The Unfunny ‘Fat Actress’ Farce

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Wednesday - March 24, 2005

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My vote for worst new TV show — Fat Actress starring an amply endowed Kirstie Alley. I don’t get it. Is it supposed to skewer Hollywood’s false and shallow value system? Is it supposed to inspire sympathy and respect for overweight women trying to break stereotypes in a thin-obsessed world? I think it’s mildly successful at the first, but fails miserably at the second.

Alley plays herself as insecure, whiny, self-deluded, selfabsorbed, pouty and irritating. She takes humiliation to breathtaking new heights. From what I know of Kirstie Alley, she’s in her 50s and way past the sex kitten stage. But there she is, strutting around in clothing that’s tight and revealing. In her pursuit of acting work she sucks up to just about everyone. Her flunkies, meanwhile, suck up to her, always telling her what she wants to hear while insulting her behind her back.

Alley displays the emotional range of a cat in heat. She simpers, she shrieks, she yowls, she flirts. The big joke in the episode I saw was her pursuit of — hmm, how shall I put it? — carnal action. White guys won’t look at her, so she goes to a place frequented by African Americans — because everybody knows black men like women with big booties. Wow. Way to play on crude racial stereotypes.

Is this funny? Am I humorimpaired? Does anyone agree with me that she is an insult to fat women everywhere?

I guess I have problems with a woman who keeps moaning that she’s fat, and yet hopes no one will notice it. Instead of promoting comfort with one’s body and identity, Alley is actually a poster child for selfloathing. She is desperate and, let’s face it, spoiled and nuts. I know Kirstie Alley must have some talent and gumption — after all she got this show produced, didn’t she? I just wish she’d show a little more of those qualities in this pathetically demeaning show.

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