An article from The New York Times got a lot of play the past few days because the author called out several of Hollywood’s leading men for their weight gains. Denzel Washington, John Travolta, Vince Vaughn and Tom Hanks were all criticized, but the article started out with Russell Crowe. Specifically, his double chin.

Am I alone in hating these trend stories? Like the basis of the story is “Suddenly, every guy is totally chubby” when it’s just not the case. They seemed to pick and choose a few stars that are aging, with various stages of grace, into their forties and fifties. I’m not there yet, but doesn’t that happen to every man and woman? They spread out a little in middle age?

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.
Based on a close look at trailers, still photos and some films already released, at least a dozen male stars in some of the year’s most prominent movies have been adding on the pounds of late.

Hollywood’s women may have weight issues of their own. But it is somehow less noticeable, possibly because actresses who expand do not often get roles to showcase that growth. But the men are still playing leads into their 40s and 50s — giving glimpses of what age, and perhaps a little inattention, can do to a most admired physique.

John Wayne always looked a bit portly,” noted Lawrence Turman, a veteran film producer who is chairman of the Peter Stark producing program at the USC’s School of Cinematic Arts.

“Mike Nichols once told me the one essential for an actor to have is a large head, so as to be seen,” Mr. Turman said.

Photos of midcentury stars — Humphrey Bogart, James Stewart, Clark Gable and others — show them to have remained rather gaunt at an age when many of the current crop are anything but. The change in smoking habits may have something to do with it. Possibly, too, the audience has grown more tolerant of weightier men on screen as the society at large has become heavier.

In the past, heavier leading men were confined mostly to the comedy world, said Felicia Fasano, a casting director whose credits include films like Bad Santa and “Barber Shop 2: Back in Business” and the television series “Californication.”

But a new willingness to cast heavier men “may have happened organically,” Ms. Fasano said, as Hollywood over the last few years has been plagued by what has widely been seen as a shortage of reliably appealing stars.

“The bigger people are, the more concern there is about high blood pressure or the possibility of strokes or heart attacks” during a shoot, said Brian Kingman, a managing director of Arthur J. Gallagher & Company, which sells entertainment insurance. For all but the oldest stars, however, an extra “10, 20 or 30 pounds” is usually not a major underwriting concern, Mr. Kingman said.

[From The New York Times]

As if timed specifically to refute this “Russell Crowe has a double chin” report, a new photo from the set of Nottingham was released. The photo is of a svelte-looking, short-haired Crowe, quivering his quiver. Yummy. Even though I don’t mind a guy with a little extra weight, it’s good to see a healthier-looking Russell Crowe. It takes me back to my Gladiator crush.

The Hollywood rumour-mill had it that Russell Crowe was too fat to play the English folk hero in Ridley Scott’s $130 million epic after piling on 63lbs for his last two films, Body of Lies and State of Play.

However, the first images from the set show that Crowe’s Robin bears more than a passing resemblance to his character in Gladiator, with the same buffed physique and close-cropped haircut. He also appears to be wearing jeans in place of the rather less macho Lincoln green tights worn by Errol Flynn.

Producer Brian Grazer explained: “He doesn’t have the old Robin Hood tights. He’s got armour. He’s very medieval. He looks, if anything, more like he did in Gladiator than anything we’re used to seeing with Robin Hood.”

The script has undergone several rewrites, and an initial plan to cast the Sheriff of Nottingham as the hero and Robin as a morally ambiguous vigilante were dropped. Grazer said the storyline has resonance at a time when City bankers and Wall Street financiers are the new villains. “Oddly, it’s a metaphor for today. [Robin] is trying to create equality in a world where there are a lot of injustices. He’s a crusader for the people, trying to reclaim some of the ill-gotten gains of the wealthy. That’s a universal theme.”

[From The Telegraph]

Russell Crowe is obviously not the only actor to have yo-yo weight issues. If anything, it makes me like him more. He seems to have similar issues to a lot of women, and the tabloids seem to love nothing more than getting in a few punches at Russell’s gut. My problem with a star like Vince Vaughn is that he simply looks gross and unhealthy, like he’s in need of a liver transplant. It’s not the weight – it’s the bloated face that belies alcohol problems, the bad clothes, and the pale, unhealthy-looking skin. Compared to Vince, Russell just looks like a guy who enjoys his cheese fries.

Russell Crowe is shown on the set of ‘Nottingham’ recently, and at the premiere of ‘Revolutionary Road’ on December 15th. Images thanks to WENN.com .