Colin Farrell drew alarm a couple weeks ago when a photo came out like of him looking extremely emaciated and like a shadow of the buff Irish actor with a heart we know and love.

He lost the weight, which looks like 20-30 pounds off an already-thin frame, for a role. Farrell plays a Spanish photojournalist in war-torn Bosnia in the early 1990s in the film Triage, based on a novel by Scott Anderson. His character is torn apart by guilt and regret for the difficult choices he’s forced to make in an effort to survive.

Farrell said in a press conference that he lost the weight because my role demanded it” and added “It was all very healthy.”

Either the earlier photos made Farrell look deceptively gaunt or he’s added some much-needed weight back, because these latest photos on set have Farrell looking too-thin but still healthy. It could be all the clothes he’s wearing but he’s not scary skinny looking to me here. I would still fail to check him out if he was walking down the street, unlike the buffer, more clean cut Colin of days past.

Thanks to WENN for these photos, taken today in Dublin.

Oprah Winfrey – who we’re supposed to believe blogs – wrote on her website that she’s undergoing a 21-day vegan cleansing diet. And by that, I mean Oprah’s assistant’s assistant typed it up really quickly. Oprah, 54, regained a lot of weight recently, and she disclosed that she’s been suffering from hypothyroidism. She’s now determined to lose the weight and change her eating habits again – and is going totally meatless.

Wow, wow, wow! I never imagined meatless meals could be so satisfying.” she writes. “I had been focused on what I had to give up — sugar, gluten, alcohol, meat, chicken, fish, eggs, cheese. ‘What’s left?’ I thought. Apparently a lot. I can honestly say every meal was a surprise and a delight, beginning with breakfast — strawberry rhubarb wheat-free crepes.”

Inspired by Kathy Freston’s book Quantum Wellness, Winfrey says, “this 21-day cleanse gives me a chance to think about [eating] differently and see what my attachments are to certain kinds of foods – and what I’m willing to do to change.”

Her new menu — created by Freston’s own chef Tal Ronnen — features food like tofu scramble roasted tomato, grilled onion and sweet garlic aioli quesadillas with jicama slaw. She plans to blog her the entire dieting process. “Don’t know if I’m going to feel better or worse,” Winfrey writes, “but I’m willing to try to see if my body at least feels differently.”

[From Us Weekly]

Something tells me most people could happily go meatless if they had a professional chef to do all the fancy cooking for them. My vegetarian roommate made a whole wheat tofu pizza the other night and my tongue actually tried to run away from the rest of my body. If I had anything involving the word aioli, jicama, or crepes, I’m pretty sure I could manage. As it is I’m low carb, which means I had four slices of bacon and an Atkins shake for dinner. I would gladly eat Oprah’s vegan quesadilla every day of my life if I never have to repeat that meal again.

Oprah is talking about her diet like it’s this big deal – but her meal plan sounds better than what most of us probably slap together. How much of a sacrifice could it really be? And if it is – wasn’t her whole thing about eating reasonably, in a way that you can maintain? From the way she’s wording it, it doesn’t sound like she plans on going a day beyond the requisite three weeks on this diet. Not that I’m one to judge. I’m eating pork rinds as I write this.

Christina Aguilera seems like someone who wouldn’t take crap from anyone, if you ask me. She has a history of violence in her childhood, but somehow I just can’t see anyone pushing her around as an adult. She’s aware of the cycle of violence, and wanted to be sure it wouldn’t continue with her new husband.

Aguilera grew up witnessing her now-estranged father Fausto emotionally and physically abusing her mother Shelly - and she was determined not to subject her children to the same heartache.

She tells Us Weekly magazine, “We had many conversations before, and I really ensured that I put myself in the position to marry someone who was not going to repeat the cycle of abuse with my child and what I had endured as a child.

“I knew that my husband is not the type to have violent tendencies, and he would never hurt me.”

Contact Music

This isn’t the first time that Christina has talked about her violent past, saying “People don’t know domestic abuse unless they’re in it. It’s not only physical abuse, but there’s damage inside - mental abuse. It’s a sad thing to go through and watch. They play with your mind and make you feel bad about yourself.”

It is so true that abuse is as much about the mind as it is about physical or verbal abuse, and it can be harder to leave than any person who hasn’t been in that situation an understand. While it might appear that Christina is in the position of power in her relationship (she has the most money, and a successful career) it isn’t just as simple as leaving. An abusive partner holds the emotional power despite these things.

In the same interview that Christina talked about her relationship with Bratman, she also talked about how she lost her pregnancy weight. Her regime involved 90-minute, 5-day-a-week workouts with a trainer, and no white bread.

Note by Celebitchy: Why does it seem like Aguilera brings up this subject every 3-4 months? Maybe interviewers constantly ask her about it, and it must have been tough to live through. You want to give her the benefit of the doubt where this difficult subject is involved, but seeing yet another story about it makes me wonder.

Christina Aguilera and Jordan Bratman are shown outside their NY hotel on 5/14/08 and at a Christian Dior Cruise show on 5/12/08, thanks to WENN.

Former bad boy Colin Farrell has a lot of eyebrows raised in his direction over his recent extreme weight loss. He says that he did it for his role in the upcoming film Triage, and even had a passage at the ready to explain his gaunt look to reporters.

Why is Colin Farrell looking so thin? At a recent press conference in Spain, the usually fit actor stunned reporters with his appearance – not to mention what he said. “I lost weight because my role demanded it,” Farrell told reporters simply of his upcoming film, Triage. “It was all very healthy.”

The actor also referred to the Scott Anderson novel on which Triage is based, reading the sentences that inspired his dramatic weight loss: “He went to the bathroom to shave. Once his beard was gone he saw that his face had become drawn. He pressed at the hollows beneath his eyes, the pronounced nubs of his cheekbones.”

“Amen,” director Danis Tanovic followed, breaking the tension. Everyone – including Farrell – laughed. Farrell spent five weeks in Alicante, Spain, filming Triage, in which he plays a war reporter in Bosnia in the early 1990s. The actor also spoke of his great respect for war reporters “spending time in war zones to tell stories that capture the imagination – as well as for their wives and girlfriends.”

[From People]

I suppose that’s an acceptable reason for an actor, but holy cow. Talk about method acting. Farrell really took it to an extreme – his face is more than drawn. It’s gaunt. He’s also been demonstrating a bit more bizarre behavior, at least according to Page Six.

Colin Farrell may be taking his war-photographer role in “Triage” too far. The lusty leprechaun has lost so much weight for the part, he’s almost unrecognizable, and he was spotted Tuesday in New York acting loopy. “He was looking at ties in Bloomingdale’s and faking a Spanish accent to the cashier,” said our spy. “He was rail thin. One customer asked ‘Are you Colin?’ And he said, ‘Who’s that?’ in a weird fake voice and stormed off.” Farrell’s rep said “he’s in Spain shooting a film.”

[From Page Six]

Thank you so much, ever helpful Colin Farrell rep. We’re well aware he’s shooting a film in Spain. However due to a wonderful little invention called the airplane, that doesn’t mean that he can’t be in New York for a day or two. So just saying that he’s in Spain is certainly not a denial or an explanation. It’s just a wussy way of giving a “no comment.” I am totally going to spend the rest of today sitting outside of Bloomingdale’s in an attempt to spot Colin Farrell. Or a homeless drug addict. Because I could easily mistake one for the other at this point.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Header image is from Mr. Paparazzi via The Sun.

Sara Ramirez, who plays Dr. Callie Torres on Grey’s Anatomy, is an accomplished stage actress and debuted on Broadway ten years ago. She won a Tony Award for best actress in 2005 for Spamalot. She announced this year’s Tony nominees at a press conference yesterday with Frasier favorite and fellow Tony winner David Hyde Pierce.

Ramirez looked much different and I had to double check to make sure it was the same person I was thinking of. She’s wearing her hair straight now and has lost weight since the last time we saw her. She looks great and like a different person. She was beautiful curvier, and she looks lovely now. Congratulations to Sara.

The Tony nominees are led by musicals “In the Heights” with 13 nominations and “South Pacific,” with 11. Here’s the full list of nominees. The Tony Awards will air June 15th at 8pm on CBS.

Thanks to PRPhotos for these pictures.

US Weekly has an article with a diet created by Madonna’s trainer, Tracy Anderson. I’ve always followed diets in which you eat at least 1200 calories in small meals throughout the day, and that’s about the lowest I can go without freaking out and binging on carbs in the afternoon. It’s uncomfortable for me, though, and I prefer to stick to around 1500 calories when I’m trying to lose weight.

Madonna’s trainer recommends a diet at under 800 calories a day, which is about 1/2 the recommend amount for women. Most experts say that 1200 calories is the absolute lowest a woman can go without feeling lethargic and deprived. A diet of 1500 calories a day is considered healthier and safer for women, and you can even eat 1,800 calories a day, exercise and lose weight safely.

So US Weekly is printing a diet that falls well under 1,000 calories a day, with some days less than 700 calories, along with recommending 2 freaking hours of exercise 6 days a week. Supposedly you can lose 20 pounds in 6 weeks with this diet. That’s insane and counter productive. Here’s the diet, along with what I’ve calculated are the calories for each from FitDay.com. (which I highly recommend if you’re counting calories - it’s free.)

WEEK ONE
Sunday
Breakfast
1 cup Kashi cereal, with ½ cup plain — or vanilla — nonfat rice milk [262 calories]
Lunch
3 oz grilled chicken breast — or fresh turkey breast (no deli meat!) — with ½ cup each of chopped cucumber and tomatoes [189 calories]
Snack
1 cup mixed berries (try raspberries, blackberries and blueberries) [45 calories]
Dinner
1 cup organic pasta with ½ cup steamed spinach [330 calories]
[Total: 826 calories]

Monday
Breakfast
1 cup Kashi cereal, with ½ cup plain—or vanilla—nonfat rice milk [262 calories]
Lunch
2 hardboiled eggs with ½ cup each of baby carrots and cherry tomatoes [194 calories]
Dinner
3 to 5 oz grilled sea bass with ½ cup steamed spinach [240 calories]
[Total: 696 calories]

[Diet from US Weekly, calories calculated at FitDay.com]

I could eat twice that, still lose weight, feel normal and content that I’m eating healthy. It really pisses me off that a diet that can fall under 700 calories a day is touted as healthy by some celebrity trainer and that’s somehow ok.

A much healthier diet is the one that Janet Jackson follows which consists of five meals a day of around 250 calories. You can even eat 6 to 7 meals at 250 calories and it’s still healthy and will help you lose plenty of weight. You should eat a mix of carbs and protein, either at each meal or at separate meals if you prefer to separate. But please - don’t go under 1200 calories a day. You’ll end up losing weight in the short run, but how are you going to keep up that diet? It could also slow down your metabolism. I’m so glad I don’t have to starve myself like that for my job. It just seems outrageous to me, especially combined with 2 hours of exercise. I’m super hungry if I eat 1200 calories a day and do an hour of hard exercise, can you imagine following this starvation diet?

Kelly LeBrock on 2/24/08 before she lost weight
Kelly LeBrock is best known as the hot British babe in 1985’s Weird Science. She’s a fuller-figured woman now at 48 and had everyone talking a couple of months ago by saying that she’s “never going to diet again” and will “never eat lettuce again.” She lost 31 pounds on VH1’s “Celebrity Fit Club” in 2005, but has gained it back and says it wasn’t healthy how she lost the weight so quickly.

She has a brief segment on Extra! in which she claims to have lost 12 pounds in 3 weeks on a diet that lets her eat chocolate, cake and cheese, but there’s a catch - they’re organic, flour free and sugar free alternatives. She claims to eat “as much as I want.”

At 169 pounds and 5′ 8″ tall she says “I ain’t that fat!” and she isn’t. Back in February she said she didn’t weigh herself and that “If I can fit into a ten/twelve, I’m happy.” She does seem to have backtracked a little on her previous stance that she wouldn’t diet, but that’s good for her that she lost weight and is happy. You can’t help but thinking that her flour-free sugar-free cake must taste like ass, though. It doesn’t sound as if it’s that palatable and that’s certainly got to keep you from gorging on it.

Thanks to PRPhotos for these pictures.

Britney Spears sells magazine covers, so the tabloids are going to exploit every little change in her life and body to the fullest extent possible. She’s been working out to potentially get a gig representing the fitness chain Bally Total Fitness, and she probably has firmed up. She looks fine and I’m not bashing the girl, but she doesn’t look a hell of a lot different to me.

Last week’s Star says that Britney and Kevin shared a kiss during a moment when they were discussing their two boys, and the way they described it sounded so romantic and fake:

“The were discussing the boys and how they’re doing,” a family insider tells Star, “when she suddenly got in close and kissed Kevin. She did it because she felt so close to him at that moment.”

Kevin’s reaction? “He loved the kiss, of course,” reveals the insider. Kevin’s only concern was that they smooched right in front of Sean, 2, and Jayden, 29 months. “Should we be doing this in front of the boys?” he asked Britney, according to the insider. Her rsponse: “We’re their parents, so why not?”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, April 28, 2008]

Star also claims these two talked to a therapist for two hours on April 5, but even if that happened it’s just as likely that it was about their boys and not their nonexistent romantic relationship. Star claims that they’re headed for a reunion, but that’s highly doubtful. Britney is more likely to get super fit. I would bet that she does get in shape, but it seems a little premature to be putting her on the cover and touting her success.

Here’s Britney with her dad going to a bank in Beverly Hills yesterday, thanks to WENN. Header image thanks to popbytes.

The $250,000 winner of Biggest Loser: Couples was a woman who had lost the most weight for a female in the four year history of the NBC reality show. Ali Vincent, a 32 year-old hairstylist from Arizona, was the first female to take home first prize. She lost 112 pounds to go down to a 122 pounds from her starting weight of 234. Her mom, Bette Sue Burkland, lost 75 pounds to go from 261 to 186 pounds.

The runner up was Roger Shultz, a 40 year-old former football player and radio host from Alabama, who lost 164 pounds to weight in at 199 from a starting weight of 363 pounds. Roger received the most votes from viewers.

Here are the photos of the amazing transformations of the contestants, who all come away winners for having transformed their health and their lives. Thanks to xenphora on ONTD for these pictures, originally from NBC.com. Details from Wikipedia. Weight loss represents loss at the time of the Finale and not when contestants were eliminated.

Winner Ali Vincent, 32, and her mom Bette Sue Burkland, 53. Ali: 234 lbs. to 122 lbs. Betty Sue: 261 lbs. to 186 lbs

Runner up: Roger Shultz, 40, and his former football teammate Trent Patterson, 39. Roger: 363 lbs. to 199 lbs. Trent: 436 lbs. to 301 lbs. Roger is the one to the left.

Third place: Kelly Fields, 38, and her ex husband Paul Marks, 43. Kelly: 271 lbs. to 162 lbs. Paul: 303 lbs. to 233 lbs.

Mark Kruger, 35, and brother Jay Kruger, 31. Mark: 285 lbs. to 156 lbs. Jay: 293 lbs. to 190 lbs.

Dan Evans, 21, and mom Jackie Evans, 49. Dan: 310 lbs. to 174 lbs. Jackie: 246 lbs. to 157 lbs.

Brittany Aberle, 22, and Bernie Salazar, 27. Brittany: 221 lbs. to 164 lbs. Bernie: 283 lbs. to 153 lbs.

Neill Harmer, 28, and wife Amanda Harmer, 29. Neill: 317 lbs. to 229 lbs. Amanda: 204 lbs. to 140 lbs.

Jenn Widder, 22, and best friend Maggie King, 23. Jenn: 254 lbs. to 190 lbs. Maggie: 239 lbs. to 169 lbs.


Lynn Westphal, 60, and daughter Jenni Westphal, 31. Lynn: 390 lbs. to 329 lbs. Jenni: 267 lbs. to 213 lbs.


Curtis Bray, 35, and wife Mallory Bray, 36. Curtis: 381 lbs. to 231 lbs. Mallory: 217 lbs. to 152 lbs.

80s fantasy chick and Weird Science babe Kelly LeBrock, now 47, lost 31 pounds on VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club back in 2005, but has since gained it back and says that the way she lost the weight wasn’t healthy. She told OK! Magazine that she’s “never going to diet again” and that she will “never eat lettuce again.”

Now I understand never dieting if it’s something that means starving for you, as long as you’re not talking about taking it to the extreme and eating huge portions of bad food, which would be someone’s prerogative I guess, but never eating lettuce? Maybe she just means that crappy iceberg lettuce that has no nutritional value, because there are a lot of different kinds of lettuce that make a nice salad and I can’t see swearing them all off.

OK! caught up with Kelly at the Oscar party Night of 100 Stars, where she was fighting mad — because, she said, a nasty magazine recently implied she was fat.

“I’m not fat!” Kelly declared. “I don’t look like a 400-pound heifer! I’m going to keep eating. I eat normally. And I’ve had three kids.”

She added that actresses like herself, “have to be role models for all these young girls” so they don’t become scary skinny.

Two years ago, Kelly, now 47, lost a total of 31 pounds on the VH-1 reality show Celebrity Fit Club, but the Weird Science star found dieting just wasn’t right for her. “I didn’t eat for three months,” she explains. “It was dangerous. It was a really bad way to lose weight. I will never eat lettuce again!”

[From OK! Magazine]

LeBrock said that she doesn’t weigh herself and that “If I can fit into a ten/twelve, I’m happy.”

If she’s happy and comfortable with herself, and from the looks of that plunging neckline on her dress she is, that’s all that matters. She looks fine apart from those chemically enhanced lips and not everyone has to be a stick. We do need more normal-sized actresses as role models, but it’s not like she gets much exposure.

There are health issues associated with being moderately overweight, and a lot of the articles I consulted about this stated that “studies show that by losing as little as 10 to 20 pounds you can dramatically improve your overall health status.”

So maybe she thinks dieting means starving yourself and eating only iceberg lettuce, but it also means getting more vegetables and maybe cutting some of those empty carbs in favor of more nutritional food.

Jennifer Love Hewitt recently said that she’s not going to exercise just to look good, and that she’ll do it for her health and so that she can live a long and happy life. That sounds like a more sensible approach to all this body criticism instead of just saying “f’ck it”

Jennifer Love Hewitt is shown at “The Envelope Please” 7th Annual Oscar Viewing Party and Kelly LeBrock is shown at Night of 100 Stars Gala Viewing Party both on 2/24/08, thanks to PRPhtoos.