I just can’t imagine what Kirstie Alley and her PR reps were thinking when she created “Fat Actress” (Showtime, Monday, 10 p.m.) It’s one thing to resurrect your career with a comedy about being fat, but it’s another thing all together to portray yourself as being fat, dumb and trashy. I know this new series is not reality TV, but it is semi-autobiographical. Her performance almost makes Anna Nicole Smith look scholarly. Has Kirstie Alley lost her mind?
From my PR perceptive, it’s okay to tell the world you are fat and you can’t stop eating. But why let the world know that you have a trailer park mentality and have no intention of changing? Everyone will think that’s who she really is and assume she just got lucky with Cheers and Look Who’s Talking (1, 2, and 3).
A few years from now, if Kirstie manages to lose some weight, she will look at this series and cringe. I can see it all now… Press releases will be issued -- “Scientology made me do it,” she will scream. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I was in some other dimension.”
It might already be too late. Perception is everything and no one will ever forget this. Even the most ardent PR agent is going to have trouble erasing images of Kirstie tossing her weight around, trying to seduce anyone who will look her way and eating anything that is not nailed down.
I also don’t know who advised Jeff Zucker, President of television for NBC Universal, that it was good for his image to appear on this show using the F-word (not fat) after seeing Kirstie for the first time in years. “She is so F-ing Fat,” he repeatedly said (in character) to other NBC executives after meeting with her to discuss a possible TV series. Zucker is supposed to be a man of decorum, smarts, creativity, might -- an award-winning television executive. He looked and acted like he was in the ‘hood.
It upsets me that USA Today and the New York Times gave decent reviews to indecent programming. “Fat Actress” should have had an R rating for Raunchy and Ridiculous. I don’t understand how Robert Bianco of USA Today can compare “Fat Actress” to the partly improvised “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” One is clever; the other is desperate. Someday, Kirstie will understand the difference.
7 comments:
Lois,
I, unfortunately, do not get Showtime so I am unable to watch this show. However, having seen Kirstie Alley on David Letterman plugging her show, I have to agree with you. I find her to be tasteless and exploiting a real health problem in this country. Of course she is also working with Jennie Craig so she literally has it both ways. If she stays fat, she has her show. If she loses weight, she gets a fortune from Jennie Craig.
Keep up the blogs. They are great.
Dick
no has ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the american people. the cw is that the average TV watcher is of lower intelligence, angry & lacking the pass time alternatives of the wealthier & more educated ( computers etc.) . Kirstie is simply playing to her consumer as does our president both apparently with some success.
JW
What is the message she's trying to send here? Make it big when you're young, wash up, get fat, get your own TV show, and black guys will sleep with you? It makes me sick.
And one more thing -- making a TV show about making a TV show started and ended with Seinfeld. Kirstie, give it up.
Lois,
I have read the reviews...do not get showtime but agree with you. I saw her plugging her show last week and she was acting like a real low life...and telling us things about herself I really did not care to know. I agree with Dick's comments about her Jenny Craig endorsement too. Keep up the good work.
Adrian
i totally disagree....
kirstie alley was an overweight, post-50 has-been who has now found a very clever niche (while exposing her unattractive self) to resurrect her career. i was watching look who's talking (2, i think - an old movie) a few weeks ago & she was already fat, and looked on her way to being a has-been then.....she's very clever & funny, and now she's getting attention (at her own expense). what, larry david is ugly & neurotic while being funny but it's ok cause he's a guy? c'mon lois - maybe when the jenny craig sets in she'll get a few more roles. she would have only gotten more "rolls" (on her ass & stomach) without this show.
and thats MY take on your blog
Kristie Alley is almost as wide as the tailgate of the Ford pickup she is in front of.
She is beyond fat!!
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