Rosie O'Donnell...

...on our old friend Star Jones. Because I am committed to keeping you posted on the latest goings on with Star Jones.

"I don't understand with Star Jones why she's alright with talking about having a breast augmentation ... but not gastric bypass... I don't understand that... If you have to have gastric bypass because you feel it's a medical emergency and you have no alternative, then you have that, and there are repercussions to having that... but to pretend you lost it doing Pilates is kind of delusional."

Article here, and I guess there's going to be a story on Entertainment Tonight. I love the fact that someone publicly called on Star Jones for being delusional. Even if it is a lesbian who conveniently stayed in the closet until her talk show was off the air.

It Will Put The Botox In The Forehead

Reader Nichole sends in this story about Pat Wexler, a "cosmetic dermatologist" in New York. Here are some quotes from Wexler:

"People think that exercise will give them the body they want... Exercise won't give you the body you want. It will give you a firm body you still don't want."

On doing liposuction, here's a very Silence of the Lambs quote:

"I like my patients to stand up for the contouring... It's like a seamstress draping fabric -- you can't do it on someone lying down."

And her idea about self-acceptance:

"'You see, I never got that,' she says flatly. 'No one ever told me about that.' ... 'When I was little I had this really curly, really curly red hair, and when I was 5, my mother was taking me to Kenneth, where Jackie O. went, to all these beauty salons all over the city... I think she thought I was going to come out with straight blond hair. I still think I'm going to come out with straight blond hair.'"

I'm not like "plastic surgery is always bad and evil" but this article did creep me out nonetheless. Especially, for some reason, the fact that she hates her curly red hair. What's wrong with curly and red?

Would You Ever Date A Fat Girl?

The girls over at Fatty McBlog posted an ad on Craigslist New York asking that question:

"Our ad, entitled Would You Ever? said: 'Would you ever date a fat girl? What if she were "perfect" in every other way except she carries a lot of extra weight? What if she were intelligent and funny and interesting and pretty and had a great job, but she was a bbw (and not just a little chubby)? Would you ever consider dating her? Would you rather date someone really ugly or really fat? If you wouldn't date a fat girl, please include your reasons.'"

They posted the answers, which I read with fascination.

More Mandisa

And my local radio hosts from back in the day, Kevin and Bean. The topic on their morning show was "Would Mandisa be an American Idol front-runner if she were white?" Bean said:

"It's fascinating that she can be a front runner and look like she does, yet there's no way 'Whitey' shows up at 280 [lbs.] and gets in the Top 10. It's not even possible."

I absolutely tend to agree with that. I've written before (as politically incorrect as this is) that I used to wish I were a black woman because then it would be more acceptable to be overweight. One listener's counterexamples (Fats Domino and Aretha Franklin) are both non-white, kind of missing the point. I love having a woman of size on American Idol at all, but there's definitely an order of acceptability. Ruben, then Scott Savol, then Mandisa.

The article is here; thanks to the Weetabix half of Weetapidol for the link.

Star Jones Gets Surgery. Again.

Only this time she's admitting it. It's a "breast lift" gone awry.

"Sources close to Jones claim she was taken to Santa Monica, California's Saint John's Health Center, where she underwent a blood transfusion on Friday night. After days of speculation, Jones' spokesperson confirmed the TV star had undergone the procedure, but refused to comment on the problems. She says, 'Star is recovering wonderfully.'"

This is the first time it's occurred to me to be annoyed that her name is Star.

I Can Quit Anytime

As you may have noticed, I am all about American Idol this year. I know I promised to stop talking about it, but I have to mention Mandisa this once, because Simon called her fat during the auditions and Paula pulled the "pretty face" thing a couple of weeks ago, but last night, Simon very sincerely called her "sexy" and said he loved her performance. Rickey.org has a picture and an MP3 and you can indeed tell that she was smoking hot last night. Plus, her dress was fantastic.

Weighing In (Updated)

A big debate, originating here, as to whether gaining weight after you get married is "false advertising" and a sign of depression and low self-respect.

"If I had been 160 pounds when we married that would [be] one thing. Then it would be totally unreasonable for him to want me to be 120 pounds. But it would be false advertising if he’d married his 120 pound girlfriend and ended up with a 160 pound wife."

More thoughts here and here. City Mama's take:

"The fact that there are people out there who dictate the way their wife's/partner's hair should look just boggles me. Oh, I know these asshole control freaks are out there, and I thank the universe everyday that I am not married to one of them. I mean, are there really are men (or women) out there who would be deeply disappointed—just crushed and devastated—if their long-haired partner suddenly cut her hair short? And the women put up with that bullshit?"

All of these posts found courtesty of Tertia, who has this to say:

"Then my neighbour said that she has a real motivation to lose weight in that her husband gave her a present for her birthday, it is a full wardrobe make over. But only if she loses 20 pounds. My initial reaction was WHAT THE FUCK! I would kill my husband if he did that. How DARE he have something to say about my weight. My neighbour has three kids, her twins are 22 months and she is hardly overweight. Perhaps he is just being supportive, or kind, or trying to motivate her, but I would have been pissed off."

One of our commenters reminded me of the interesting point: what if you lose a lot of weight in your marriage? I've known relationships where this has happened as well. Is that equally "false advertising"? What if your partner is attracted to a larger shape?

I personally think that equating weight gain to "depression" and "loss of self-respect" is demeaning, and exactly the kind of statement that makes me want to kick ass and take names. I want my partner to love me at any weight, to support my efforts at healthy living in a low-key and mutual way, and certainly not to bribe me to lose weight or ask me if I'm depressed every time I eat a cookie.

Damn You, McBeal

Portia De Rossi says the influence of her castmates on Ally McBeal may have contributed to her anorexia:

"The actress hit her lowest point in 1999, when she starved herself down to a life-threatening 82 pounds. She reveals in the April issue of Vogue magazine, 'I've often wondered if I wasn't on that show if it (anorexia) may not have happened. I didn't really know at that point what it was like to be a celebrity, and the only people I knew at the time who had a similar experience were these women whom I worked with. They became my role models.'"

Portia De Rossi is fabulous in many ways, not just because she's dating Ellen DeGeneres (they should change their last name to De). When she first joined the cast of Ally McBeal I actually watched that show, and thought she was incredibly sexy and gorgeous. Then she got horribly skinny and the show got horribly annoying. Then she was on Arrested Development, a show that rules. I know she changed her name from "Amanda" something to "Portia De Rossi" and that's kind of pretentious, but I still love her and would put her on my celebrity sex exemption list. When she's got some meat on her bones.

The most interesting part of the article is that she is referring to the other women in the cast as "role models." I wonder what exactly that means. I think Courtney Thorne-Smith admitted to being told to lose weight and developing an eating disorder on that show, but Lisa Nicole Carson was always curvy, and Lucy Liu has always seemed skinny in a normal way to me. Obviously Calista Flockhart looks like an oversized olive on a toothpick, but I wonder if "role model" means she was exhibiting anorexic behavior, or if her mere figure was the model?

Anyway, link from IMDB news.

Kelly Clarkson

She has, indeed, taken over all the ads on Big Fat Deal. Apparently there's money to be made with this miracle weight loss product extremely talented singer. Who would have guessed?

Also, did I hear someone say that Kelly Clarkson is the secret ingredient in Trimspa? Oh Kelly, hooking up with Anna Nicole Smith and Howard Stern? What a minx you are.

Fat And Happy

The article uses a different coordinating conjunction, but we'll ignore that, shall we? Michael Berman has written a book called Living Large: A Big Man's Ideas on Weight, Success, and Acceptance about being a man who struggles with weight.

"'First of all, it's a subject, like many personal subjects, men don't like to talk about,' he said. 'Women are more willing to share the pain that men aren't. Secondly, fat men do have an easier time than fat women both in employment and social life. … When's the last time you saw an average-size guy with a fat woman?'"

It is nice to hear a man's voice on the issue of size.

Also, She Looks Like An Alien

If you miss the comments for this post, you will miss this: evidence that Star Jones is an alien. Thanks for the link, Laura!

Wait Just A Damn Second

I followed a referral link back to this site and as I was reading the list of news articles, I realized they sounded familar. Let's compare and contrast, shall we?

February 15, PlusStuff:

Too Beautiful To Be Fat
A mentally ill girl who is "too beautiful to be in a psychiatric ward" goes on medication which stops her from hearing voices in her head. But this isn't a good thing, because the medication has MADE HER FAT! Here's a quote from the original article:

Here's February 15, Big Fat Deal:

Too Beautiful To Be Fat
A mentally ill girl who is "too beautiful to be in a psychiatric ward" goes on medication which stops her from hearing voices in her head. But this isn't a good thing, because the medication has MADE HER FAT! Here's a quote from the original article:

My March 1 post is also excerpted on this site; I didn't look into it further. Maybe it's an aggregate news collection of some type, but I think this cut-and-paste technique is irresponsible at best. PlusStuff, thanks for the link, but I would appreciate a credit when you cut and paste my blog posts onto your own site. Thanks.

Star Jones Is Still Saying Things

Such as this:

"I am very conscious of where my blessings come from. I am not presumptuous. I think that I fell into the trap of believing the hype. I started to believe that I was the one who accomplished all this. I started to believe that the blessings and the gifts were my doing. Strengthening my relationship with God is my greatest accomplishment, not the weight."

Or maybe this:

"'Clearly, anyone who gets to be 300 pounds is not your expert,' she says. That's why she says she won't reveal how she lost the weight. 'I feel really strongly that it's inappropriate for me to be a poster child for a weight-loss method.'"

Or, from the same article:

"'Don't say I was heavy, full-figured or plus-sized. I was morbidly obese.' And don't dare call the new and improved Reynolds thin. 'Come on, girl, please,' she chides. 'I'm not thin.i"

Wait, what? She's a size 10 and she's "not thin"? I mean just look at the picture accompanying the article. Sure, she looks a little weird and crazy, but how is she not thin? Star Jones perplexes me.

Hoodia Whattia?

If you ever take a peek at miracle weight loss product ads (such as those that populate this very site from time to time) you will have noticed that hoodia is the latest "miracle" product on the market. My response to any "miracle" product is eye-rolling skepticism, on top of which, I had no idea what the hell hoodia was. Until I read this article. Hoodia is an appetite suppresant made from a cactus, and was apparently "discovered" (by product developers, I guess) in the 1960s:

"For centuries the Kalahari Desert's Bushmen would eat the bitter-tasting plant, which they call xhoba, to stave off hunger during long treks through the desert. The council discovered that when rats ingested the plant, they ate less and subsequently lost weight."

So the key to this stuff, if you want to try it, according to this article, is to make sure you're getting the "real deal" as opposed to pseudo-hoodia of some type, which is apparently flooding the market. Anyway, I'm still rolling my eyes at it, but at least the mystery has been cleared up.

(And I just realized that posting this is going to spawn a ton of hoodia ads. Oops. From now on, I'm using code names. Hoodia will henceforth be known as "Kelly Clarkson.")

Feeling Beautiful

Just a simple article about feeling beautiful.

"Additionally, you can keep your full figure and tone up at the same time. Not all exercise programs are designed for weight loss - some can be for improving strength, flexibility or just to get to know your body better [sic]. Don't ever forget that you can be curvy, gorgeous and fit."

The author runs a clothing website called Hips and Curves. There seem to be a lot of hot, sexy items on that site. I'm totally into this skirt, for instance!

Not A Stupid Girl

Pink's new video for "Stupid Girls" is partly a response to people who call her fat. Of course they do.

"'People often refer to me as fat, and it has taken a long time for me to come to terms with that,' revealed the singer. 'I have the same thoughts as everybody else. But I'm athletic, strong, fit and healthy.' She was speaking about the video for her new song Stupid Girls, in which she mocks the importance of being thin in celebrity culture."

You can watch the video here.

For Those Of Us Who Loved The Dove Campaign

According to a study, moderately heavy models lower our self esteem, as do super thin models. Models should either be "moderately thin" or "extremely heavy" to maximise our self esteem. What?

"Looking at moderately thin or extremely heavy models led to an increase in self-perception of thinness and an increase in self-esteem. By contrast, seeing extremely thin or moderately heavy models focused women's thoughts on how heavy they felt."

I don't know what the difference is between a "moderately thin" model and an "extremely thin" model would be; they all seem extremely thin to me. But I wonder why medium-sized models would make us feel bad about ourselves. I don't think I felt that way looking at the Dove campaign--although reading about all the guys who thought those women were "disgusting cows" didn't exactly make me feel great.

Link found through Fat Chicks Rule.

F.A.T. Casting Call

In case you don't keep up with the comments on posts from last June, you may be interested to know that Mo'Nique's F.A.T. Chance is casting for a second season. Also that F.A.T. stands for "Fabulous And Thick." They couldn't come up with a better adjective than thick?

Go Mandisa!

It's Friday, which means it's time for a fun post, right? So let's talk about Mandisa on American Idol. As someone pointed out in the comments, Paula complimented her last week by saying she has "such a pretty face." I bet she also has "a good personality"!

On the American Idol thread at Television Without Pity, Miss Alli (of Losing the Cow fame) had this to say:

"...there is absolutely no inconsistency between saying her weight is a struggle she is undertaking and saying she's not going to feel horrible seeing herself next to thin girls. You can set yourself to a battle without feeling like shit every time you look at someone who doesn't have to fight it. You can decide to learn Spanish without hating yourself compared to people who can speak Spanish, you can decide to learn how to cook without hating yourself because you can't already cook, and you can decide to address your weight without hating yourself whenever you see yourself next to skinny girls. In fact, I would venture to say that it is *only* when you stop hating yourself every time you see yourself next to skinny girls -- no matter what you may be wearing -- that you stand the remotest chance of succeeding. Nobody has ever loathed herself into a better future, ever. EVER."

Amen to that, sister. Amen.

As for Idol, I am also rooting for Katharine McPhee and also that really hot dude who is going to beat Kellie Pickler in the final two. Ace? Chris? (Yeah, I don't start watching obsessively until the final twelve.)

Not Milk?

I often wondered about the milk promotes weight loss claims when I was working for the "got milk?" people; I never did understand how drinking milk can help you lose weight.

"Though dairy is high in saturated fat, the dairy industry claims that low-fat dairy products can encourage weight loss. During the last few years it has spent millions on a controversial 'got milk?' advertising campaign, using milk-mustachioed figures such as television's Dr. Phil McGraw. In response, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine filed false-labeling petitions last June... They maintain that the 'got milk?' weight-loss ads are 'dishonest,' because scientific evidence contradicts the claims. The dairy industry based its assertion largely on the work of University of Tennessee researcher Michael Zemel, who received funding from the Dairy Council and who also has patented a weight-loss program using calcium."

Very interesting. The article seems to suggest that we should get calcium from other sources, and that we should focus on things like exercise and Vitamin D in the quest to prevent osteoporosis. Does this mean I'm supposed to give up my daily latte? Because that ain't happening, my friends.

Osama Bin Lard-en

The surgeon general called fat a form of domestic terrorism in a speech he gave at the University of South Carolina.

"Unless we do something about it, the magnitude of the dilemma will dwarf 9/11 or any other terrorist attempt..."

Later in the speech he added this chestnut: "Where will our soldiers and sailors and airmen come from?" Because the whole nation will be too fat to support the administration's warmongering, and then where will we be?

Reading this quite frankly makes me want to kick George Bush in the nuts. Even more than usual, I mean.

Every Diet Is Wrong

I thought I'd finally found something in the world of nutrition that made some sense, but now there's a study (isn't there always) saying that the glycemic index (the basis for diets such as South Beach) may not be all that useful.

"Now, diabetes researcher Elizabeth Mayer-Davis of the University of South Carolina says the use of the index should be ended altogether in favor of more traditional methods of losing weight and reducing the risk of diabetes — eating less and exercising more."

"Eat less and exercise more." Now where have I heard that advice before? The problem is, of course, that it's not useful to make a blanket statement like that without giving people some indication of what they can and can't eat. It just makes us all confused and frightened off by food.

Anecdotally, I can tell you that I had a chronic condition that went away (at least so far) once I started doing the first phase of the South Beach diet, and I also have lost weight and felt better since I've been doing it. I don't know if it's glycemic in nature or the fact that cutting out sugar and white bread is a sound nutritional principle. But I know I'm eating more healthfully, and that's... still good, right?

"Mayer-Davis said that researchers should develop a new measure of how different carbohydrates can affect health. She said a better index would be based on the physical characteristics of foods, such as fat content and calories, because numerous factors influence a food's effect on blood-sugar levels."

Well, keep me posted, Mayer-Davis. The whole thing makes my head hurt.