In the real world, real men actually do appreciate real women. No joke!

It's too bad the real world is being suffocated by these bizarre rags that think they are important because they decide whether celebrities are fat or not. If I worked for something like TMZ I would probably be asking myself what my purpose in life actually was. Or maybe by that point I'd be so busy worrying about someone else's alleged huge ass that stuff like poverty and injustice would seem somehow insignificant.

Woe...

Yeah, she's not fat. She was thick and curvy back when she was a teen and most of her peers in the entertainment world looked like adds for Feed the Kids, so obviously she's going to be a little thicker and curvier when she grows up. She got a raw deal.

That being said, anyone who tries to make a buck by marketing themselves as product deserves what they get.

...without makeup, fancy hairstyling, and a gown designed to hide every imperfection (not to mention camera angles that flatter, and sometimes even computer enhancement to change flaws). But natural isn't "in" right now. I was listening to a local right wing radio station (for traffic reports) and the lead bimbette (trust me, the description fits) was waxing on about how people should lay off Hewitt because it's okay to be a little plump and have cellulite. I got the definite impression the Hewitt had let herself go, but she should be given a break. Then I saw the photos. Good grief - how many women would look that good coming out of the water? No wonder so many women have negative body images. If Hewitt is "fat", then our standards as a society have gotten to the point where no woman can meet them.

Lord knows she's not the greatest actress or singer or beauty, but the girl has managed to keep a career going for more than a decade without regularly being in the media for getting drunk, running into things with her car, popping out babies and abandoning them, getting photographed doing drugs, going in and out of rehab, having a millionaire family, releasing a sex tape, or being anorexic.

And now, she has taken a papararazzi stock in trade -- the unflattering photo of a celeb -- and turned it on its ear, by making it a message for girls everywhere.

I don't care who you are -- nobody wants a photo or their cellulite-butt on national mags and blogs. But there she is. (Hey, at least it's not a mug shot, right? Though these days, the paps would probably have you believe that it's better for your career than cellulite and an ample bum.) And she turned it around and made it something good.

She went up a whole lotta notches in my book with her statement.

And damn, I'd take having her figure vs. my own on her WORST day.

How nice to see a real hourglass figure - instead of a silicone rack cobbled onto a hungry young woman whose head looks way too big for her ematiated body to hold up.

I wonder how many of the comment-writers in the TMZ post are in any sort of "position" to accuse JLH of being fat. The handful of women I know who are actually thinner than JLH, and most of them are hardcore athletes, don't read this crap and they certainly don't waste their time passing judgment on normal-looking women.

I wonder how many people who are offended by the sight of JLH's derriere are really projecting their own self-hatred? How many size 6s look at JLH and hate her for being a size 2?

In other news, does anyone else remember the days of Pretty Woman when Julia Roberts was a size 6 and hot? I'll go back and watch that movie again but I was pretty sure she was still quite thin....

Last time I caught JLH (in a bad tv movie or something) she was startling undernourished to the point that she had the Olson Twins Big Head syndrome. She looks great here - happy, healthy and attractive.

Face it, she's in the biz, she gets roles that other talented actresses can't because of her looks.

She is absolutely right. And it's completely irrelevant.

Catherine Price -- are you telling me that you never pick up people and check out the celebrity gossip? Never think about fashion or fitness of your favorite stars?

Tell it to someone else dear.

Don't know what shows and movies you're watching, but my favorite stars are Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackhoff and Tricia Helfer and they don't often appear in the gossip rags....

Somehow I don't see Catherine Price as the sort to watch The Hills or whatever it is they're hyping in People these days.

...be expecting much from a Web site that lists, as a related article, a feature called "Name That Butt." All there really is to say about that.

But "a size 2 isn't fat"? Whether she's a size 2 or not she sure is trying to leave the impression she is, and by couching her defense in those terms she's buying into the body myth too...

This article completely misses the point.

TMZ wasn't ragging on JLH on her hip size, nor the size of her backside, or her legs for that matter.

It was focusing on the unsightly cellulite build-up on the back of her legs and butt. That's all it was. TMZ was contrasting *that*, versus the scrumptious ads and other hot depictions of JLH on film and such.

Not trying to defend TMZ here - they are what they are - TMZ is crass, rude, materialistic, and highly deserving of nearly any negative comment - but that's what the site is about.

"It was focusing on the unsightly cellulite build-up on the back of her legs and butt. "

Except that the photo in question is a front view.

I understand what the point of this article was, and I agree withi t, but it is ironic that posting this article here, with all the views and responses it has gotten, has spread the story and the controversy. What we should be doing is de-emphasizing this kind of stuff by just ignoring it, and not making it into an even bigger controversy.