Re: the weight issue that keeps coming up in GD: Chubby is in, even for some of our major actors.

[Mike 03]

Do you think matters? Have you noticed it? I have definitely noticed it (it's hard to miss), but I'm not sure I know how to assess it, one way or the other, from the perspective of its sociological significance. What do you make of this? Is it healthy or unhealthy, and should women actors also be allowed equal latitude?

I can't stand the double standard with respect to how female vs. male overweight stars are dealt with. It's almost a joke if it's Russell Crowe, but it's a catastrophe if it is Kirsty Alley or Angelina Jolie.



LOS ANGELES — A scene from the new journalistic thriller “State of Play” says it all.

Jeff Daniels, as the politician George Fergus, squares off with Russell Crowe, as the pen-wielding journalist Cal McAffrey.

Two men. One notebook. Four chins.

Hollywood’s pool of leading men is getting larger — and not necessarily in a good way...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/18/movies/18bulk.html?_r=1&hpw

[AllieB]

1. It's in for men, but never for women.

:eyes:

Most actresses could never get away with the paunch that Alec Baldwin or Russell Crowe sport.

[alarimer]

2. For male actors, not female actors, that might be true.

But women, of course, are held to different standards as usual.

[Connie_Corleone]

3. Only for the men.

If an actress wears anything over a size zero, she's labeled fat. I'm exaggerating a little bit, but it's not far from the truth.

God forbid if she eats any food. Late night comedians will make jokes about how fat she is for the rest of her short career.

[vadawg]

4. i thnk in society as a whole, though i got to say i can lose wieght much easier than my wife

last year i had to put on a lot of wieght, close to 70 pounds, phew, since january of this year i have already lost 50 and another twenty to go without even really trying. My wife just scornfully looks at me every day getting slimmer.

[Jane Austin]

5. My husband can skip breakfast

one day and lose weight. :(

[vadawg]

6. i think this is the reason that women feed men at all, just to fatten us up

if it was left to the average male, we would hardly eat anything that we wasnt within our reach, and if we couldnt call for delivery the furniture would be in trouble. this is my theory at least about wwhy my wife cooks for me anyway.

[Jane Austin]

8. Sometimes Mr. Jane Austin forgets to eat.

I can't even imagine that.

[provis99]

7. but who's criticizing the actresses, men or women?

When Kirstie Alley did her fat bikini thing, I believe the cries of horror were from women in the audience...

[Love Bug]

11. It's not about criticism, it's about getting hired

Unless they are character actresses (NOT where the big money or power is), women just won't get hired unless they fit a particular physical standard. There are always younger, thinner, blonder, and bigger-boobed starlets waiting in the wings to replace the current crop of young actresses. The pressure on them to stay thin and botoxed-up is fierce.

Don't get me started on the age discrimination...

[XemaSab]

9. Note well:

Male actors are allowed to be old and sexy.

This is not so for women.

[Missy Vixen]

10. How many of these guys are over 40?

I think the male metabolism slows after 40 as well. In the meantime, they're not fat, they're "distinguished" and "rugged".

It's an unforgivable sin if any woman is fat. After all, she's not screwable if she's fat, is she? It's also a sin if women age, get gray, bla bla bla. The unretouched, un-made-up photos of Jamie Lee Curtis in a recent issue of "More" proved that one, didn't it?

[Berry Cool]

12. Yeah, and "fat" equals 130 pounds or more.

If an actress gains that much weight, she is described as having "ballooned."

[HughBeaumont]

13. It isn't just actors.

How many times a day in life I look at a couple where the woman is fit, trim and hard while her S.O. lets himself go . . . to Pizza Hut, looking just as beer-gutted portly and slovenly as he wants to be? Too many, and there are maybe a handful of examples where it's the other way around.

Then again, look at advertising. How many commercials have the hot wife paired up with something that makes Artie Lange look like Hugh Jackman, but it's NEVER the other way around?

Since the dawn of TV, how many league-challenged marriages have you seen on TV?

Maybe it's because sedentary jobs by and large replaced blue collar jobs among today's men; combined with the fact that an ideal diet forces one to give up pasta, burgers and other assorted stuff that actually makes the taste buds happy and replace it with protein, soup, rabbit food and fish in card-deck-sized portions 5 times a day? Many men don't have the time or enthusiasm to keep up with it and just give up entirely or gorge after they meet their weight loss goal.