Cat-astrophic revelation purr-turbs Hello Kitty fans

By Hilary Whiteman, CNN

Hong Kong (CNN) -- Six simple words have sent Hello Kitty lovers into a spin.

"Hello Kitty is not a cat."

The apparently shocking revelation was made in an LA Times articlepublished Wednesday about a retrospective of Kitty paraphernalia opening next month at the Japanese American National Museum.

The story started innocently enough before the bombshell was dropped by Christine R. Yano, an anthropologist at the University of Hawaii, who has delved more deeply than most into the Hello Kitty phenomenon.

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"That's one correction Sanrio made for my script for the show," Yano told the LA Times.

"Hello Kitty is not a cat. She's a cartoon character. She is a little girl. She is a friend. But she is not a cat. She's never depicted on all fours. She walks and sits like a two-legged creature. She does have a pet cat of her own, however, and it's called Charmmy Kitty."