Jennifer Love Hewitt says hooker role is “about female empowerment”

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Jennifer Love Hewitt is dutifully promoting that housewife-turned-hooker Lifetime movie she stars in, The Client List. It airs tonight at 9pm and is getting mixed reviews. Some are bashing it as a sad commentary on the state of Hewitt’s career, but others say there’s a kind of joy in how cheesy, trashy and over the top it is.

In her latest interviews Hewitt is of course spouting the same kind of contradictory faux-empowering crap she usually does. I like her and find her kind of endearing in her clueless way, but it gets old hearing the same thing over and over again from her. She’s told us she wants a body like Gisele Bundchen while saying just a moment earlier that we should love ourselves as we are. Now she’s telling us to throw away our scales because it’s no use keeping track of our weight, and that we should be happier with who we are so that we can date better men. Oh and Hewitt also thinks in all seriousness that her Lifetime movie about a woman turning tricks to support her family is “about female empowerment.”

On how her movie is “about female empowerment”
“It really struck me, particularly where we are in the world economically. This is real stuff that people are dealing with,” Hewitt says. “And I loved that, in this, it was about female empowerment. It was really her taking care of her family and I loved her struggle.”

For the role, Hewitt trained by taking pole-dancing classes (she now has a pole in her house for her work-out regimen), but did little other research before filming began.

“I wanted to learn as Sam was learning it and I think it helped me in doing that,” Hewitt says. “This project in particular, I really went on the journey with her because I didn’t do any real research or any preparation. … I really felt for Sam and her story and her struggle.”

It was this emotional journey with Samantha that makes the character, and the film, one of Hewitt’s favorite roles in her 20-plus-year acting career.

“Emotionally, this was one of the hardest things I ever had to do because it was work that I didn’t understand. It was, quite honestly, a world that I was judgmental of before I did the part,” she says. “It was difficult, but it would probably be a tie now between Sam and Audrey [Hepburn in The Audrey Hepburn Story].”

Besides showing her emotional range, the film is also a testament to Hewitt’s personal growth and being “at the right place” in her life to take on this part.

“I’ve had these types of things come around a lot and I never did them because I was like, ‘I couldn’t even act that if I tried. I don’t know that woman yet, I don’t know that part.’ And I do right now, where I am in my life,” she says. “I was ready to be open to a new side of life and see why certain woman do things and find themselves in this situation.”

“You do root for her and you do judge her, and you love that you judge her and by the end of it, you really forgive her for all that she’s done,” Hewitt says. “Sometimes the best role models, and the people you should look up to the most, are the ones who actually do make mistakes because they show you how to overcome them.”

[From Fox News. Last quote from Celebrity Cafe]

Wow, she really is suited to playing these type of one dimensional characters. Here’s her quote about how we should throw away our scale and not be at all concerned about how we’ll look in lingerie on screen:

On how we should never weigh ourselves
Love Hewitt refuses to step on a scale outside the doctor’s office. “I don’t have scales anymore and I don’t weigh myself. I would urge women everywhere to throw out their scales,” she stated. “Even when I go to the doctor’s office I’m like, ‘Don’t tell me’. Just write it on your chart and don’t tell me.’ It does you no good to know,” she further urged

[From Celebrity Cafe]

In yet another interview, with USA Today, Hewitt reveals that she’s working on a “prequel” to her self help book, The Day I Shot Cupid. It’s all about how you need to feel good about yourself so you can find a better man. Because that’s the only reason to feel good about yourself, right? She said “I realized that (in Cupid) I had helped people through the process of finding a man. But there’s a whole group of women out there, me included, that don’t realize the reason they haven’t found that right man is they haven’t learned how to love themselves first. Once you really love yourself, the caliber of men you can be with goes up.” So we should be happier with ourselves because we’re not happy without a good man, according to J-Love. Poor gorgeous conflicted TV-hooker playing J-Love.

Photos from Lifetime via Daemon’s TV

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41 Responses to “Jennifer Love Hewitt says hooker role is “about female empowerment””

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  1. teehee says:

    I wish females today would stop confusing selling yourself out (in this case quitre literally) or indulgence jut for the sake of it, or more often over-exposure as female empowerment. Marketing your body and making it attractive to other people’s eyes is IMO not empowering yourself and being proud of your body but more like subjecting yourself to the opinions, wants, and tastes of the other.
    I prefer to think that If you can just enjoy your own sexuality for yourself without making a big show of it, not flash yourself and have to always be ‘on’, not try to win favor in the eyes of everyone but just KNOW your own body and needs and wants…. that to me is an empowered female. Above the influence of teh crowd especially in terms of sexual pressures and any sense of competition… I think its mostly driven by fear rather than personal desire.
    That is purely the way I think of it, though, and the way I prefer to behave. I want what I want and get it; I know what I like and ask for it for myself. Then I am satisfied and glow; trying to be overtly sexual just becomes what appears as ‘trashy’ without that true-to-yourself core.
    Oh and i have to mention again that I’ve ‘been there and done that’– but I would not call prostitution empowerment at all. Yes you have the upper hand when you can run yoru own business. But in a better world, women could have better pay and better options and not have to resort to selling her body. Also, women would have men who cared for her and the children so fewer women were stuck with the kids and had the pressure to provide alone which she often cannot properly do.
    And bla bla….

  2. Oi says:

    Its a train wreck, but I can’t look away…This should be fun.

  3. Dorothy says:

    I miss Ghost Whisperer… 🙁

  4. Tess says:

    It’s all about female empowerment, and the journey—the emotional journey—and the struggle.

    And you do root for her, and you do judge her, and by the end of it you spontaneously self combust.

    Poof.

  5. Canucklehead says:

    More importantly…

    Who’s the actress playing the lawyer in picture #10?

    Super-hot!

  6. lisa says:

    In that first pic I thought it was Cameron D. with her.

    This girl is all kinds of crazy. She has major body issues. ONE minute she loves her body..the next she is killing herself to loose weight. I think loosing her show kind of sent her in a spin. This is a Lifetime movie..not an earth breaking role. She is playing a part any number of women have played before her. Why the need to make this one sound so different. And since when do actresses making these movies go on photo calls and press junkets.. Seriously.. Seriously..

    She is a NUT..and as a woman I would not listen to her or take her advise on anything.

  7. malachais says:

    My Granny and I will probably watch this and fall asleep.

  8. denise says:

    HERe we go again, with the female empowerment bull crap. How is being a hooker about female empowerment? Since when has sexual degradation been empowering for anyone?

    lol@ Malachais.

  9. Nuharoo says:

    “Since when has sexual degradation been empowering for anyone?”

    Since brainless pop stars refuse to own up to their tarting around. They prefer to dress it up as controlling their own sexuality and refer to women who have self respect as ‘pawns of the establishment.’

  10. miri says:

    Absolutely lovin’ the straight talk comments here about the BS woman empowerment chatter that young female celebs spout at every turn. Degrading yourself into a masturbatory aid in a hypersexualized MAXIM photo shoot? Empowering! Feminist! A movie about a hooker is all about self-empowerment? Subversive! Edgy!

    whew. Some of these people need to be exposed to some feminist thought about the contexts of such images and acts. A little old fashioned political economy of sexual images would be a good starting point, so that they can understand how such images and narratives play out in relation to our culture and the control of media industries.

  11. 6 says:

    “HERe we go again, with the female empowerment bull crap. How is being a hooker about female empowerment? Since when has sexual degradation been empowering for anyone?”

    I think it became empowering (to her)when she could just “act” like she was having sex with numerous men, that and the fact that she didn’t have to do it to eat and pay the bills. Oh, to be a Hollywood starlet……

  12. Andrea says:

    If she believes that this show is about female empowerment, she must think Rachel Uchitel is the new Gloria Steinhem.

  13. hanh says:

    I miss Ghost Whisperer too! My secret indulgence. JLH is a little all over the place, but she is definitely beautiful. I wish she would ease up on the fake lashes and the mountains of makeup though. I love her body but its getting a little too skinny lately. I loved her clothes on Ghost Whisperer.

  14. Bonfire Beach says:

    I like her but I think she needs a good therapist who enjoys a challenge.

  15. Embee says:

    This stuff makes me want to scream.
    Since when is embracing the misogynist view of “woman as sex toy” empowering? It’s akin to jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

    When a movie portrays a woman who refuses to spend hours a day and hundreds of dollars to turn herself into something that is pleasing to a man, I will consider her empowered. I will watch with excitement any portrayal of female sexuality that is based on feminine desire and satisfaction, as opposed to (borrowing from miri!) creating a male masturbatory aid.

  16. tiki says:

    wow. she’s deep. like, totally.

  17. kc says:

    Ugh, celebrities are SO DUMB! Being a hooker is in no way “empowering”. You know what is an empowering way to take care of your family? Go to school, learn a skill, start a business-only in Hollywood is being a sex worker anything but degrading and desperate.

  18. Gwen says:

    She didn’t do any research or preparation because “I wanted to learn as Sam was learning it and I think it helped me in doing that.” Uh huh. Sounds like a lazy actress.

  19. kiki says:

    she is right its elitist & sexist to judge hookers.
    although until women make dollar for dollar what men make it is exploitation if a pimp is involved.

  20. She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named says:

    wow, love the comments

    shout out to teehee; denise; miri, andrea, embee, etc. fantastic points, couldn’t have said it better.

    whew, I was actually afraid to click on this, thought there might be some scary, depressing crap, but your comments just made my day. Thanks!

  21. padiddle says:

    If a woman feels she is so hard up for cash that the only thing she can do to survive and keep her family alive is turn to prostitution, that’s not empowerment, that’s desperation.

  22. Liana says:

    It’s all about female empowerment, and the journey—the emotional journey—and the struggle.
    ______________

    So is the Bachelorette, and that never ends well.

  23. Kim says:

    Oh Lord not the empowered female to justify a skanky role/posing in Playboy, excuse again. Plleeaasseee – Its as old as the deviated septum for getting a nose job excuse!

  24. lucy2 says:

    JLH needs to STOP with the empowerment and body image advice stuff. She seems like a nice enough girl, but maybe is not smart enough to see how ridiculous some of her comments are, or to realize when she’s repeatedly contradicting herself (the body image stuff). Plus, all the be happy to get a man stuff is just sad, she seems to put WAY too much self worth dependent on having a boyfriend.

    I don’t think she means any harm, but it annoys me that a generation of young women are hearing this and the crap that Miley & Co. spew) as examples of empowerment.

  25. Drew says:

    Oh thank goodness for these comments ridiculing her utterly asinine statements. Besides, it sounds like some moron publicity or marketing person came up with the laughable (and sadly now made trite) “empowerment” prattle to sell this schlock movie to women who are fed up with the steady diet of prostitute characters

  26. Liana says:

    Plleeaasseee – Its as old as the deviated septum for getting a nose job excuse!
    __________________

    Hey now… I had surgery for a deviated septum. Of course, I also said “hey doc, while you’re there, could you whittle the honker down a bit?” So… uh… yeah. Nevermind. 😀

  27. Dingles says:

    Of course it is.

  28. Nuharoo says:

    I think they say stuff like this because they are secretly ashamed. LIke the slutty friend trying to corrupt her less slutty friend so the slutty friend feels better about herself.

    Actresses/pop stars like Miley and Co. (especially Christina Aguilera) dress it in female empowerment because they won’t face the degrading things they do to themselves. So they tell the world that they do it to show they are in charge of their bodies (despite the fact that they are likely not) and tell thesmevles they’re better than those “b****hy prudes” in mainstream/middle America.

    They’re in the most exploitative industry in the planet and we all know they don’t get there by building their brain power. We know the histories of these celebs, many in modeling, many in heaven knows what other industries.

    It’s all about bodies and why can’t these actresses own up to it? They aren’t paid to be rocket scientists.

  29. LolaBella says:

    The last person I would ever want to hear an opinion from about what she considers ‘female empowerment’ is this insecure, desperate, delusional moron.

    Just STFD and STFU.

  30. Kelly says:

    Portraying a hooker is probably the least degrading thing this silly tart has done lately. As long as you’re in charge of the process, I fail to see how having sex for money is more humiliating or degrading than many other forms of employment. So maybe give the hooker-bashing a break, it’s honest work and it pays the bills.

    I’ve said before and Ill say it again- why are we even talking about scales, weighing ourselves or whatever??? Do you hear men doing this? It is INSANE in the membrane to care this much or be this bent out of shape about our bodies. Get a real issue. No one should care about other people’s waist measurement or fat percentage.

    Finally, how this talentless, beyond-pathetic trick gets work at all is beyond me. The toxic garbage that comes out of her mouth makes me want to staple it shut. She embarrasses us all.

  31. Jo 'Mama' Besser says:

    But, wait!

    When he ‘went off like one’, I thought that how I ‘matriculated’–or whatever it’s called–at Dr. C. von Couchington’s School of Rocket Science-try. This isn’t ‘Knowledge Fuel’ on my face?!

  32. mollination says:

    I’m not sure if it was because she got ridiculed for putting on some lbs. once long long ago, but when did JLH become the self-appointed champion of ugly ducklings? She’s a gorgeous celebrity – why is she trying to pull a Tyra and be all “I’m right there with you guys! See?!?! We’re the same!”

  33. Angel says:

    these comments. LOL Forever.

    Meta, much.

  34. ShyShy says:

    wow, i really like her in Ghost Whisperer and i never knew she was this naive in real life to think that playing the role of a hooker is female empowerment

  35. Shay says:

    I don’t know what it is about her, but I find it difficult watching her. It doesn’t matter what series she is in. I just think ‘meh’ and change the channel. I don’t know how people watched the Ghost Whisperer.

  36. I Choose Me says:

    Can I get an AMEN! up in here for everything teehee wrote?

  37. valerie says:

    co-sign w/ Nuharoo….

  38. Laura says:

    Honestly? As someone who DOESN’T like JLH:
    -I love my body as it is, but who wouldn’t want a Gisele body? I know I look good, but Gisele has model good looks-which I simply don’t have the drive to achieve. If I could have it without the effort? Hell yeah!
    -Prostitution as empowering? I don’t agree. But I do think it should be legal. And I guess some prostitutes enjoy their job, so whatever.
    -I don’t have a scale either, because frankly I’m a bit OCD, and while I may like the way I LOOK, if I find out my ‘number’ is higher than I think it should be, it’ll bug me. And honestly, I know a lot of women are like that. If numbers on the scale freak you out, it’s best just to go by pant size, in my opinion.

  39. Dan says:

    @ choose me AMEN TEEHEE!!!!

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