Hollywood And The War on Terror
HAYDEN PANETTIERE, ACTRESS: For somebody to sit on the other side of the computer, or somebody who is typing up a magazine, to constantly critique me and say, oh, she looks fat in that dress, or oh, she`s thin, thick, she`s tall, too short. It`s amazing to me.</s>ANDERSON: Plus, celebrities speak out about their own eating issues and we asked the controversial question, are stars actually triggering eating disorders in their fans? SHOWBIZ TONIGHT covers issues of body image and weight like no other news show tonight a SHOWBIZ special report "Scary Skinny." Welcome back to SHOWBIZ TONIGHT. It is 30 minutes past the hour. I`m Brooke Anderson coming to you tonight from New York. You are watching TV`s most provocative entertainment news show. OK, tonight we`ve got a SHOWBIZ TONIGHT special report: "Scary Skinny." I want you to take a look at this. It`s a shocking new anorexia ad featuring an emaciated fashion model. A powerful message to the fashion industry about the dangerous pressures to be "Scary Skinny", but it`s not just the fashion world. Anorexia is also rampant in Hollywood. Frankly, it`s gotten out of control. Joining me tonight from Miami, self-esteem expert, and author of "Do I Look Fat In This?" Jessica Weiner, and from New York celebrity stylist and fashion commentator, Mary Alice Stephenson, and joining us tonight in Hollywood, supermodel and author of "The Complete Idiot`s Guide To Being a Model", Roshumba Williams. Great to see all of you, ladies. And all we have seen these photos are incredibly disturbing. But SHOWBIZ TONIGHT has discovered that this is commissioned by fashion label, if you can believe it. Roshumba, what do you think? Some say the label is actually exploiting an eating disorder. Exploiting this disease anorexia for its own gain?</s>ROSHUMBA WILLIAMS, SUPERMODEL, AUTHOR: Well, if you look at the ad it says, "No Anorexia". And I did a little bit of research on the actual ad and I know the photographer personally because I worked for him five years. What I feel they`re trying to do is promote the awareness to how horrible this decease is. And, unfortunately, size zero is still the standard for models in the fashion world. Which, of course, I mean, you walk in, everyone is a size zero and you`re a two or four, you`re going want to lose that extra weight in order to get into the garment. The young lady in the ad, actually she wanted to do this ad. She collaborated with the photographer, as well as with the clothing line, which is geared towards younger women, to show the horror of what anorexia really looks like. Unfortunately, there are situations where this can be taken out of context, and girls whose do have this sicknesses or illness can feel like oh I want to look like her. It is a fine line. And Oliviero Toscani, the photographer, yeah, he is a wild guy.</s>ANDERSON: Well, he`s a provocative photographer. He is and it sort of is his M.O. So do you think there`s a chance that he could be using this seemingly deathly ill model to gain more fame for himself?</s>WILLIAMS: I don`t think he`s using it to gain more fame for himself. He has a lot of fame, and he`s rich. And you know, he doesn`t really need this. He does have a daughter, he has children. I know his daughter, Lola. He has a passion about this and the industry is still allowing this to happen. I think he just took it to the extreme and he has a history --</s>JESSICA WEINER, SELF-ESTEEM EXPERT: Brooke, you know what --</s>ANDERSON: Jessica, I hear you.</s>WILLIAMS: I`m sorry.</s>ANDERSON: Roshumba, I think Jessica wants to jump in.</s>WEINER: Yeah, because I agree with what Roshumba was beginning to say but I think in looking at this in the context, of how we talk about it on the show and how much Hollywood is involved, where the fashion industry lies. If they`re going to raise awareness of about the seriousness of anorexia they have to provide some follow-up steps and calls to action. Right now, while this advertisement is getting great publicity I`m not really hearing where people are supposed to go, when they have questions, when they need help. That I think can verge on being irresponsible.</s>ANDERSON: Right, well, the billboard was posted in Milan, during fashion week, smeared throughout tons of newspapers, supposed to discourage anorexia. But Jessica, could it have the opposite affect? And Roshumba touched on this, too.</s>WEINER: Of course, yes, listen, anybody who is struggling with a serious eating disorder, which by the way is a mental issue, and a vanity issue, they could be very triggered by this advertisement. I`m all for a provocative image to break through all of the numbness we have in this country around eating disorders. But again, my concern, is that you can`t just provide the salaciousness without the follow-through and follow-up, because there`s so much information out there.</s>ANDERSON: Very good point.</s>WILLIAMS: I agree.</s>ANDERSON: And you know, I do want to move to this, because we all know the pressure to stay thin, is everywhere, but nobody feels it stronger, probably, than the ladies of Hollywood. For example, "Heroes" star Hayden Panettiere; she`s a beautiful, healthy 18-year-old actress and she really opened up to me how she, too, feels this pressure. Listen to this.</s>HAYDEN PANETTIERE, ACTRESS: I`m not perfect and for somebody to sit on the other side of the computer, or somebody who is typing up a magazine, to constantly critique me. And say, oh, she looks fat in that dress. Or she`s looks too thin, too thick, too tall, too short. It`s amazing to me. It`s amazing that people feel the have the right judge you like that.</s>ANDERSON: Mary Alice Stephenson, you`re a stylist to many of these celebrities. You deal with them all the time. Is what Hayden is saying just sadly typical?</s>MARY ALICE STEPHENSON, FASHION COMMENTATOR: It is typical. Most celebrity I work with are tremendously affected by the media. What is said about them, you know, on blogs, what they read about in the newspapers. And it does affect them. And even women that are in their 30s and 40s and 50s, that are pretty comfortable in their own skin kind of get shook up every now and then.</s>WILLIAMS: But Brooke, can I say this in defense of Hollywood.</s>ANDERSON: Sure.</s>WILLIAMS: Yes, Hollywood does promote thin, but I don`t necessarily believe that they promote anorexia.</s>STEPHENSON: I agree.</s>ANDERSON: Roshumba, you are gorgeous --</s>STEPHENSON: I think so too, Roshumba.</s>WILLIAMS: No one is encouraging anorexia here. If anything I think we all agree that it`s a sickness. It`s sad. It`s unfortunate, and it is affecting a lot of young women.</s>WEINER: Right, but we can talk about how Hollywood does impact general body image, because dieting and being obsessed with your weight and body image, Brooke, and everybody, is one of the precursors for young people and any person to develop eating disorders. Some of what we`re talking about, how can we be preventative in this situation and proactive - - and Hollywood plays a part in this.</s>ANDERSON: I think the good news it doesn`t trigger an eating disorder. Somebody who find herself having to constantly deny that she has an eating disorder, "Pirates of the Caribbean" Keira Knightley. I`m not saying she needs to go gain 20 pounds.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s just thin.</s>ANDERSON: Right. She says she`s naturally thin. But Jessica, do a lot of young girls and strive to be skinny, which could, as you`re saying, the dieting, the seeing these people, that perspective, it could lead to an eating disorder.</s>WEINER: Let me be clear. I don`t think it is any Hollywood actresses` responsibility for any of our bodies out here. They are responsible for their own bodies and we are responsible for our own body. However, when somebody like Keira Knightley has an audience of young girls who look up to her, she has a responsibility, as does every single celebrity out there, to be fairly responsible in what they`re talking about as far at their body image.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Responsible in what way?</s>WEINER: Keira has been --</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s naturally thin.</s>WEINER: Keira has been --</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If she`s not -- if she`s not --</s>WEINER: Keira has been very open about her struggles with anorexia in her family, which I applaud actually.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right. OK?</s>WEINER: I think that`s really solid.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.</s>WEINER: But I think we have to remember that mental health is what`s really going on here.</s>ANDERSON: She`s got to help people differentiate, young girls may not be able to.</s>ANDERSON: OK, I want to say this. The kind of influence that we`re talking about here is what may have led to "Hairspray" star Brittany Snow developing anorexia. You know in a new interview with MTVU.com, she admits, you guys, that it started when she was just 12 years old, landed her first role on a soap opera. Saw everybody around her desperately trying to stay "Scary Skinny". Mary Alice, how can we not say that Hollywood sometimes breeds anorexia in starlets?</s>STEPHENSON: Listen, I think Hollywood breeds a lot of insecurity. Whether you are you`re a student, whether you`re a model, whether you`re a starlet. But I also think there`s a lot of women that are standing up to that and as positive role models and curvaceous and come in all shapes and sizes.</s>WILLIAMS: Jessica Biehl or someone like that.</s>STEPHENSON: Jessica Biehl, Mandy Moore, Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah. These women, for the first time, are showing us that you can look fashionable, you can look glamorous, whatever your shape or size.</s>ANDERSON: I want to add "Ugly Betty" star America Ferrera to that list.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.</s>ANDERSON: She has, perhaps, the best perspective on all of this. Listen to what she told SHOWBIZ TONIGHT.</s>AMERICA FERRERA, ACTRESS: I think that Hollywood, you know, there`s too much weight put on Hollywood to define what are real-life standard should be. I think that Hollywood is just going to go with what sells. You know? And I think that as people, in our real lives, we just have to stay grounded about, you know, what`s fake and what`s real. So I wouldn`t be looking to Hollywood for my role models, let`s just put it that way.</s>ANDERSON: Don`t look to Hollywood for the role models. Roshumba, sadly she might be in the minority in Hollywood with that perspective. Don`t you think?</s>WILLIAMS: That`s true. The reality, especially when it comes to modeling, everybody nowadays wants to be a model, with whatever show -- you know, there`s "America`s Next Top Model". There`s a magazine, there`s a book, there`s everything out there. But the reality is, I believe that anorexia is not necessarily something that starts and affects you so much from it outside. I think it starts from the inside. Because even Isabelle Caro, the model in the ad, said her anorexia started from childhood. She had a really, really disturbing childhood.</s>ANDERSON: I agree.</s>WILLIAMS: So, it can be triggered from many, many different things.</s>ANDERSON: A variety of reasons. Unfortunately, Roshumba, sorry to interrupt you. We do have to end it there. Great insights from you all. Jessica Weiner, Mary Alice Stephenson, Roshumba Williams. Great to see all of you, ladies. OK, tonight, there are reports that Farrah Fawcett`s cancer returned. The details haven`t been clear. We called in the SHOWBIZ TONIGHT truth squad to check this out. Here`s what we can tell you. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT can confirm, unfortunately, Farrah`s cancer reportedly anal cancer, has returned unexpectedly. The former "Charlie`s Angels" star is seeking alternative treatments in Germany. The cancer came back in May and these new reports are just about a continuation of that treatment, not a new recurrence. We also learned Farrah is keeping a video diary of her treatment and is putting together a documentary of her cancer fight. She hopes to raise awareness and help save lives. And we do wish her well. All right, well, Gloria Estefan thinks Lindsay Lohan can bounce back. Gloria is one of the nicest stars out there and she actually has a surprising connection to Lindsay. I go one on one with Gloria and she revealed important advice that Lindsay and all of young out-of-control Hollywood can learn from next. Also this --</s>JENNY MCCARTHY, MODEL ACTRESS, SON HAS AUTISM: He`s got the gift, I say. He can help Evan through some difficult things when a therapist couldn`t even do it.</s>ANDERSON: Jenny McCarthy`s talking about her boyfriend Jim Carrey. He`s been absolutely amazing in helping with her son`s struggle with autism. Her story is so inspiring and now Jenny McCarthy is speaking about her crusade to get rid of that awful disorder. That is next. And what`s that? You can lead a horse to water -- what`s that saying? But you can`t make him drink? Tonight a guy tried to lead a horse onto a plane, but he just couldn`t get him to fly. You can bet the ranch, this is a ridiculous story, next.