Barbie movie 'used homeless people as background actors and paid them NOTHING' trends now

Crew filming mega-budget movie Barbie have been accused of covertly using homeless people to help create a 'diverse' background atmosphere for a park scene – and not paying them.

The destitute bench dwellers were even discussed in radio chatter on the set about exactly where they were in relation to filming and confirming they were in shot, DailyMail.com can reveal.

Meanwhile, extras were paid to dress as homeless people to reinforce the scene, shot at Tongva Park opposite Santa Monica City Hall in California, which is notorious for its vagrancy problems.

Millions of parents are expected to take their children to see Barbie after it's July 21 release and amid an expected a $1billion bonanza at the box office.

Directed and co-written by Greta Gerwig, it stars Margot Robbie as a super-strident version of the iconic doll with Ryan Gosling as put-upon and ineffectual Ken.

But despite the $100million budget and predicted earnings, it appears there wasn't even any loose change for the impromptu extras.

'I never saw any of the crew go up to the genuine homeless and offer them money,' a seasoned photographer who has been covering movie shoots for 15 years told DailyMail.com.

'There were up to 20 of them at one time. Some were moved on by the production people, but others were left alone. So those left were kind of moving in an out, walking around, sitting around, doing something.'

The photographer, who has a scanner to listen to radio chatter while working, continued: 'The genuine homeless people were there the whole day, the whole entire shoot which was a couple of weeks ago.

'I heard someone in the crew ask, ''is this person in the scene?'' And someone would answer ''yes, but they're in the far background''.'

'Normally, movie production units might pay between $300 and $1,500 to individuals – street vendors or homeless people – whose cooperation they want to either move out of the shot or stay in one place.

He added: 'I listen to their radio chatter on a scanner so I can establish where to stay out of their shot. That's what it's for and to hear what's going on.

'Not once did I hear them on the radio talking about money, about offering background people something, which they do in every other production that I have ever covered.

'And also as they were talking about the homeless, somebody came on the radio, I believe it was Greta but I can't be sure about that, but she said, 'stop calling them homeless, they're houseless'.'