “must be rescued by a man” implication, something about it makes me uncomfortable).
Anyway, point of this post is to say, YAY for Coco playing with the Barbies!! Plus, that house must be a much better one than I had when I was little because I used to take mine apart and put it back together again without help. Good luck this year Courteney and David!!

- Jen on December 17th, 2008

Jen, I agree! Man, I loved Barbies growing up as a kid. And I know she doesn’t look like a normal human being but sorry, that’s not what drew me in. What I loved about her was just dressing her up and reenacting my books with her and her friends! I’m glad to hear Coco loves it.

But…NINE HOURS to set up a Barbie mansion? Man. That’s kinda ridiculous. Coco better be able to play in it, that’s all I have to say. Whew.

I will say that I am 21 years old and STILL want a Barbie Jeep. I never got one and it has affected me a lot.

- Stephany on December 17th, 2008

Stephany, I know how you feel about the Barbie Jeep…I got one for Christmas when I was little, however my dad never bought the battery for it so it just sat in the garage and the only time I “rode” it is when someone else pushed it for me. Meanwhile, my best friend down the street had a cool red Barbie Convertible – WITH a battery – and she loved riding it in during the summer.

My Jeep never got the battery, so it sat in the garage for years before it sat out on the lawn for the trash collectors to take on Big Trash Day!

I’m 19 and it still hurts! lol

- jasmine on December 19th, 2008

Wow nine hours for assembly, Now that’s time well spent condering it was for her daughter. On another note I just love Courteney and Jennifer they are both amazing women as for CoCo she is so cute, but that’s just a given…..

- Ericia on December 23rd, 2008

I always thought David would be one of the “fun” dads, always willing to indulge a little. He and Courteney seem like such an odd but wonderful couple. They both seem like very sweet people, and Coco is so cute – she looks just like daddy!

My presents were never assembled come Christmas morning. That was set aside for after present-opening. I learned a lot of new words from my dad on those days – most of them four-lettered (Just kidding, my father was an engineer and actually very good at getting those ridiculous things together quickly. I have some very fond memories of my parents, my grandparents and me laughing hysterically while trying to figure out how to connect Tab A and Slot B. Good times.)

- Molly on December 29th, 2008