“Hairspray” actress Brittany Snow has admitted to an extreme eating disorder, cutting, and depression in a recent interview with the website “Half of Us.” Snow talks about her struggle with weight, which began at the age of 12 when she started the “Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type” diet, after it was recommended by some of her “Guiding Light” adult costars. Wonderful influence. She got a lot of compliments on her weight loss, and the feeling of acceptance and encouragement became addictive. Eventually, she was down to 85 pounds and worried she still wasn’t thin enough.

“Brittany Snow’s descent into the dark world of eating disorders began when she landed the role of Susan Lemay on TV’s Guiding Light, the actress, now 21, tells MTVU.com. ‘I remember looking around at all these women who were on the soap opera who were working out and dieting,’ Snow says. Taking their cue, a 12-year-old Snow tried her first diet, called Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type. ‘I took it to the extreme,’ the Hairspray star admits, which included a two-month stint when she ‘lived on pineapple.’

“After losing 10 lbs. on the diet, Snow says she heard compliments and felt accepted from those around her. Soon it was a feeling she couldn’t get enough of. ‘It kind of progressed into this thing where I needed to always be dieting and losing weight and more weight,’ she says in the site’s interview series Half of Us, which addresses mental health issues and ways to get help. ‘It became my life and I didn’t have any friends and this was definitely my best friend and I held on to it really tight.’

“At 15, Snow was stepping onto the scale 10 to 15 times a day and weighed only 85 lbs. ‘I knew that was a really low number and I knew that my hair was falling out and I had really weird skin. My face looked really weird and I was getting this fuzz on my face and I was always cold – always to the point of uncontrollably shaking,’ she says. But ‘I was more scared that 85 lbs. wasn’t good enough. I wanted to be lower.”

[From People]

Brittany Snow is one of those sorta famous actresses that I never really thought much about, and she’s very pretty in a small, petite person kind of way. I never noticed just how tiny she was until I read this story, and really started looking. That would mean she was obviously struggling with anorexia through much, if not all, of her time on “American Dreams.” Snow says she finally reached the end of her rope when she started cutting herself.

“Rock bottom came when Snow began cutting herself. ‘I would look at the scars and what I had done to myself and that would convince me not to eat,’ she says. ‘I also was crying for attention and I also really wanted someone to see my scars and help me and give me a hug.’

“By 19, Snow was in rehab and things took a turn for the better. She stopped cutting and got help for her depression. ‘But the eating stuff was still really hard to deal with,’ she says. ‘It’s still a struggle.’

“Her advice to girls who are going though a similar situation is to take baby steps. ‘It’s very important to talk to anybody. Maybe the first step is just to talk to a friend about it,’ she says. ‘Probably they’ll relate in some way.’”

[From People]

That advice sounds very sensible. I imagine that for someone struggling with something as complex, private, and scary as anorexia, making a full-on confession might seem too overwhelming. The idea of baby steps makes sense. It’s amazing that Brittany could have had so many people around her who either didn’t notice or didn’t say anything.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Brittany Snow is shown in a white dress at fashion week on 9/5/07. She is at a party for her Vegas Magazine cover on 8/24/07 in the photos where she is wearing a pink dress. Thanks to PRPhotos.

John Travolta is starring in the remake of “Hairspray,” which opens this Friday. This is his first musical since “Grease” in 1978… and Travolta looks nearly the same. Except that he’s thirty years older and one hundred pounds heavier. And has breasts. So he’s a fat old woman. He plays agoraphobic mother Edna Turnblad, played by transvestite Divine in the original film and Harvey Fierstein in the Broadway version. Apparently Travolta had some serious complaints about the wardrobe… but the fat suit, breasts, and dresses were not the problem.

John Travolta knows a lot about women’s footwear. In fact, when he talks about the shoes he wore in the new movie Hairspray, Travolta reveals more than knowledge - he betrays a sense of passion for the world of footwear fashion.

“It was tough dancing in high heels, but we did change the heels to more of a dance shoe - like a Capezio,” said Travolta during a recent press engagement for the movie, which hits theatres Friday.

“You know, they kept giving me these skinny high heels and it’s, like, ‘OK, I understand those. My mother wore those.’ However, when I was growing up and I saw girls in the chorus, they had a thicker heel and it was a dance shoe and I kept telling them to find these shoes. I knew they existed, and finally, they brought out a shoe and I said, ‘That’s the shoe! Now make it in many colors.’”

[From the Halifax Daily News]

I can imagine it’d be pretty hard to dance well on a thin heel, especially wearing a lot of extra padding. Back in the day I used to tap dance, and it can be a challenge even on a sturdy Capezio shoe. That’s right, I’m hardcore like that. So don’t mess. It’s kind of funny that John Travolta has such an interest in shoes. I’m just saying. Travolta also talked about what it was like to be a woman. “’I was so flirted with, so groped,” he said. “I was convinced I’d have been a slut had I been born a woman. It was like, ‘Go ahead, touch me. I don’t care.’” He also told the New York Daily News “’I love big boobs on a woman… so I wanted Edna to have them. My boobs and butt got a lot of attention on the set. The whole crew kept coming over and groping me. The scary thing is, I liked it.’”

The gay rumors have followed John Travolta around throughout the last few years almost as diligently as they’ve followed Tom Cruise. Travolta just doesn’t seem to sue over them as often. There were a few photos of him kissing a man on the mouth as he boarded a plane a few months ago… but who are we to judge? Women do that and it’s considered fine, so I’m not going to use that as evidence. I’m just saying he’s a friendly fellow. And he has his own plane, so I don’t want to ruin my plan to become his best friend and steal his plane by saying anything defamatory. Anyhoo, I know they said Travolta wore a fat suit, but anyone who has seen him lately probably wonders just how much padding he was really wearing versus how much was natural. I’m sure he was just really getting into character. And there’s no better way to do that than to eat a lot of bacon. Can you imagine if we all had to eat bacon for our jobs? That’s a pretty sweet deal.

I am so excited for “Hairspray.” I’ve been trying to bring musicals back since I first saw the “Sound of Music” as a kid. It seems like my efforts have finally been rewarded, and musicals are here to stay… for now. Ever since Moulin Rouge (I think that was the first recent one, correct me if I’m wrong) brought singing and dancing back into style, there’s been no stopping those buffalo-flapping dancers from breaking out in the movies. I think that dance fashion should take off, just like aerobic fashion took off in the ‘80s. Who doesn’t want to have shoes that click, bright lipstick, and sequined clothing?

Picture note by Celebitchy: Here are photos from the movie Hairspray, thanks to Allmoviephoto. John Travolta does make a fabulous woman. Also shown are Allison Janney, Nikki Blonsky, Amanda Bynes, Queen Latifah, Zac Efron, Michelle Pfeiffer, James Marsden, Christopher Walken, Brittany Snow, Elijah Kelley, Taylor Parks, Tabitha Lupien, Hayley Podschun, and Kelly Fletcher.