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.

A 22 year-old model from Uruguay died on the catwalk of heart failure back in August of last year after not eating for days. Her death helped spark the size 0 debate that led Madrid fashion week to ban models with body masses below 18, and prompted other designers to choose less emaciated women to model their fashions.

Now her 18 year-old sister, Eliana Ramos, was found dead at her grandparent’s house in the Montevideo, Uruguay on Tuesday. Eliana was also a model and also died of an apparent heart attack:

Two sisters, both models, have died of apparent heart attacks within months of each other — a family tragedy that came as the fashion world debates how to protect the health of painfully thin runway models.

Eliana Ramos, 18, was found dead at her grandparent’s home in the Uruguayan capital Tuesday, officials said. Her sister Luisel, 22, died shortly after stepping off a runway last Aug. 2 during a fashion show in Montevideo.

While no medical report was immediately released after Eliana’s death, Judge Roberto Timbal told the online news outlet Observa that she died of a heart attack. An autopsy on her sister found she died of a heart attack.

The judge told Observa that “nothing out of the ordinary” appeared to be involved in Eliana’s death, but that an autopsy was conducted and final test results would be issued in a month.

Other models said neither sister suffered from an eating disorder.

However, the deaths drew widespread media attention in Latin America, where the fashion industry’s treatment of young women has been the subject of debate since anorexia was blamed for the deaths of model Ana Carolina Reston and three other Brazilian women in December.

That’s incredibly sad for that family and brings home the need to have a larger norm for models. 21 year-old Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston died in November from anorexia, as did three other Brazilian models late last year. When young women are dying after starving themselves for the profession, when is the fashion industry going to wise up and start using normal-sized models? I’m not talking about putting obese women on the runway as Gaultier did as a kind of joke, I’m talking about still-thin US size 4 and 6 models.

When Luisel died at age 22 she was just 98 pounds at 5 foot 9, which gave her a BMI of 14.5. The World Health Organization considers a BMI of 16 to indicate starvation. Her sister Elania is listed as 5′9″ also, and is said to be a US size 4 on her profile on Fashion Model’s Directory, but her weight is not listed and it’s unknown if that information is out of date. If she was starving herself for a show, it probably was out of date.

Pictures from Model’s Blog, Fashion Model Directory, and Yahoo.

All pictures below are of recently-deceased Eliana. The model sisters’ sad father is shown inset.

British magazine Grazia makes up a ton of shit about celebrities, and is recently responsible for the “Jennifer Aniston is adopting two American babies” claim. Kate Winslet has called them on their story that she visited a diet doctor, and said it particularly offends her because she’s a role model for healthy, normal-sized women and does not want girls to think she’s a hypocrite. She’s planning on suing the magazine:

The allegations, which were printed in the glossy magazine Grazia, are “completely untrue,” Winslet told reporters on the red carpet at the BAFTA awards in London on Sunday.

“I’m going to fight for myself. I don’t want people thinking that I would ever go to a diet doctor, I would ever buy into that stuff,” Winslet, who is nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her role in Little Children, told a BBC radio interviewer. “I never have done, I never will.”

Last week, Grazia printed a story alleging that the actress visited the Chinese Healing Institute in Santa Monica to help with neck pain, and also to lose weight.

On Monday, attorneys for the actress at Schillings law firm in London said proceedings for libel were being issued. Winslet’s rep, Sara Keene, underlined her client’s feelings, saying: “Kate is angry and upset about it because it is an issue she feels very strongly about. She will be issuing legal proceedings. She wants to get the message out there….”

“I will continue to say what I feel about this issue of women being thin and emaciated. It’s just out of control,” she said Sunday. “I know I’m a role model to young women. It’s a role that I take very, very seriously and I would never want anyone to ever think I was a hypocrite in doing something like going to a diet doctor, for goodness sake. I mean, it’s really, really ridiculous.”

Kate said she has “a real woman’s figure” and that she doesn’t starve herself. She looks pretty gorgeous to me, and at least someone is standing up for the size 6/8 women.

Mandy Moore recently said that she felt bad about being a normal size, and that she would go to a photo shoot and be expected to fit into a 0 or a 1 sample size:

“I want to be healthy, but in a industry where you can’t wear a sample size because it’s like a 0 or 2, it makes you feel bad about yourself. To go to photo shoot, its like, ‘Ugh, God, can’t you just at least get a regular size, like a 6 or 8 or something?”

I would freaking love to be a size six, which I was able to maintain when I was single but seems kind of out of reach at this point. I got down to a six again briefly before the holidays, but am an eight now. It takes a lot of discipline and work for me, and with a toddler, a full time job from home, and trying to make dinner and maintain a halfway decent house it’s pretty hard to stay skinny. (Plus it’s hard not to eat when I’m stressed. Can you guys relate?) If I had a lot of help I could probably do it, but why is it so important to me?

Good for Winslet and Moore for standing up for normal-sized women. And with some more voluptuous actresses getting press now, maybe Hollywood will start to buck the super-skinny trend.

Here is Kate looking great at the Baftas. Pictures from SuperiorPics.

or why Rexy Aint Sexy …

Keira Knightley is suing the Daily Mail for running a story implying she’s in denial about her anorexia … and also for misrepresenting her clearly striped bikini as polka dot with their failed attempt at a clever Headlline.

It’s itsy bitsy teeny weeny Keira Knightley.
She wasn’t exactly curvy to start with, but Keira Knightley seems to be shrinking daily. On a Pacific island holiday with lover Rupert Friend, the 21-year-old actress cut a waif-like figure on the beach.
Miss Knightley was accused of being in denial about her condition by the mother of 19-year old Sophie Mazurek, who died from anorexia last month weighing four stone. …

The pictures don’t make much of a supporting argument, as both she and boyfriend, Rupert Friend (I guess she can probably call him her boyrupert at this point … boyfriend is a little formal … I’m sure they are on a first name basis what with all this beach romping ) appear firmly ensconced in the pale, slim, but muscled and fit school of youthful looks. I mean they are both sporting abdomens I’d love to serve a six course meal on.

However, it’s always up for debate these days … it’s a thin line indeed.

The rexy or not rexy wars are pretty much a staple for the tabloids these days (often with good cause) - they certainly add a dash of instant morality to beach paparazzi shots – all the skin you like and its for the social good. The Daily mail laid it on extra thick with the grieving mother – how can you not feel bad … but the connection to “Miss Knightley” was a bit … I need another word than thin here … tenuous …. weak … padding for a three line article to go along with the bikini shot.

Usually my “beat” is off topic and quirky news, but this was something that I wanted to bring to the table this evening. You know, the family dinner table where everyone eats.

Gisele Bunchen thinks the reason why many female women are anorexic isn’t due to the fact that our lives are constantly saturated with pressure from the media to be thin, but rather because our families suck; she also flippantly says that some people just have the right genes for modeling… namely, her.

According to eHealthMD, there are plenty of factors that can result in anorexia nervosa such as: cultural pressures, pychological issues, and eep! family issues.

I think Gisele sounds incredibly ignorant. I mean, they’re even reporting this crock of shit in China! Don’t worry, I won’t do a Rosie imitation of Chinese people. But I think that she is trivializing this issue and really needs to shut her yap.

Pictures from Celebitchy: These pictures of Gisele on the beach with her dog came out last week and were found at SuperiorPics.

These look like the kind of posed bikini candids we’ve been seeing so many of lately. Keira Knightley and her boyfriend, Rupert Friend, played in the ocean in Hawaii and look like they’re having great fun on an overcast day. Keira’s boyfriend is poised on the ledge between buff and too skinny and manages not to look emaciated while poor Keira needs to gain ten pounds. (And get her eyebrows done as usual. Maybe that look helps her land those arty historical movie roles because the women back then had bushy eyebrows too.)

At first I was like “Why does Keira need to pose for happy couple bikini candids?” but then I found an article in The Mirror about how she’s supposedly having trouble in her relationship with her live in boyfriend. These pictures are coming out right after that story and scream “look, we’re fine!”

These pictures were supposedly taken yesterday and were found at The Republic of Bitch via JJB.

As I sit and stuff my face this holiday season and then try to work it off half-assed on the treadmill, Victoria Beckham reminds us that it’s easier to stay thin if you don’t eat that junk at all. Her friends say she doesn’t exercise and she recently told People magazine that she owes her tiny figure to eating Japanese food and maintaining a strict diet. Damn, I was hoping she at least worked her ass off for it. It’s just as hard not to pop that chocolate in your mouth, though. It’s sitting all around the house at Christmastime and is so hard to resist.

“I eat really healthy, I love Japanese food, lots of fish, any sort of fish, any sort of vegetable, lots of fruit, that kind of thing,” said Beckham, the former Posh Spice, during an appearance recently on the BBC Radio program “Gordon Ramsay’s Perfect Christmas Lunch.”

Of the speculation in the British press about her having an eating disorder, she said, “I don’t really care all that much. We live in Spain. I don’t really see a lot of the press, and I don’t really hear what’s going on. I’m just past caring.”

Still, she says, “I think there’s a big difference between someone having an eating disorder and someone who is controlled about what they eat. There’s a big difference, and every now and then of course I go out and eat what I like. But I do try to be quite disciplined in the way that I eat…”

Beckham, who also said there wouldn’t be a Spice Girls reunion, has faced questions about her appearance in the past couple of years. But friends have told PEOPLE she “eats healthily” – yet, “she doesn’t exercise at all.”

“She eats more than what people would think,” a friend insists.

Posh also said that she wasn’t too concerned about super thin models, who she called “naturally thin,” and thought the young age of some models is more of a concern.

I read a book a while ago called “The Okinawa Diet” that credits longevity in Japanese people living on the island of Okinawa to eating a diet of fish and rice, and stopping eating when they’re 80% full. There are more people aged 100 and up on the island of Okinawa than anywhere else in the world, and science has shown that calorie restriction without starvation is tied to a long life in mammals.

I guess what I’m saying is that Victoria Beckham is crazy thin and that doesn’t seem healthy to me, but at least she’s eating right and is taking care of herself. If she keeps it up without starving too much she’s likely to live longer than the rest of us too.

Victoria recently joked that she can’t be in the fake Scientology movie because she can’t act and wouldn’t wear the costumes for the part. They’d probably be too big for her anyway.

Pictures taken in mid December and found on Saving Face Forum.

Renee Zellwegger looks like the perfect weight at the premiere of Mrs. Potter in London this weekend. It’s wrong of me to say that, because it just perpetuates the evil cycle that these Hollywood women go through to look good, but she’s not super skinny any more and looks really healthy. Would it kill her to use some gloss on those lips though?

Zellwegger said that not having time to eat while she’s working on the movie set helps her stay thin. She also claims that she’s a little bit intimidated at the thought of working with her once-rumored lover George Clooney because he’s a notorious prankster. They will start shooting the movie “Leatherheads” together in January.

Renee Zellweger, who showed up looking svelte at Sunday night’s London premiere of her new movie, Miss Potter, credits her slim figure to her work.

She says that the 20-minute lunch breaks she was allotted while making another movie, Case 39, helped her stay fit.

“That’s all we got on the set,” the Cold Mountain Oscar winner tells PEOPLE. “At that point, I was like, you know, forget it. And running around … everywhere, that helps.”

Zellweger, 37, joked that she finds out what diet she’s on by reading media reports. “I’m like, oh, oh, I’m doing that diet now – that’s fantastic! Good for me!”

As Peter Rabbit author Beatrix Potter, Zellweger is playing an English woman for the third time, having portrayed Bridget Jones twice. It’s having an effect, too: “I understand (and) crave the beans and toast breakfast,” she says.

But when it comes to living in the high-priced British capital, “I don’t know if I can afford it,” she told reporters. “I move around so much with work that I don’t really live anywhere.”

Next up for the actress: Leatherheads, with George Clooney. Shooting starts in January.

And how does she feel about working with PEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alive? “I’m scared,” she admits. “I hear he’s a terrible prankster and really had patience… Like when you least expect it.”

As a result, “I’m going to be on alert, I’m never going to sleep, I’m sure of it. I’ll be watching my back, George!”

Considering that Clooney probably banged her a few times, it seems like she made a Freudian slip when she said she’ll be watching her, uh, back. Clooney is said to enjoy… entering establishments by the back door.

Renee is shown with Ewan McGregor, her costar in the film “Miss. Potter” at the premiere. (You know that people are still going to comment and say “that’s not George Clooney, duh.”) Here’s the trailer. Thanks to Faded Youth for these pictures.

Jennifer Garner claims she’s in the worst shape ever and that her trainer is ashamed. I know she’s just trying to be honest and make the rest of us feel better, but she’s not doing herself any favors by making it sound like she’s a size 12, not a six. She says “Oh, it’s more like an eight,” but look at her - she’s a small six.

She seems to be a little embarassed by the old rumor that she was pregnant when she didn’t shed her baby weight right away and was spotted out in floaty tops. I’m sorry for perpetuating that rumor, especially now that she feels compelled to tell everyone how out of shape she is while denying that she’s pregnant again. Garner, come on, you’re hot.

“I’m in the worst shape ever,” the size 6-8 (”definitely more an 8″) actress, 34, tells Elle magazine in its January issue. “My trainer just shakes her head and says, ‘This is a disaster.’ ”

Though she kicked butt as the star of Alias and Elektra, these days, she says, “I am as physically unfit as I’ve probably been in my whole life. It’s such a horror in front of the mirror with no clothes on.”

Lifting her sweater to reveal her midriff, she says, “You still have that little bit of extra skin, know what I mean? But still, it’s enough for people to think that you’re knocked up.”

She adds: “No, everyone calm down. Nobody’s pregnant” – although Affleck recently told Ellen DeGeneres he would love to have more kids.

For now, Garner has her hands full with one baby. Violet “is saying ‘ee-i-ee-i-o’ – and ‘mama!’ ” boasts Garner, who says having a baby didn’t wreak havoc in her marriage.

It’s possible this interview is from like 6-8 weeks ago when she was maybe seven pounds heavier, but still I wish I was in as bad shape as Garner. I can relate to what she’s saying, and in a way it’s nice to know that even super-fit Hollywood moms are insecure about their bodies. On the other hand it kind of makes me feel like crap. She does deserve a lot of credit for doing it the right way and not getting super-skinny right away.

Here are cute pictures of Jen and Violet celebrating Violet’s first birthday out at a restaurant with the nanny. She was out at Amici in Brentwood and gave some presents to Violet there. Ben was not out with them, but they probably had another celebration with the whole family back at home.

Pictures from Flynetonline via Just Jared.