There aren’t as many celebrities looking like they’re going to collapse for lack of electrolytes lately. Nicole Richie came back from the brink with a pregnancy and Angelina Jolie gained enough essential weight for the tabloids to start declaring her pregnant. Cate Blanchett was scary skinny for a while, but that seems to have been in preparation for a role and I swear she’s pregnant now, too. Even crooning drug addict Amy Winehouse no longer looks like a skeleton with a 50s monster movie wig perched on its skull.

Joely Richardson, a 42 year-old British actress currently starring on Nip/Tuck, showed up at an event in London last night looking shockingly gaunt, according to photos published in The Daily Mail. She’s looked too thin in the past, and maybe it’s the dress she’s wearing coupled with the way her hair is pulled back, but she seems to have lost even more weight and her bones are sticking out. She looks like she has a health problem she’s so thin.

The thing is, she looks very ill in the photos from the Daily Mail article taken by agency Retna, where they sound the alarm about her weight. In photos of the same event from an agency we subscribe to, WENN, she looks too thin but not worryingly so. Did they alter the photos or do they just show her thin frame in better detail and harsh light? Her face looks sunken in the photo from the Daily Mail, but her cheeks are fuller and she looks healthy in the photos from WENN, shown here.

Richardson sounds like she has a lot of stress in her life lately. She announced in November of last year that she was leaving the popular FX series to take care of her 15 year-old daughter, Daisy, who suffers from a rare circulatory disorder and needs multiple surgeries.

Instead of leaving the show, though, Richardson took on a slightly less demanding filming schedule and decided to return for the sixth series for 15 out of 22 episodes. She has to film in LA while her daughter stays in Britain for treatment. Richardson divorced Daisy’s father in 2001, and they share custody and are said to get along.

She is said to make $6 million a year for her role as spa owner Julia McNamara on Nip/Tuck.

—Spoiler alert for old episodes—

Richardson’s character has a baby with a deformity in season four of the series, and back when she first quit the series the creator of Nip/Tuck seemed to suggest that it was difficult for her to work through her character’s issues on the show that may have some parallels to her difficult home life:

Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy said: “It was sad, but Joely came before her character. The dynamic of the show changed with the difficulty of what she was going through (personally), plus what she is going through on the show this season playing the mother of a deformed baby. That said, Joely is the best she has ever been.”

[From The Daily Mail]

I hope she’s ok and that she takes care of her health. A lot of moms have problems taking care of themselves and end up giving everything to their families. It must be doubly hard when you have a child with an ongoing illness like that.

Details from Wikipedia and The Daily Mail.

Pictures thanks to WENN.

If there’s anything Janet Jackson is skilled at, it’s gaining and losing weight quickly. Even after she lost 70 pounds last year she gained at least 20 back and then lost it again before she made more public appearances.

She’s said to be planning to write a book about her weight issues and to include information about nutrition and exercise:

Janet Jackson has decided to chronicle her battles with the bulge in a new book. Janet admits the 60 pounds she put on last year had a crippling effect on her. “I would see myself in the mirror, but I wouldn’t look too often. I didn’t want to get used to [it],” she said. In addition to telling her own story, the book will include nutrition tips to help others slim down.

[From Star Magazine, print edition, October 22, 2007]

There are so many sound programs and methods of losing weight. The main barrier you usually have is finding one that makes sense for you and changing your habits to stick with it. For me it involves convincing myself that I’m able to do it. It also makes a big difference if you get rid of all the junk food in your house so there’s nothing to temp you in a moment of weakness.

Janet can probably make a lot of people feel better about their weight issues if she talks about what she’s gone through. It really amazes me how she gains and loses weight so quickly, and if she did it every few years it probably would be fine, but it doesn’t seem healthy for her body to yo-yo like that.

Janet is shown below on 10/9/07 at the NY premiere of Why Did I Get Married?

Kylie Minogue seems to have found an incredible strength after battling breast cancer. After undergoing surgery on in May of 2005 in Australia, Minogue went through several rounds of chemotherapy, and appears to now be in good health. She seems to have a really great, balanced perspective on life, and even though she says her body isn’t what it used to be, it doesn’t seem to bother her all that much.

“Kylie Minogue is learning how to live with her new body post cancer, and it’s as much an emotional battle as it is physical. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, the singer opened up about her battle with the disease to British Glamour magazine in the November issue.

“‘When you are stripped of everything and you have to grow your eyelashes back, grow your hair back, it’s just astonishing,’ she said. ‘It’s hard to express what I’ve learned from that, but a deep psychological and emotional shift has obviously taken place.’

“The physical shift is most noticeable, and she remains upbeat. ‘As far as my body goes, I’ve shrunk to nothing … I’ve ballooned – my body is not what it used to be,’ she said. ‘But it is the body I am in.’”

[From People]

It never even occurred to me that you’d obviously lose other body hair besides the hair on your head when you go through chemo. It’s so sad and shocking to hear about so many young women dealing with breast cancer, and it’s a reminder that bad things still happen regardless of fame. We often sit around thinking our lives would be perfect if we were just a little bit famous, but then you remember you can still get cancer, still get into a car crash, or still lose your kids.

Kylie says that she’d like to start a family someday, but seems uncertain whether she’ll ever get married.

“Minogue, 39, split with her boyfriend actor Olivier Martinez earlier this year, but insists she is still optimistic for the happy-ever-after scenario. ‘I want to keep working on finding perfect harmony within my life and my work,’ the singer tells the magazine. ‘And a family, yeah, that’s still something I would love to happen.’

“She is careful to put any rumors of reconciliation with Martinez to rest. ‘I think he has a girlfriend, I’m not entirely sure, but it’s not true.’ But Minogue, who is currently not dating, adds wistfully, ‘I honestly don’t have a feeling one way or the other if I will walk down the aisle.’

“For now the singer is focused on reducing her working day to ‘like 9-5 hours,’ and spending more time in her garden. ‘What I believed before my illness has only been enhanced since, and that’s that beauty comes from within,’ she said.”

[From People]

Hopefully Kylie will remain cancer-free. I don’t know nearly as much as I should about breast cancer, and I couldn’t find any information about her long-term prognosis. Let’s hope she stays positive, as it sounds like she’s gained a lot of strength, and that’s incredibly important.

Picture Note by Jaybird: Here’s several pics of Kylie post-cancer. Her body still looks incredible to me. Images thanks to PR Photos.

Janet Jackson and longtime boyfriend Jermaine Dupri have jumped on the Charlize Theron/Stuart Townsend “We don’t need to have a ceremony to be committed” bandwagon. Janet says that, after two failed marriages – one of which she kept secret until she filed for divorce – she’s not really into the idea of another. It’s hard to fault her for that.

“Though Janet Jackson and her boyfriend, producer Jermaine Dupri, have been together for almost six years, the pair have always skirted rumors that they eventually plan to make their coupling official by saying ‘I do.’ And now the 41-year-old singer is explaining just why.

“‘I don’t need a piece of paper to validate what we have,’ Janet told TV’s Extra at the premiere of her new film, ironically titled Why Did I Get Married?. ‘But that’s just me.’

“However, Janet does admit that she’d be traditional about things if they ever did swap vows, saying that she would definitely take Jermaine’s last name, joking that they’d both then have the same initials: ‘J.D.’

“That being said, Michael’s little sister, who has walked down the aisle twice before, says she’s not the one to ask for wedding advice from, joking, ‘You want to ask someone who’s been married twice and divorced twice?’”

[From OK! Magazine]

I like that people are more open to alternative definitions of committed relationships. It may not work in every circumstance, but every relationship is different.

In other Janet news, she’s supposedly writing a book about losing weight. The singer has famously gained and dropped weight in (what appears to be) 50+ pound increments for the last several years. She’s just very carefully avoided being out in public much when she’s “Fat Janet.” That can’t be good for the body, and is a great way to get diabetes. Janet’s never really talked about her weight issues in public, so it’ll be interesting to hear what she has to say, especially considering the extremity of the issue – and her incredible lengths to hide it.

“Michael Jackson’s sister Janet is writing a book on weight problems. The 41 year old singer is planning a book to tell the story of her battles with weight and diet and what she did to slim down. The as yet untitled tome is expected to describe how her weight has yo-yoed throughout her career in pop music.

“’I'm writing a book on my journey of weight loss and weight gain,’ Jackson was quoted as saying in People magazine. Last year, Janet stacked on almost 30 kilograms [66 pounds], which she said had a debilitating effect on her. ‘I could not believe how big I was, how heavy I really was. I would see myself in the mirror, but I wouldn’t look too often. I didn’t want to get used to that image,’ she said.’ However, she’s cautioned that her suggestions in the upcoming book would not have universal application. ‘It’s different for everyone,’ she said.”

[From Sky News]

Well at least she’s willing to talk about it. I think the reason Janet’s weight issues seem so weird is that when she does let herself be photographed, she’s SUPER fit with what looks to be a 12 pack of abs. It’s craziness. So I think it’s just the extremity of the highs and lows that make it so interesting. Hopefully she’ll have some good insight, or at least let us freakishly curious folks know what’s going on.

Janet Jackson is shown at the “Why Did I Get Married?” movie premiere on 10/4/07 thanks to PRPhotos.

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.

This Week’s National Enquirer has a story about how 23 year-old America Ferrera has lost weight, and if you compare pictures of her recently with those from several months ago, she seems to have lost about 10-15 pounds and she’s looking great. She doesn’t look like a stick though, and she certainly doesn’t look like she does on the new cover of Glamour Magazine.

Remember when Faith Hill was airbrushed to hell on the cover of Redbook? She looked great before, at a healthy low weight with some minor eye wrinkles. On the cover of Redbook herarms were made to look even thinner and her face was given virtual plastic surgery.

Jennifer Hudson made history as a rare full-figured woman on the cover of the march issue of Vogue, but many bloggers and commentors pointed out that her pictures, taken at the Apollo theater by Annie Liebovitz, were unflattering. She was bending over with her mouth hanging open and baring her cleavage on the cover.

At least Ferrera’s boobs aren’t made the emphasis of this cover, but it looks like her skinny younger cousin, not her. Features listed on the cover of the magazine include “101 ways to dress your body better” and “the secret reasons women gain weight” as if it’s something we’re all striving for behind closed doors. They also declare that it’s the “1st Annual Figure-Flattery Issue!” They sure flattered Ferrera’s figure with the clone and airbrush tools.

Women are told to work with their curvier figures and dress sexy, but the real message is that we’re not acceptable unless we’re a size six or below. Even gorgeous famous women can’t make it on the cover of magazines unless they’re heavily edited.

Oh and America is said to have lost weight the old fashioned way with exercise and by eating more vegetables. She didn’t starve herself, but surely the fashion magazines would have preferred it if she did.

The latest issue of Star screams on the cover that Brad wants Angie to go to rehab, but it’s not rehab for a half-assed rumor that a drug addiction could be behind her shockingly-thing frame, it’s rehab for an eating disorder. Angelina is now supposedly 98 pounds, and at a 5′7″ that’s severely underweight.

As usual, I doubt they have any insider information and are probably making up shit based on things she’s said in the past along with photos of how frail she looks. Given how general their statements from a “friend” are, it suggests this article is made up almost entirely:

“Brad seems worried sick about Angie, and he doesn’t know what else he can do,” a friend of the couple tells Star. “At this point, I think getting professional help might be the wisest way to go. He didn’t want it to come to this, but gong to a rehab center for eating disorders may be the best thing for Angelina.” Insiders say that Angie is taking steps to help her gain weight, but they don’t seem to be working. “She also has a history with depression, and things got a lot worse after the death of her mother,” says a source.

[From Star Magazine via I’m Not Obsessed]

Meanwhile Life & Style has an article in this week’s issue that sounds more plausible because it has actual details of a supposed incident in it. It’s probably fake too, but it says that Angelina and Brad were arguing because he supports Barack Obama and she’s rooting for John Edwards for the presidency. It supposedly ended with Angelina throwing a glass of wine in Brad’s face:

The magazine will report in this week’s issue that things got so heated that Angie empties that glass in Brad’s face an insider tells the weekly entertainment magazine. “They got into a huge fight about politics,” says an insider close to the Pitt family. (Brad, explains another insider, supports Barack Obama, while Angie’s a John Edwards fan.) “Brad ended up calling her immature. He says the next thing he knew, Angie was cursing at him and throwing a glass of wine in his face.”

[From The National Ledger, details from Life & Style]

I would like to see Edwards be the next president too, but I can’t see Angelina preferring him so much to Obama that she’d get pissed off like that. There is the issue of who is more likely to get elected, and that debate can get heated. Some people believe we should support the candidate who can win and other people defend the notion that it’s best to support the person who will do the best job. I remember reading somewhere that Democratic candidates have a much better chance at the presidency if they’re southern. Either one of them would make an excellent president, in my opinion.

There was a lot of uproar earlier in the week over here in Europe about a story that they were thinking of moving to Berlin. I’m not sure if it was true or not, and their rep has denied it, but they do own a place in east Berlin and may have purchased land on a peninsula/island on the edge of Berlin.

A lot of you guys have extreme hatred for these two. To me they’re just a pair of rich famous people and I don’t really have strong feelings for them either way. Putting their supposed problems on the cover of a gossip rag is a surefire way to sell copies, since so many people want to see them fail miserably at something. Angelina looks like she’s losing a battle with her weight and her health, but whether Brad wants her to go to rehab or she cares enough about John Edwards to get all up in his face like that is up to question.

Thanks to popbytes for the Star cover.

Star Jones’s article for Glamour magazine is out, and she finally admits that she had gastric bypass surgery to lose weight. Star said that she decided to have the procedure after she gained 75 pounds in 17 months. After her fourtieth birthday, things slid downhill, and a lifetime of using food to comfort herself caught up with her. Here are some of the highlights from Star’s article.

On the physical effects of her weight:

“My weight gain began to take a physical toll: I couldn’t breathe without sounding winded; walk without getting tired; sleep without snoring; or take a flight without using a seat belt extender.”

On how she saw herself:

“I used to look in the mirror and take pride in my figure, but that was when I was legitimately a full-figured woman. I’d gradually gone from full-figured to morbidly obese.”

On why she didn’t talk about her surgery:

“Although I’d shared my decision with friends, family and my colleagues at The View, I wasn’t ready to invite the world into my process for a number of reasons: First, I didn’t know if the surgery would work. I had never stuck to a diet or committed to exercise for more than a month, and I had spent my entire adult life telling everyone that I was fine with the way I looked. I also never thought I’d have to explain it. I actually thought that I could say, “None of your business,” and people would say, “OK, she wants to remain private.” If that isn’t evidence of someone not living in truth, I don’t know what is.”

On therapy:

“We started with my need to control everything in my life yet not being able to control my weight… My therapist helped me discover I needed the adoration of others to feel good about myself. I learned that I couldn’t control what others thought; that I had to establish my own truth; that no matter what my truth was, some people were still going to see things differently; and that if I knew the truth, that was all that mattered. So I decided it was time to share my complete weight loss story because I now know that transparency is not humiliating—it is humbling.”

On hypocrisy:

“After I left The View, many women told me they felt empowered by my honesty over having been fired—but wished I was willing to be as honest about my weight loss. They were right: Gastric bypass surgery saved my life, and though I still believe wholeheartedly that health decisions are private and should remain between a doctor and his patient, keeping this decision private started to feel hypocritical and cumbersome. I couldn’t justify it any longer.” [From Glamour Magazine]

I’ve admitted that, though I don’t know why, I like Star Jones. Or at least I like to hear about Star Jones, but I was in college during most of her tenure on “The View” so it’s not like I saw her everyday like a lot of the people who find her irritating. I’m glad she came clean about her surgery. She was right that a person has a right to privacy about medical issues, but she had made so much of her life overly-public, that it was hypocritical to keep this to herself. To me, it came off as kind of vain, at least at the time. Especially because she talked about having a boob job after she’d lost weight, and even called into the show the day after her procedure to discuss it. So that came off as tacky. I’m guessing one of the real reasons she’s come clean about all this is that she has a new show on CourtTV this fall, and her producers knew audiences wouldn’t take her seriously if they thought she was still so vain and materialistic. Who knows if she’s really changed or if this is a PR move.

On Wednesday the Model Health Inquiry, a British panel made up of health and fashion experts, said that models under 16 should be banned from catwalk work. They feared these young girls were especially susceptible to being exploited sexually and developing eating disorders. They also recommended that older teenage models have more protection, including chaperones at shows. According to the panel, the trend in the fashion industry to use very young models is dangerous, since the girls are at such impressionable ages.

There was also strongly expressed concern that it is profoundly inappropriate that girls under 16 … should be portrayed as adult women,’ said Baroness Kingsmill, chairwoman of the panel.

“’The risk of sexualizing these children was high and designers could risk charges of sexual exploitation.’”

[From UK Reuters]

They also discussed the need to encourage healthy bodies in models, which could lead to healthier body images in the general public.

The panel rejected the idea of weighing models and banning those under a certain weight…It received mixed evidence on whether models should have tests to assess their body mass index, a measure of fat.”

[From UK Reuters]

I think they make an especially good point about young models being made to look like adults. There is something very sleazy and Lolita-like about it. Additionally, these girls are made to dress like they’re much older, but have these rail-thin, undeveloped bodies, and that is what the fashion world puts out there as the ideal. That’s completely unhealthy and unattainable for most adult women.

People talk about this “Size 0 Phenomenon” as though it’s something new, but it’s really been around since the early ‘90’s, when the whole “heroin chic” look was so popular with models. However it didn’t seem like it invaded the general culture like the current fad has, though one could argue it’s simply that we’re more aware of it now, due to the abundance of internet and media coverage. Where would models like Kate Moss be if super skinny models were prohibited fifteen years ago?

I think that, if implemented, these measures could only be a good thing. We need to encourage more moderation in our world. It’s not fair to tell every woman to be a size 2, nor should we all be size 22s. There are healthy balances all in the middle, that let us lead healthy, happy, normal lives where we don’t feel deprived but we aren’t sinfully indulgent either. I think that if we could see more images of women like this (after all, isn’t the average woman in the US a size 14?) it would take a lot of the pressure off women and dieting as a whole.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Header image is of 18 year-old Eliania Ramos, a model from Uraguay who died of a heart attack related to complications from anorexia in February, 2007. Her 22 year-old sister, also a model, died of the same cause just five months earlier.

Kellie Pickler canceled three concerts in a short span of time in June, and has since gotten American Idol and country fans alike in a bit of a tizzy. Kellie’s canceled shows, in Grand Junction, Colo., Greeley, Colo., and Albuquerque, N.M all happened on her current tour with country giant Brad Paisley. Supposedly Pickler isn’t eating enough, as many have noted that she’s lost at least 20 pounds since last year. According to the National Ledger, her rep, Wes Vause, “admits to Star that the singer is a ‘picky eater’ and canceled shows ‘because of low blood sugar.’ Vause tells Star that Kellie ‘had gone to Canada and didn’t eat enough, so she needed to get her strength back. She is well.’” Several sources on her tour say that Kellie has been under pressure to lose weight.

She’s under a great deal of pressure to be slender and slinky,’ an associate explains in the report from Star… ‘Kellie’s trying to lose weight, but that’s near impossible when she’s working 14 hours a day,’ the source adds. ‘Something has to give, and unfortunately it’s her health…She needs to eat and rest more,’ says the source. ‘There’s a real fear that she won’t hold up.’”

[Linked from the National Ledger]

I never thought Kellie needed to lose weight in the first place. She did appear to get a boob job a while ago that made her look top heavy. Dr. Anthony Youn, a Michigan-based Plastic Surgeon, noted on his website Celebrity Cosmetic Surgery that, “she does appear to have had a recent breast augmentation. When breast implants are too big they can make some women look heavy. This appears to be the case with her.” What in the world was wrong with how Kellie looked before? She was beautiful, with a healthy, perfect-looking figure.

One thing I’ll never understand, is why a girl who wants to be rail thin would have breast implants, as they do tend to make you look bigger on top. I understand wanting the curves, but then wouldn’t you want not to be rain thin in the first place? Sometimes desires, and body image issues, just don’t make sense. Kellie’s had a hard life, and has a good deal of talent. I just wish women didn’t feel like they all needed to fit into this teeny-tiny-big-boob ideal. Variety is the spice of life, after all.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Kellie Pickler is shown on 5/15/07 at the ACM Awards. Thanks to WENN for this picture.