Celebrity Diets

[Deleted]

I don't know anything about her husband (except he looks dim) but I am always curious when a woman who clearly has some eating disorder is married or in a relationship. Does the partner encourage it, ignore it, tell her to get help?

I just read Portia de Rossi's book Unbearable Lightness and it was a really brutal look into an anorexic's mind and the obsessiveness and all consuming destructiveness of the disease. She lived alone and wasn't in a relationship so she was able to hide it from family and friends. Not that she actually fooled anyone, as soon as they saw her they begged her to get help. But she could just avoid them. Someone like Kelly Ripa (who I don't know if she is actually anorexic but seems to have some issues with weight) I wonder, does she hide her strict eating and exercise habits from her family? Does she eat dinner with them and just have a salad while they eat a normal meal? Does she disappear for hours every day to work out? Do her kids think those are normal habits?

[Deleted]

Maybe they know and have tried to get her help, but she refuses. You can't really force someone to get help. They have to want to do it. My next door neighbor growing up clearly has food issues, I've known her my whole life and I've never seen her eat anything. She has serious control issues. We all know it, and don't like it, but there's not much we can do about it.

[thneed]

Now, can we talk about Julie Bowen? She's getting scary thin.

Wouldn't you go crazy insecure about your looks if you were costarring with Sofia Vergara?

[kostgard]

Dec 11, 2010 1:02:10 GMT -4 thneed said:

Now, can we talk about Julie Bowen? She's getting scary thin.

Wouldn't you go crazy insecure about your looks if you were costarring with Sofia Vergara?

Heh. I could definitely see that. Though I don't know why she seems to think "turn into a scarecrow" is the solution to that particular problem.

Side note: I do wish that they wouldn't write her character to be so jealous of Sofia's character so much. It's really making her downright unpleasant.

[HotLips]

I read a quote from Julie recently that was along those lines. "Who wouldn't feel insecure standing next to her?" (or something like that, I can't remember the exact quote). It's ridiculous, because Sofia is sexy because she's curvy and looks like a healthy woman. What good will it do to starve yourself into a stick? I don't know. I read Portia's book too and rational thinking doesn't really go along with an eating disorder I guess.

I noticed on Modern Family the other night that the veins on Julie's arms are very prominent. It made me think of the part in the book where Portia tries putting ice on her arms so her veins won't bulge.

[Babycakes]

Dec 10, 2010 21:52:08 GMT -4 @bronze said:

I don't know anything about her husband (except he looks dim) but I am always curious when a woman who clearly has some eating disorder is married or in a relationship. Does the partner encourage it, ignore it, tell her to get help?

I just read Portia de Rossi's book Unbearable Lightness and it was a really brutal look into an anorexic's mind and the obsessiveness and all consuming destructiveness of the disease. She lived alone and wasn't in a relationship so she was able to hide it from family and friends. Not that she actually fooled anyone, as soon as they saw her they begged her to get help. But she could just avoid them. Someone like Kelly Ripa (who I don't know if she is actually anorexic but seems to have some issues with weight) I wonder, does she hide her strict eating and exercise habits from her family? Does she eat dinner with them and just have a salad while they eat a normal meal? Does she disappear for hours every day to work out? Do her kids think those are normal habits?

I'm afraid for Kelly and her daughter. What kind of message is she sending to her daughter*. I saw a picture of them walking side by side, and the girl was larger than her mom. And by no means is the girl plump. She's normal kid sized. Kelly seems really sweet and likable, I just don't understand what is driving her to do this. Okay, found the picture. It troubles me, when a 9 year old's thighs are larger than her mom's.

*I singled out her daughter because girls are more susceptible to society's body image pressure.

[Sunnyhorse]

Her daughter's probably getting a bad message from several adults in her life -- she rides with a prestigious hunter/jumper trainer (also blond and bone-thin), and, as Kanding and I have discussed in another thread (Portia's, I think), eating disorders are rampant in that discipline of riding. Sad.

[thingee]

Dec 11, 2010 2:12:51 GMT -4 Babycakes said:

I'm afraid for Kelly and her daughter. What kind of message is she sending to her daughter*. I saw a picture of them walking side by side, and the girl was larger than her mom. And by no means is the girl plump. She's normal kid sized. Kelly seems really sweet and likable, I just don't understand what is driving her to do this. Okay, found the picture. It troubles me, when a 9 year old's thighs are larger than her mom's.

*I singled out her daughter because girls are more susceptible to society's body image pressure.

That picture is disconcerting. She's a beautiful, healthy-looking, normal-sized child, and I'd be willing to bet you're right; she'll have body image issues soon if she doesn't already. I was a plump but active kid, and I remember at age 12, I couldn't fit into my very tiny mother's jeans. I was horrified, and I remember well that was when I started feeling abnormal and gross.

[JeanBean]

Yeah, I think it's really hard for mothers with eating disorders to not pass it on to their daughters. I have a friend with 3 daughters and an eating disorder, and I think the best thing that she has done for those girls is have them be largely raised by nannies. I'm not kidding - I think she knows her limits as a mother, and I hope the girls will be at least partially shielded from her body dysmorphism.
I know that Kelly Ripa works a ton, so hopefully there is another caregiver in her daughter's life who can pass on a better body image.

Speaking of Julie Bowen and food issues, have you ever seen this clip? She calls one of her kids fat and dumb on Letterman (scroll to the second of the two clips). Seriously, Julie? She seems like an airhead. FWIW, I've also heard that she does, or at least used to do, a fair amount of coke. Which is a diet aid, of sorts.

[MrsCatHead]

Wasn't there a rumor years back about Kelly Ripa's husband (Mark Consuelos, right?) being really demanding about her weight (and everything else)?