"Ask me to contemplate why an actress losing weight is regarded as heroic.

Because for anyone - famous or not, rich or poor - to lose weight and maintain a new healthy lifestyle is a feat, Williams.

Anyone who has been a food addict, emotional eater, overeater, binger etc. - and is now at a healthy BMI - knows the hell of withdrawal, the pain of exercising while obese, the battle against cravings and all the myriad other challenges the road to fat loss and health presents.

Just because you clearly have no context or experience of your own in this regard does NOT fuckin' give you the right to belittle the personal victory of Bertinelli or the rest of us who have conquered many demons in an effort to combat overweightness and obesity.

Kiss our now toned, healthy arses.

Lonewolfy

I can't find anywhere in the article where she's called "heroic." Yes, it's ridiculous to consider weight loss to be a heroic feat, but I think that's your word, not theirs.

What Ms. Williams said.

P.S. - Thin is overrated. Being healthy is not. I have a sister who was seduced into thinking that her size 0 frame was a good thing. Family, friends, and neighbors tried to persuade her otherwise. She's ordinarily an 8. Then she got very, very sick and shrunk to a 0. She might have shrunk to a corpse if it hadn't been for her lifesaving 8 fat. However, once she was a 0, she thought that that was wonderful. We urged her to gain weight and she resisted, for she'll get sick again, as that's the nature of her disease. Then a change in meds boosted her back to an 8 and we're all relieved and we're all telling her how great she looks, so in an insane world regarding appearance, there are pods of sanity.

Who fucking cares?

Now, if you were complaining about the Obamas lowering themselves to appear in the magazine, you'd have a point.

She doesn't look all that hot to me. There's no way she's going to look like a teenager in a bikini no matter how much weight she loses.

But then, I assume she did it for herself, not for me, so what anybody else thinks isn't really relevant. As long as she's happy with her "new" self, more power to her.

Valerie Bertinelli is adorable at any weight. I'm glad she's back in the public eye, even if it's not for anything interesting. I hope she gets a sitcom or something soon. Maybe Phoebe Cates, another of my favorite actresses when I was a kid, will come back from extended maternity leave next :)

Since the Hudson plane landing incident overloaded the word "hero" with more competing definitions than is comprehensible, I don't believe weight loss in an of itself is necessarily "heroic".

Nevertheless, Williams belittling and trivializing someone's weight loss and return to a trimmer, healthier (i.e. not anorexic) shape is puerile and catty at best, asinine and myopic at worst.

Walk a day in an obese person's shoes, Mary...

Nothing sheds pounds more quickly than a high-intensity Photoshop workout.

Yes, who cares if Valerie Bertinelli can wear a bikini? This nationwide obsession with celebrating people who have lost substantial amounts of weight is absolutely crazy.

What's more upsetting to me was the description of Kim Kardashian in the linked article as "zaftig" -- which is defined variously as "plump," "slightly fat" and "full-figured." I was going to say, "In what universe is Kim Kardashian zaftig," but then I realized it was in our own sick, flesh-hating universe. How depressing.

A normal person with a normal life achieving that level of weight loss and lifestyle change is worthy of respect. A celebrity with unlimited time and money to dedicate to the task is not so much. I'd look like that too -- if I could afford a personal trainer, three hours in the gym every day and a personal chef.

BTW,I "tip the scales" at 172 and People magazine can kiss my (flat but wide) ass.

Looks aren't important, age isn't important, why can't we just realize that, blah blah blah...

I think Ms. Williams really nailed it when she mentioned that this same magazine is known for pointing out cellulite on celebs. I don't read People myself but when I look over the covers of all those rags while in the checkout line at the grocery store and see those types of articles all the time. Our culture is really stupid. "Let's see who looks fat this week!" Riiiigggghhht. How very amusing.

Really? I mean really, you're reading People Magazine - I went to see what all the brouhaha is about and noted that at least online People bills itself as the "#1 Celebrity Site on the Web". Its like the recent Broadsheet interest in the crappiest rag NY magazine - what you mean a crappy publication is full of crap- ya don't say!!!

And for another thing - lonewolfy is right on. It seems more than a little insenstive and stupid to be complaining about a piece like this. It seems like it is more about glorifying fitness and healthy living.

Also, at first I thought this was probably another one of those Broadsheet postitive objectification articles like when you celebrated Helen Mirren in a bikini....

http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/07/17/mirren_bikini/index.html

...I don't understand why she and so many other women don't feel they can wear a two piece swimsuit unless they are a size zero. I was sad to read that she hadn't worn a bikini since she was under twenty! That to me says that you shouldn't wear this outfit unless you have or believe you have a 'perfect' bod. That is a hang up that People is perpetuating with this type of article. Happily, this is something that I see in the media but not on the beach, where real women of all shapes, sizes and ages rock two piece swimsuits without major trauma. I'm in my forties, a size 10 or 12 and feel completely comfortable enjoying sun, surf and swimming in a bikini! Don't believe the hype and enjoy your body!