Outrage Over Mila Kunis` Weight Loss Statement
DIAZ: That is the lovely Freida Pinto from the Oscar-winning movie, "Slum Dog Millionaire" with her real-life boyfriend, Dev Patel. Freida is now starring in the blockbuster movie, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes." But tonight, Freida is calling herself hideous. She tells the U.K. edition of "In Style" magazine she hates Skyping her boyfriend because of her looks, "I also feel it`s this pressure. Oh, my god. He`s seeing me after two weeks. I hope my hair is OK. It`s hideous. I think even the most beautiful person looks stupid on Skype." All right. Welcome back to SHOWBIZ TONIGHT. I`m Carlos Diaz, in for A.J. Hammer. Tonight, slamming skinny stars. At first, that kind of sounds crazy, but it`s true. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT can tell you there is outrageous backlash in Hollywood today against stars who dramatically drop weight, from Kelly Osbourne to Jennifer Hudson. When curvy stars get slim, the thin-bashing begins. Here we are with a very personal take right now. It`s author and confidence expert, Jess Weiner, who wrote a very, very personal article, an amazing article in September`s "Glamour Magazine" about her own dramatic weight loss journey. Now, you got a major reality check about your weight when your doctor basically said, diet or else. Jess, knowing that your whole platform is about taking on Hollywood`s weight obsession and accepting your body as is, what went through your mind when your doctor said the D-word to you?</s>JESS WEINER, AUTHOR AND CONFIDENCE EXPERT: Right. And a quick correction on that, Carlos. She actually didn`t say, "Diet or else." She said you are dangerously close to being pre-diabetic. And I had to face the fact as a body image expert and confidence expert for 17 years that I did love my body and I do love my body, but I wasn`t doing enough to take care of my health, and that was the wake-up call. So she was familiar that I don`t endorse diets. I don`t think diets work, but that I was up for a lifestyle change, and that included weight loss as well as looking at a whole other variety of numbers that most women don`t look at -- blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar. So for me, it was quite a provocative wake-up call considering what I do for a living.</s>DIAZ: OK. In your piece, you also address stars getting slammed for losing so much weight. Jennifer Hudson confessed to losing 80 pounds and now claims to wear a size zero and that has caused a firestorm on blogs everyhwere. People are -- think that Jennifer is yet another Hollywood star who claimed to love her curves and now is super thin. So Jess, to our SHOWBIZ Flashpoint, is it surprising that stars are getting bashed for losing weight?</s>WEINER: No, it`s not surprising. And I know we`ve talked about this a lot here on SHOWBIZ. You know, we bash them when they`re thin. We bash them had they`re fat. We bash them when they`re old. We bash them when they`re, you know, young. It`s like Hollywood women, especially, are never allowed to be right where they are. But when it comes to weight, we as a public and especially women in this country, it`s such a sensitive topic. And we love our stars, we love our celebrities and we get very attached to what they look like and what they represent for us. And when they make a health change or a physical change, and we don`t know which it is sometimes because we don`t live in their bodies. But when we see them physically change, we have an emotional reaction to it. And sometimes, people don`t like seeing a heavier person become thinner because it`s challenging. It`s upsetting. It feels like they`re selling out and giving in to a thin ideal. But I know now from personal experience as well that there`s an opportunity to have moderate health transformation that doesn`t have to be obsessive.</s>DIAZ: Well, I want to move on to another topic right now, because this just broke today. "Friends with Benefits" star, Mila Kunis, has just talked about losing 20 pounds for her role in "Black Swan." And in an explosive new interview with "Glamour U.K." revealed today, she says if you want to lose weight, you can do it. Mila says, "When people say I can`t lose weight -- no, no, no, you can. Your body can do everything and anything. You just have to want to do it." All right, Jess. Let me just give you my opinion real quick here. I don`t agree at all, because, OK, you can want to do it, but if you have four kids and you`re scraping by on $22,000 a year and you`re working three jobs, you might want to lose weight, but you can`t because you don`t have time, correct?</s>WEINER: I agree. I think that there are so many women out there probably shaking their heads at this comment. But I do want to kind of come in the middle and have a moderate take on this, which is that actresses and actors are like athletes. They use their body for a particular craft and vehicle. They train. They lose weight. They gain weight. They add muscle. They take away muscle. We can`t compare them on the same national scale as the rest of us out there. And especially to your point when you`re a working mom, when you`re a, you know, dad out there trying to make a good living for your kids. It`s not the most -- you don`t have the most time to spend on losing weight and thinking about it so easy. It has to be health transformation. It has to be slow and steady. And we can`t hold ourselves to Hollywood`s standards. Hollywood`s reality of beauty is not reality at all.</s>DIAZ: We`ve got 30 seconds. I want to add to that. But a star -- I don`t think a star has anyplace talking about what other people should do when it comes to weight loss because a star`s job is to look a certain way. And they have the means to hire nutritionists, a trainer, anything they want to get to a certain weight.</s>WEINER: Right.</s>DIAZ: I want to get your opinion on that. We have 20 seconds.</s>WEINER: Yes. I agree. I think that I don`t know exactly where her comments were intended. But certainly, for the watchers out there of SHOWBIZ, they know losing weight and staying healthy and being fit inside and out is a really important thing in their lives. And I just hope people are doing it for the right reasons and they`re doing it slow and steady and not to match someone else`s ideals.</s>DIAZ: Jessica Weiner, great talk. Thank you so much. And check out the entire article about Jess` journey in this month`s "Glamour Magazine." It`s on newsstands now. It`s a great article. All right. Moving on, Matt Damon for president? Why Michael Moore thinks Matt should be in the White House. The new cash king of hip-hop. And Ashton Kutcher`s the cash king of the TV world. More details in "The Buzz Today."</s>TEXT: Bruce Willis in negotiations to star in "G.I. Joe" movie sequel. Paul Rudd gets movie titan Harvey Weinstein in front of the camera.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So anyway, I had such a great time and our idiot brother. I`m so proud of the film. I had some marketing ideas. Yes, I know you`re the master of this now, so I don`t want to overstep my bounds, but I think you`re going to like some of these.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that toilet paper?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes, I was on the bus.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. You know how trailers happen before the movies? What if we put our trailers in the middle of the movie, like, interrupt it,