By MIA FREEDMAN
Now that awards season is over, I’d like to point something out. The world has gone batshit crazy.
Hasn’t it?
How else can you explain the fact that actresses have been swallowed up by the fashion industry so that they now have to be size 0 and starve themselves each time they step onto a red carpet?
And so do the women who interview the stars on the red carpet for the acres of TV coverage. We know this because they tell us how hungry they are. How they haven’t eaten so they can fit into their $200,000 gowns.
E! News anchor and Fashion Police co-host Giuliana Rancic – who is a breast cancer survivor – unintentionally gave an insight into what it takes to remain so incredibly thin in an interview just after the Oscars. Answering a question about her relationship with husband Bill Rancic, she raved about how considerate he was:
“I had Oscars and then Fashion Police, and now I’m done. Awards season is over. So last night Bill surprised me. He had Chicago deep dish pizza flown in from Giordano’s!,” the reality star told Us magazine. “He knows after awards season, I go to town! We had that and some frozen yogurt for dessert and…walked around Santa Monica. It was sweet!”
Frozen yoghurt! Pizza! Imagine eating that!
“I go to town!” she said, referring to the fact that such food is forbidden while she’s under the scrutiny of TV cameras.
And she’s not even one of the actresses.
Click through the gallery for actresses throughout awards season.
Amanda Seyfried in Alexander McQueen
Zoe Saldana
Anne Hathaway in Prada
Naomi Watts in Armani Prive
Sandra Bullock in Ellie Saab
Jane Fonda in Versace.
Nicole Kidman
Girls star Allison Wiliams
Elizabeth Banks
Rosie Huntington-Whitelely
Alessandra Ambrosio
Marisa Tomei
Zoe Saldana
Minnie Driver
Olivia Munn
Miranda Kerr
Naomi Watts at the Vanity Fair after party in an Emilio Pucci gown
Natalie Portman
Isla Fisher
Jane Fonda
Rose Byrne.Source: Getty.
Kristin Chenoweth
Kate Beckinsale
Vanessa Hudgens
Amanda Seyfried in Givency
Ginnifer Goodwin
Jennifer Lawrence in Calvin Klein
Karolina Kurkova
Olivia Munn
Norah Jones
Olivia Munn
Amy Adams in Oscar de la Renta
Anne Hathaway in Prada, Armani and custom Saint Laurent
Charlize Theron
Alexa Chung
Aluna Francis
AME
Caroline Flack
Delilah
Emeli Sande
Jessie J
Jourdan Dunn
Stooshe
Katherine Jenkins
Laura Whitmore
Little Mix
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift
Rita Ora
One Direction
Taylor Swift
Mitch Winehouse - Amy Winehouse's father
Robbie Williams
Rebecca Ferguson
Paloma Faith
Natasha Khan aka Bat for Lashes
Bérénice Marlohe
Gotye and Kimbra
Karlie Kloss
Kelly Osbourne
Estelle
Carrie Underwood
Guilana Rancic
Natasha Bedingfield
Trudie Styler and Sting
Lisa D'Amato
Jack Osbourne and wife Lisa Stelly
Shaun Robinson
Ashley Keating
Florence Welch
Jennifer Lopez
Taylor Swift
Beyonce
Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban
Rihanna
Beyonce
Rihanna
Katy Perry
Katy Perry
Florence Welch
Taylor Swift performing on stage
Kelly Rowland
Kelly Rowland
Allison Williams
Alicia Keys
Solange Knowles
Solange Knowles
Kat Von D
Kat Dennings
screen-shot-2013-02-11-at-1-55-42-pm.png
Kat Dennings
screen-shot-2013-02-11-at-1-55-17-pm.png
Taylor Swift
Beyonce
Alexa Chung
Kimbra
Rihanna
Bonnie McKee
Jennifer LopezGave birth to her twins at 38
Rihanna
Katy Perry
Bonnie McKee
Anne Hathaway
Jennifer Lawrence
Jennifer Lawrence
Anne Hathaway
Jessica Chastain
Marion Cotillard
Amy Adams
Sarah Jessica Parker
Elisabeth Olsen
Thandie Newton
Jennifer Garner
Gemma Atherton
Amy Adams
Helen Mirren
Elisabeth Olsen
Jessica Chastain
Thandie Newton
Sarah Jessica Parker.Source: Getty.
Sally Field
Anne Hathaway: Critics Choice Movie Awards 2013
Jennifer Garner
Helen Mirren
Marion Cotillard
Anne Hathaway with her Best Supporting Actress award
Bradley Cooper
Hugh Jackman and Deborah Lee Furness
Hugh Jackman and Deborah Lee Furness
Jennifer Lawrence
Paloma Faith
Sarah Jessica Parker.Source: Getty.
Jessica Chastain
Paloma Faith
Paloma Faith
Ariel Winter
Ariel Winter
Chord Overstreet
Giuliana Rancic
Jaimie Alexander
Jaimie Alexander
Jared Harris and Allegra Riggio
Jay Manuel
Jayma Mays
Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Dick Van Dyke
Morena Baccarin
Nancy O'Dell
Naya Rivera
Peter Facinelli
Peter Facinelli and Vitalie Taittinger
Shaun Robinson
Busy Philipps (SAG Social Media Ambassador)
Eddie Redmayne
Kelly Osbourne
Kelly Osbourne
Alex Baldwin and Hilaria Thomas
Giuliana Rancic
Amanda-Seyfried
Amanda Seyfried
Amy Poehler and Jenna Fischer
Anne Hathaway
Busy Philipps and Kayley Kuoco
Eddie Redmayne
Ellie Kemper
Freida Pinto
Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs
Jenna Fischer
Jennifer Lawrence
Jessica Chastain
Jessica Pare and Elisabeth Moss
Jordan Sparks
Michelle Dockery
Michelle-Dockery
Naomi Watts
Neil Patrick Harris
Nina Dobrev
Sally Field
Samuel Larson and his mother... Awww.
SarahHyland
Sigourney Weaver waves to fans.
Teyonah Parris
Anne Hathaway
January Jones
Julianne Moore
Kerry Washington
Ariel Winter
Ariel Winter
Chord Overstreet
Jaimie Alexander
Jaimie Alexander
Jared Harris and Allegra Riggio
Jay Manuel
Jayma Mays
Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Dick Van Dyke
Morena Baccarin
Nancy O'Dell
Naya Rivera
Peter Facinelli
Peter Facinelli and Vitalie Taittinger
Shaun Robinson
Busy Philipps (SAG Social Media Ambassador)
Eddie Redmayne
Kelly Osbourne
Alfre Woodard
Alex Baldwin and Hilaria Thomas
Amanda-Seyfried
Amanda Seyfried
Amy Poehler and Jenna Fischer
Anne Hathaway
Busy Philipps and Kayley Kuoco
Eddie Redmayne
Ellie Kemper
Freida Pinto
Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs
Jenna Fischer
Jennifer Lawrence
Jessica Chastain
Jessica Pare and Elisabeth Moss
Jordan Sparks
Michelle Dockery
Michelle-Dockery
Naomi Watts
Neil Patrick Harris
Nina Dobrev
Sally Field
Samuel Larson and his mother... Awww.
SarahHyland
Sigourney Weaver waves to fans.
Teyonah Parris
Anne Hathaway
January Jones
Julianne Moore
Kerry Washington
Anne Hathaway: Critics' Choice Awards 2013
Anne Hathaway: Critics' Choice Awards 2013
Bradley Cooper: Critics' Choice Awards 2013
Elle Fanning: Critics' Choice Awards 2013
Jaime King: Critics' Choice Awards 2013
Jessica Chastain: Critics' Choice Awards 2013
Marion Cotillard: Critics' Choice Awards 2013
Jennifer Lawrence: Critics' Choice Awards 2013
Amanda Seyfried: Critics Choice Movie Awards 2013
Anne Hathaway: Critics Choice Movie Awards 2013
Emmy Rossum: Critics Choice Movie Awards 2013
Eva Longoria: Critics Choice Movie Awards 2013
Marion Cotillard: Critics Choice Movie Awards 2013
Taylor Swift: People's Choice Awards 2013
Taylor Swift, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia DeRossi: People's Choice Awards 2013
Lea Michele : People's Choice Awards 2013
Chloe Moretz: People's Choice Awards 2013
Kaley Cuoco: People's Choice Awards 2013
Julianne Hough: People's Choice Awards 2013
Taylor Spreitler: People's Choice Awards 2013
Kaley Cuoco: People's Choice Awards 2013
Taylor Spreitler: People's Choice Awards 2013
Jennifer Anniston: People's Choice Awards 2013
Jillian Rose Reed: People's Choice Awards 2013
Julianne Hough: People's Choice Awards 2013
Nikki Deloach: People's Choice Awards 2013
Taylor Swift: People's Choice Awards 2013
Ian Somerhalder: People's Choice Awards 2013
Jared Padelecki and Jensen Ackles: People's Choice Awards 2013
Lea Michele: People's Choice Awards 2013
In a recent blog post after the Oscars, UK journalist Rachel Tarley wrote of the awards show:
Jennifer Lawrence at the Oscars“Millions of people around the world – many of them young girls – are watching the action at the world’s longest mutual congratulation session unfold on their TV screens.
They’re watching for the gowns, the jewellery, the hair and make-up. As an added bonus, they get protruding collar bones, razor-sharp shoulder blades and withered arms. If they listen carefully enough, there are even barely disguised tips on how to achieve the elegant Holocaust-chic style.
Early on in the red carpet fanfare at last night’s Oscars, the universally adored (and formerly ‘curvy’) Jennifer Lawrence broke off an interview to ask: ‘Is there food here?’ before explaining that she was ‘starving’ because she hadn’t had time to eat all day.
Jennifer, who suffered from pneumonia earlier this year, could well have been a specific target of Oscars host Seth Macfarlane’s joke about the pre-red carpet Hollywood diet.
‘And those of you who gave yourselves the flu two weeks ago to “get there”? It paid off,’ he quipped, to a murmur of uncomfortable laughter.
Another actress, Zoe Saldana, neatly side-stepped direct questions about her dietary preparations for the red carpet, insisting her method of weight control was “hydration”.
As in, not eating solid food?
Right.
This is less than a week after former Australian Vogue editor Kirstie Clements admitted that many of the models appearing in glossy magazines and on catwalks and ad campaigns are, literally, starving.
Some eat tissues to ‘trick’ their stomachs into feeling full. Others eat so little they faint throughout the day. One model she worked with ate nothing for days and gazed longingly as the rest of the crew had meals. By the end of the week long shoot, she’d became so weak, she couldn’t stand up. So the magazine shot her lying down.
Another girl who was employed as a ‘fit’ model (that means the designer uses her as his standard body shape and size and makes all his garments based on her proportions) had to regularly be admitted to hospital and put on a drip because she was so emaciated and dehydrated. And that was the state her job required her to be. Because that was the size he wanted to make and show his clothes.
And now that actresses have replaced models in fashion advertising campaigns and now that red carpets have become the new catwalks, the fashion industry has swallowed Hollywood, demanding that actresses be model size so they can best show off the designer clothes they are expected to wear every time they have to promote their latest project or attend an awards show or premiere.
Rachel Tarley again:
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosting the Golden GlobesClearly, it’s not madness to be naturally thin or to go on a sensible eating plan in order to shift some surplus pounds. But it is madness that the already skeletal A-listers of Hollywood have been working their backsides off since Christmas to achieve the consumption sufferer-esque look we saw many of them modelling last night.
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler alluded to the aforementioned bonkersness in their opening monologue at this year’s Golden Globes.
‘The Hunger Games was one of the biggest films of the year, and also what I call the six weeks it took me to get into this dress,’ said Fey, before Poehler added: ‘Ang Lee’s been nominated for Best Director for Life of Pi, which is what I’m going to call the six weeks after I take this dress off!’
Let’s play pretend.
Let’s pretend that in order to be a successful model or actress, you had to have only one arm. In some very rare cases, these women were born that way and were ‘naturally’ one armless. But for the other 98% of models and actresses who wanted to reach the top of their profession, they have to have one of their arms surgically removed.
Because that’s what the photographers and the designers and the fashion editors wanted. That’s the aesthetic they thought best showed off the clothes.
Do you think anyone would question that? Do you think anyone would say: Hang on, if we have a system that requires women to do drastic, unnatural and unhealthy things to be considered successful or even employable, then isn’t our system MESSED UP AND IN URGENT NEED OF CHANGE?
But nobody does that. We all just continue to go along with this charade that famous women are all naturally thin and that models and actresses are all healthy and that it’s all just pretty clothes and glamour! and escapism!
Except we’re all watching starving people.
And nobody will say it.
Click through the gallery for other actresses who have starred in modelling campaigns – and faced the associated pressures.
Cate-Blanchett-SK-II
andie-macdowell
blake-lively-gucci
charlize-dior
czj-elizabeth-arden
drew-barrymore-covergirl
Emma Stone - Revlon Make-up Adverts
emma-watson-burberry
eva-loreal
eva-mendes-angel
jennifer_garner_neutrogena
kk-chanel
leighton-lovestruck
megan-fox-armani
natalie-dior
nicole-chanel
rachel-weisz-loreal
reese-avon
scarjo-d-and-g
sofia-vergara-covergirl
zooey-rimmel
jessica_biel
Natalie Portman Dior - http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/oct/24/dior-mascara-natalie-portman-ad-ban
Oliva Wilde Revlon http://myhighestselfblog.com/sneak-peek-new-revlon-ads-and-new-products/
Kate Moss - Rimmel http://encycl.opentopia.com/term/Rimmel
Victoria Beckham - Marc Jacobs http://www.bittenandbound.com/2008/01/21/victoria-beckham-marc-jacobs-new-ad-campaign-photos-released/
Nicole Kidman Chanel http://www.mimifroufrou.com/scentedsalamander/2008/11/perfume_ad_with_nicole_kidman.html
Liv Tyler Givenchy http://www.celebrityendorsementads.com/celebrity-endorsements/celebrities/liv-tyler/
Halle Berry Revlon http://killerlipgloss.com/sneak-peek-revlons-ads/
Julia Roberts Lancome http://www.google.com.au/imgres?um=1&hl=en&biw=1038&bih=494&tbm=isch&tbnid=fXNvSH5Nj63i2M:&imgrefurl=http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/hautehouse_row/Britain-bans-two-misleading-beauty-ads.html&docid=VLaJHw27kPFB4M&imgurl=http://media.philly.com/images/072811-Lancome-Ad-600.jpg&w=600&h=422&ei=XDg1UcT_I8TRkwWSsoHQBA&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:30,s:0,i:175&iact=rc&dur=1073&sig=116702563913441622360&page=3&tbnh=168&tbnw=189&start=26&ndsp=16&tx=115&ty=60
Kirsten Dunst Bulgari http://www.hindustantimes.com/photos-news/Photos-Lifestyle/scentofstardom/Article4-669443.aspx
Blake Lively Chanel http://www.google.com.au/imgres?um=1&hl=en&biw=1038&bih=494&tbm=isch&tbnid=CYxGbStK-5meMM:&imgrefurl=http://www.purseblog.com/chanel-bags/blake-lively-for-chanel-ad-campaign.html&docid=3XCE8BiZz2uPcM&imgurl=http://cdn3.purseblog.com/images/2011/03/Blake-Lively-AdCampaign-Chanel-3.jpg&w=850&h=554&ei=AzU1Ud-4K8W6lAWE7ICIAQ&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:14,s:0,i:119&iact=rc&dur=369&sig=116702563913441622360&page=2&tbnh=174&tbnw=255&start=10&ndsp=15&tx=83&ty=50
Dianna Kruger - Calvin Klein http://www.justjared.com/2010/05/12/diane-kruger-calvin-klein-beauty-fragrance-ad/
Rachel Taylor, Bonds. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/taylor-discards-her-top-for-bonds/story-e6freuy9-1226479369349
Kim Kardashian Sketchers http://www.google.com.au/imgres?um=1&hl=en&biw=1038&bih=494&tbm=isch&tbnid=uwhynRqPb4C9mM:&imgrefurl=http://www.businessinsider.com/the-biggest-lies-ever-told-by-major-advertisers-2012-11%3Fop%3D1&docid=vECBlCzGybHZoM&imgurl=http://static2.businessinsider.com/image/4fb3ca9b69bedd305800000d-400-300/9-that-wearing-sneakers-makes-you-skinny.jpg&w=400&h=300&ei=aT41UY6MFIGNkwWM9oCgAw&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:3,s:0,i:86&iact=rc&dur=998&sig=116702563913441622360&page=1&tbnh=184&tbnw=247&start=0&ndsp=10&tx=56&ty=53
Angelina Jolie St Johns http://www.justjared.com/2007/09/14/angelina-jolie-st-john-ads-2/
So what’s it going to take?
Top Comments
God forgive and help us all
a.
A-to-the-men! It's disgusting that my 5'10 daughter was told THE SAME DAY SHE FAINTED TWICE DUE TO HER ANOREXIA that she looked fantastic and should be modeling. She started treatment three days later. Normalizing what "sick" looks like and deliberately using models who are clearly ill is killing people. I am not exaggerating this.