France has passed will vote next week on a new bill that makes it a crime to promote extreme thinness. Breaking the law is punishable with actual jail time. If the bill is passed, it will be the first anti-anorexia law in the world. Although several fashion houses and magazines have created their own standards to promote a more healthy body weight, never before has it been potentially legislated by a government.

The world’s first use of the law to tackle eating disorders is broadly aimed at the media and fashion world, but especially at the websites and blogs of the so-called pro-ana movement. While many are support groups, others promote starvation as a “life-style choice”, with girls and young women posting their wasting images as “thinspiration” for others. Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace have come under pressure in Britain and other countries recently to ban their pro-ana entries.

Last month a website that originated in France caused an outcry for encouraging children as young as 9 to embrace plastic surgery and extreme dieting in the search for the perfect figure. The Miss Bimbo site invites users to create a virtual doll, keep it “waif thin” with diet pills and buy it breast implants and facelifts. The website attracted 1.2 million players in France.

[From the Times Online]

Breaking the proposed law could result in fines as high as $48,000 and up to a two year prison sentence for members of the fashion world that “provoke a person to seek excessive thinness by encouraging prolonged restriction of nourishment” if it risks damaging a person’s health or could cause death. The sentence is raised to $70,000 and three years in jail if someone dies.

Some experts and fashion leaders oppose the Bill, which is expected to be passed by Parliament within months. “You do not solve this kind of problem with the law but with understanding,” Jean-Paul Gaultier, the designer, said. Didier Grumbach, head of the French Couture Federation, said it was not up to the state to legislate on beauty and aesthetic criteria.

[From the Times Online]

This is an interesting idea, though it seems like there are still a lot of holes in the law bill. For instance, let’s say Teenage Girl A dies from anorexia. Like most teenagers, she read a lot of fashion magazines which have very thin models. She also occasionally visited pro-ana websites. Who is responsible? And how can the government nail down WHICH magazines? And who at that magazine is the criminal? What about websites – is every pro-ana website Teenage Girl A ever visited responsible for her death? Is the responsible party the person who owns the website, or their ISP? It seems like an interesting start, but judges will probably need to figure out exactly how to define “excessive thinness,” and how to hold people accountable.

The header photo is from Italian fashion line Nolita. They used a picture of an anorexic woman on leaflets they handed out during Italy’s fashion week that say “No Anorexia.” This image was banned in France.

Update by Celebitchy: Thanks to Bellatrix for letting us know that this law has not yet passed yet, and is only a proposed bill. She writes:

“The law has not been voted yet. It is still just a law proposition. It will be voted next week on Tuesday (April 15).
I thought you’d might like a check about that, so here’s a link to an online version the “Le Monde” newspaper” [link is in French]

“The law proposition has been made by Valérie Boyer, a UMP (the party of the French president) politician. Needless to say that “la gauche” (the left wing) is united against this law as it does not treat anorexia as an illness and will not solve it.” [E-mail from Bellatrix]

The 2008 Miss America pageant was held this past Saturday. It marked the first time the organization has dramatically changed the format to appeal to modern viewers: a four-part series leading up to the pageant. “Miss America: Reality Check” aired from January 4th – 25th on TLC and gave viewers a different view of the pageant world. All 52 contestants lived together and had to participate in events and challenges that would supposedly prepare them for the Miss America pageant. The reality show format allowed viewers to vote for their favorite, dubbed “America’s Choice” – who was Miss Utah, Jill Stevens. That must be like the reality show runner up. Stevens placed in the final 16 in the actual pageant. The winner was Miss Michigan, Kirsten Haglund, 19. Haglund will spend her year in power promoting eating disorder awareness, and as part of that has already discussed her battle with anorexia.

Just three years ago, newly crowned Miss America Kirsten Haglund was eating tiny portions of food and became so thin her concerned parents “dragged me to the doctor.” Haglund was diagnosed with anorexia, and the lack of nutrition caused her collar bones to stick out, her heart rate to drop and her relationships to suffer. “I would feel fatigued walking up six stairs,” the 19-year-old Haglund said Sunday, a day after being crowned Miss America 2008. “I was a completely different person. It’s not a pretty sight.”

Haglund plans to spend her yearlong reign, trying to raise awareness of eating disorders, promoting the pagaent [sic] and helping the Children’s Miracle Network while maintaining a healthy lifestyle and exercise. “You have to have curves,” she said proudly. “You can’t look like a stick-thin model.”

[From the Associated Press]

Haglund also went on to proclaim that “I love chocolate. Chocolates are a girl’s best friend.” I’m guessing she’s going to get a lot of free stuff from See’s. Unlike a lot of contestants, Haglund refuses to disclose her weight to “avoid setting standards for youths obsessed with getting lighter.” She has studied ballet and dreamed of dancing professionally, but eventually changed her mind about the dance world, which she felt ignored eating disorder concerns. Each year Miss America chooses a cause to focus on. Haglund also won a $50,000 scholarship. She is a student at the prestigious Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Tara Reid is the queen of bad publicity. Not in terms of volume, but in terms of the percentage of overall publicity. Sure Paris, Britney, and Lindsay get more. But once in a blue moon you also hear something about their careers. I don’t even remember what the hell Tara Reid does besides drink and flash her augmented boobs at photographers. Tara’s also gotten freakishly thin lately. While most websites have been saying she must be anorexic, I think she’s probably just cheap. The thinner she is, the quicker she gets drunk. And since that’s the only thing Tara Reid ever does, it’s must be the most important thing in her life, thus she’s pretty committed to the cause. Tara’s gotten all defensive about her behavior, and decided to bitch and moan to OK magazine about it.

“I’m not too thin,” Tara, 32, insists in an exclusive interview and photo shoot in the new issue of OK!. “I go up 10 pounds, I go down 10 pounds.”

Tara also points out that, no matter what shape she’s in, she can’t seem to please anyone. “I was thin for a movie that I just finished [the upcoming horror film Vipers]. Now they’re going to see me and say I’m too fat because I’ve gained 10 pounds… I can’t win!”

As for the constant criticism of her alleged party-girl lifestyle, Tara asks, “What have I ever really done? Dance on a table? Who doesn’t drink with their friends and have a good time? I don’t understand why people punish others for being happy. If I have a drink in my hand, it doesn’t make me an alcoholic. If I want a glass of wine, I want a glass of wine. I shouldn’t be afraid of it because of what the media might say. Anything you do, you’re screwed. That’s the lesson I’ve learned.”

[From OK magazine]

I love the whole “What have I ever really done?” The answer should be “Nothing BUT dance on a table.” Maybe if you’d ever done anything else noteworthy, people wouldn’t be so likely to comment on the fact that the only thing you do is get drunk and make a fool of yourself. Tara clearly has body issues. At last count, she’d had 283,484 different cosmetic surgeries. The first half made everything worse, and the second half was to correct all the problems from the first half. Thus she pretty much ended up looking the way she started… just a little more freakshow. Something tells me looking particularly gaunt isn’t going to help things.

Picture note by Jaybird: Here’s Tara on November 23rd 2007, and here she is on November 11th, 2006 – a year earlier. The comparison is pretty astounding. Header image of Tara and Prince Azim of Brunei party at Mahiki Nightclub in London last night. Images thanks to Splash Photos.

As sad as it is, I think it’s really good that more and more public figures are coming out and talking about their battles with mental illness. It takes the stigma off of it, and lets the rest of us know that we shouldn’t feel ashamed or alone, and that everyone, no matter how successful, goes through times of struggle. Nicole Richie’s ex-fiancé, DJ AM (nee Adam Goldstein) recently gave an interview to Glamour magazine in which he talks about his past struggles with drugs, alcohol, obesity, and depression. Goldstein says his addictions and mental illness had gotten so out of hand that he tried to kill himself, putting a loaded gun into his mouth.

Addicted to crack cocaine, overweight, and miserable, “at 24 I felt like my life was over,” the hot Hollywood deejay, who has dated Nicole Richie and Mandy Moore, tells Glamour magazine.

“I went into my living room, reached into a cabinet above my TV and grabbed my gun, a loaded .22,” recalls the now 34-year-old. “I sat back on my heels, cocked it and put it into my mouth. I pulled the trigger. The gun didn’t go off. I thought, ‘Are you kidding me? I’m such an [expletive] failure I can’t even kill myself? I dropped the gun and broke down. That was the turning point in my life.”

[From People]

After that, DJ AM went into a recovery program where he worked on his addictions and began watching what he ate and exercising. Though he relapsed three months later, he started over again, knowing that his only options were to “recover or die.” He eventually had gastric bypass surgery, and has maintained both his sobriety and his weight loss.

“I no longer needed a trophy girlfriend or drugs to feel good about myself,” he says. “It’s been nine and a half years since I’ve had a drink or taken drugs. But every day I have to remind myself that no matter how much time I have behind me, I’m still a drug addict. At any given moment, I’m five seconds away from walking up to someone, grabbing their drink out of their hand and downing it. And if I do that, within a week, tops, I’ll be smoking crack.”

[From People]

Goldstein, who is equally known for his on-again, off-again relationship with Nicole Richie (who’s no stranger to drug addictions and weight issues herself), seems to be appreciative of what he has. Whenever his ego gets a little too big, he says, “I have to remind myself [that I’m] a fat crackhead who’s lucky to be alive.”

Picture note by Jaybird: Here’s DJ AM at the Paris and Nicky Hilton-hosted New Year’s Eve 2008 Party at LAX Nightclub in Las Vegas. Images thanks to PR Photos.

There are a lot of significant differences between British and American English. A few are funny and lead to amusing/embarrassing anecdotes about when you accidentally told someone to light a gay person on fire and stick them in your mouth, or someone asked you where the lift was and you offered to pick them up. Things like that. Then there are the rare words that you don’t even realize mean two completely different things, because it doesn’t come up a lot. Along the lines of fag = cigarette, lift = elevator, it turns out that style = emaciated crack whore. Victoria Beckham has said that she loves Amy Winehouse’s “sense of style.” Clearly something was lost in translation.

International fashion icon Victoria Beckham, 33 loves struggling Soul singer Amy Winehouse, 24, and her ‘unique’ sense of style. Posh says: “She has a real sense of style that I just love. She’s very much a fashion icon and I adore what she wears. She’s so unique and original.”

Victoria also admits she and husband David are both fans of the ‘Rehab’ singer’s music. Posh adds: “I’ve never met her but I just love her music, I’ve always got it on at home with David and the children. She’s an amazing singer.”

[From Wicked Youth]

Posh and Amy actually have very similar body shapes. Posh got hers through her legendary sushi and oxygen diet, whereas Amy’s came about from the slightly tougher meth, beer, and blood diet. Both require strict adherence to some pretty unhealthy rules, but if you really stick with it, you can whittle your 5’3 body down to 81 pounds. And it seems like that’s the only real requirement in the Victoria Beckham style school. Amy Winehouse is just one pair of rigidly round implants away from marrying David Beckham. If I were Posh, I wouldn’t admire Amy, I’d be wary of the competition.

“The Sopranos” actress Jamie-Lynn Sigler, 26, was honored last Thursday by the National Eating Disorder Association for both “her fundraising and consciousness raising work for research into eating disorders.” She has drawn a lot of attention in the media to have eating disorders seen as real medical and mental illnesses and not just a “superficial disease.”

Sigler suffered from anorexia and exercise bulimia while working on “The Sopranos.” In 2002, USA Today wrote:

Sigler cut her calories to less than 500 a day and dropped a quarter of her weight — sliding from 120 pounds to 90. “I had an eating disorder,” says Sigler, who has detailed her potentially deadly experiences with anorexia nervosa (AN) and her simultaneous rise to fame in the new book Wise Girl. “I hated the way I looked when I saw myself in the mirror, but I just couldn’t stop what I was doing.”

“Going out with my girlfriends to go to the mall was out,” says Sigler. “They might decide to go to the food court and order pizza.” Excessive exercise is a common strategy in both anorexia and bulimia. “I’d begin the day with an hour or so on the treadmill,” recalls Sigler, “and then I’d put on an exercise video. I’d even figure out how to make doing laundry or talking on the phone use more calories.”

[From USA Today]

Since then Jamie-Lynn has done a lot of hard work to get healthy and stay in recovery, and has become a spokesperson for the National Eating Disorder Association.

“It’s hard for me to even recognize who I was,” the former Sopranos actress, 26, tells PEOPLE. “My reality was so warped. … I knew I had a problem and wanted to get better, but I was not able to let go of my habit.” She recalls one moment in particular – a meal with her family, when her father begged her to have some cake. “I remember rationalizing that if I had that one piece of dessert, the next morning I would wake up and weigh 400 pounds,” she says. “It sounds so wild, but for me it was true.”

[From People]

To stay in recovery, Jamie-Lyn says she tries to eat healthfully, but makes sure she doesn’t let herself make any food regulations. She noted that she used to know ” every calorie that entered my body, and I tried to measure every calorie that I could burn. So for me, any sort of regimen, any sort of ritual or rule when it comes to dieting or exercising, is bad for me.” Stars like Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Jennifer Love Hewitt are doing a great job of drawing attention to the negative effects women (and men) can suffer as a result of poor body image. Good for them for speaking up and trying to live healthier lives.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Jamie-Lynn Sigler is shown at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards on 11/5/07, thanks to PRPhotos.

“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.

I don’t usually write about fashion – mostly because I consider Old Navy to be the height of couture. But once in a while a story will pop up that has implications far beyond the fashion world. Italy’s Fashion Week is going on right now, and Italian fashion line Nolita has used a picture of an anorexic woman on leaflets they’ve been handing out that say “No Anorexia.” An interesting message, but at first glance it’s confusing and seems like they’re promoting the disease, even though they’re trying to do the opposite.

“A photograph of a naked anorexic woman appeared on Monday in Italian newspapers and on billboards to highlight the effects of the illness during Milan fashion week while promoting a fashion brand. Written above the photo of the woman, used to advertise fashion group Flash&Partners’s clothing brand Nolita, are the words: “No Anorexia”.

“The picture was shot by the controversial Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani, who in 1992 photographed a man dying of AIDS for a campaign for clothing group Benetton. Toscani’s aim was ‘to use that naked body to show everyone the reality of this illness, caused in most cases by the stereotypes imposed by the world of fashion’, Flash&Partners said in a statement.

“‘Everyone says it’s ugly but I don’t think it is, it really brings the message home,’ said passer-by Giuseppina Ravelli after seeing the billboard in Milan. ‘The people who reach these kind of levels have such great problems it is good that they use their illness to teach others about it.’

“But the president of Italy’s Association for the Study of Anorexia, Fabiola De Clercq, said the woman used for the photo should be in hospital and the image was ‘too crude’. Far from helping women suffering from anorexia, the photo may make many of them feel envious of the model and determined to become even thinner than her, she said.”

[From Reuters]

It’s an interesting idea, but I’m not sure it’s good to put that picture out there when it’s directed at women with a distorted body image. Associating it with a fashion brand might add flames to the fire. It seems (and I may be naïve here) that Nolita is trying to do something good, but perhaps a better way to go about that would be to have a picture of a healthy, real woman on there. The idea is probably to shock people with what anorexia really looks like, but the people it’s aimed at probably won’t be shocked, they may be impressed, and strive for that extreme. Points for the idea, but not the execution.

Even though Keira Knightley is freakishly thin, I used to believe her when she said she wasn’t anorexic. Why? Because I have this stupid desire to see the best in people and figure they know themselves better than I do. So when Keira Knightley says she’s just got the world’s most freaky metabolism, I wanted to believe her. She even sued people for saying she was anorexic and went out of her way to say she doesn’t want to promote eating disorders, yada yada. And she seems to be one of the more intelligent women in Hollywood. But mostly because I am gullible, I suppose. But Keira made some comments to Female First that make it pretty clear she’s suffering from anorexia, along with body dysmorphic disorder. She gave some shockingly frightening quotes, and I’m not taking that out of context.

“‘Weight is a big issue in Hollywood because I’m twice the size - height and everything else - of most of the girls who are going in to see the director for a part. When you realise that I am, at my size, one of the largest actresses there, you start to think, ‘I don’t think it’d be healthy for me to stay here much longer.’”

[From Female First]

Well I do have to agree with Keira, in terms of it not being healthy for her to stay in Hollywood much longer. But not because everyone else is messed up and way too skinny, but because her perception is so messed up. I can’t imagine that she weighs more than 90 pounds, max. But because of said previous lawsuits from a paper suggesting she is anorexic, I’m just letting Keira’s lawyers know that I think she’s just the absolutely picture of health, both body and mind.

“The 22-year-old actress has been criticised in the past because of her weight, and accused of having an eating disorder. She was awarded £3,000 damages earlier this year after a British national newspaper suggested she was anorexic.

“Keira has always vehemently denied the claims, but has revealed the life-threatening illness runs in her family. She previously said: ‘I’ve got a lot of experience with anorexia. My grandmother and great-grandmother suffered from it, and I had a lot of friends at school who suffered from it. I know it’s not something to be taken lightly and I don’t.’”

[From Female First]

It seems like in the past, she knew how to say just the right things, but this one slip really goes to the heart of the issue. Keira’s able to exist in Hollywood more successfully than other starlets with issues because she isn’t out boozing and clubbing and flashing her lady bits at any photographer who’s willing to look. So people generally lay off her. I remember Nicole Richie freaking out on paparazzi on several occasions for the “eat a sandwich” type comments they were always typing her way. While I’m not sure of it, it doesn’t seem like Keira has to deal with that in London. She generally lives a respectable life (at least by most appearances) so people lay off a bit. Thus no one’s screaming at her (via their keyboards, of course) like we all do at Britney and Lindsay to get their shit together. But frankly, I really hope someone helps her. Something is clearly off.

Picture below is of Keira on the beach in Hawaii this January. Header image is of Keira at the Dead Man’s Chest UK premiere on 7/3/06.

Jenna Jameson walked the runway for New York designer Heatherette yesterday, and looked like death on a stick. I know she’s blamed her scary weight loss on her diagnosis of malignant melanoma, but that was back in November of 2004 – so nearly three years ago. She had the misshapen mole removed the following month, and says she’s been “100 percent cancer free” since then. So that really doesn’t explain why she looks as skeletal as ever. She seemed to be looking a little healthier lately – less orange tan (after a skin cancer diagnosis, you’d hope even a porn star could at least stay away from the tanning machine) – took out her fake boobs, seemed to have put a little weight back on her emaciated frame. But it seems the porn star has gotten a little skeletal again, considering how he looked on the runway.

“Jenna Jameson is making a transition from the seedy world of porn into the Hollywood celebrity set and has been doing the rounds at New York Fashion Week. She recently stole the show when she walked the red carpet at the Heatherette show looking like a shadow of her former self.

The actress has been battling rumours she is struggling with anorexia for the last few months but she has dismissed those reports and blamed her recent bitter divorce. The Queen of Porn has said it upsets her when fans tell her to “eat a burger” or that they prefer the “old Jenna.” Jenna had posted this message on her MySpace page in response to the accusations a couple of months ago but her situation has not improved and she has gone on to lose even more weight.

[From The Daily Telegraph]

When Jenna first started losing too much weight, she blamed the stress of the skin cancer diagnosis (which also caused her to have a miscarriage). That’s totally understandable, but as those issues faded into the background, she didn’t look any healthier, and has recently been blaming the stress of her (albeit very acrimonious) divorce.

“I feel like I need to address the weight rumors that have been swirling for a few months now. This saddens me… only because, everyone that is judging me… has absolutely NO idea what is happening in my life. People are hateful and accuse me of being a drug addict, or an anorexic.

Does anyone seem to remember the fact that I am going through a nasty divorce? It has been weighing heavily on me. I worked extremely hard for years to secure my success, and i have been forced to fight for everything I busted my ass for. This has definitely affected my weight. It really hurts that my fans (and everyone else) have taken it upon themselves to be so horrible, screaming eat a burger! or we want the old Jenna back! I’m sure everyone out there has gone through tough times, and this is when I need support.

“I wish I could enlighten everyone with what is exactly going on in my divorce and business, but I can’t because of legal proceedings. I really hope everyone understands and remembers I am human, and I really need friends and the love and support right now. “Soon the divorce will be settled and I am hoping to come out unscathed, but my x is doing his best to make it hard. Thanks for all of your support, and remember I love you!

[From The Daily Telegraph]

I know a lot of people don’t eat when they’re stressed, but when you have chronic stress and don’t eat as a result, that is a real problem. I’m not sure if it’s anorexia by definition, but she sure seems beyond the point of having lost “stress weight.” Anorexia is a disease that - for many sufferers - is about control. When you can’t control all the other stressful things in your life, you can control how little you eat. It seems logical that Jenna could be having those issues right now. Since she spent so many years in such a body-focused industry, it makes sense that she could try to control that one area of her life right now, and take it too far. She doesn’t look quite as cartoonish as she did for a while – though her boobs still don’t look natural to me, even though she claimed to have had her implants removed. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when her divorce is over – if she’ll magically put on some weight, or if she’ll come up with a new excuse.

Picture note by JayBird: Here’s Jenna flashing her ass and looking scary skinny at the Heatherette show. Images thanks to WENN.