Alley gives all of us a lot to chew on with ‘Fat Actress’
The plate of snacks is tempting, filled with chocolates, cookies and more, but the only member of Kirstie Alley‘s household to bite is Bradley the dog.
“No, no,” Alley says, shooing the Welsh corgi away.
She’s equally disciplined with herself, nibbling on tiny heart-shaped mints while a visitor samples olive pate.
“Eat it all,” she urges. “It’s one of the ways I got really fat. I ate one of those jars a day.”
Now, restricting herself to fruit, veggies and whatever the Jenny Craig diet plan serves up (Alley is the company’s new spokeswoman), such sins – and more than 20 pounds so far – are past.
Is this any way for the star of “Fat Actress” to behave?
The very title of the reality-comedy series, which debuts Monday at 10 p.m. on Showtime, is a rebuke to the notion that “F” is the modern scarlet letter and that anyone wearing it – especially in Hollywood – should get thin or get lost.
Alley does intend to get thin, or at least thinner. But she refuses to let unflattering tabloid accounts be the last word on her weight, her worth or her employability.
“The second I made the decision to create this show, I was liberated,” she says.
Alley’s weight has been as high as 203. The pounds came on slowly as she reveled in playing the happy homemaker and hostess, cooking for family and friends and enjoying the results with them.
“Last year I did a movie and when I saw it I went, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.’ Now it can’t really be camouflaged. Now it’s not even a matter of wearing the right clothes.”
Alley endured criticism even when she was slender. She recalls meeting with the director of “Fatal Attraction” when he was casting the role that ultimately went to Glenn Close:
“I weighed about 125, and he told me to go away for two weeks and lose some weight. I thought, ‘Oh, my God, 125 is fat.’ I came back at 112, 114.”
Alley figures she was lucky to be defined for years as the sexy woman who was funny in “Cheers” and films including “Look Who’s Talking.”
But the chubby woman who’s funny is different: “I’m not going to be hired to play (“The King of Queens”) fat Kevin James‘ fat wife, because that’s not the way it goes. So you have to create the show.”
Based on Alley’s life and world, “Fat Actress” features appearances by friends including John Travolta and NBC executive Jeff Zucker. It’s reality, sort of.
“In the show I’m much more tortured and much more desperate and worried than in my real life. But the exaggeration of that stuff makes it funny,” Alley said.
Alley figures the concept is elastic enough to accommodate the change she wants to make in herself.
“It’s not just about being fat. It’s about things that happen with women,” she says. “When I’m skinny in this sitcom, what are the problems going to be? There’s only a million of them, just like in real life.”
The birthday bunch
TV personality Ed McMahon is 82. Actor-director Rob Reiner is 58. Singer Kiki Dee is 58. Actor Tom Arnold is 46. Actor D.L. Hughley (“The Hughleys”) is 41. Actress Yvette Wilson (“The Parkers”) is 41. Actress Connie Britton (“Spin City”) is 37. Actress Moira Kelly is 37. Actress Amy Pietz (“Caroline in the City”) is 36. Rapper Bubba Sparxxx is 28.