Which Celeb Is Gaining Weight For A Diet Scam?
You all know my weakness for celebrity gossip and blind items, right? Well here’s one that caught my eye today.
Which tabloid-favorite actress is purposefully packing on the pudge so she can launch her own weight loss line? She’s hoping to lose the first 20 pounds quickly, and cash in by following the “miracle” in a series of infomercials.
I have to say this is a pretty clever plot, and will probably work. But WHO IS IT? The folks at Blind Item Rehash are guessing Kirstie Alley, but I really doubt it. She’s already done the Jenny Craig thing, and her weight fluctuates; this seems really unlikely to be her. But beyond that, I don’t really have a guess. Someone not vain about gaining twenty pounds (so, unlikely to be Heidi Montag) but someone who needs cash… hmm.
This also reminded me how shady all of these weight loss infomercials are. I told this story way back in the early days of this blog, but here it is again:
An acquaintance of mine was tapped to appear in an infomercial for a “miracle” exercise product. They dressed him up in oversized pants, lit him unflatteringly, and had him stand with his belly pooched out and a mildly depressed look on his face. This was the “before” picture. Then they took him into another room, spray-tanned him, dressed him up, changed the lighting, and had him suck in his stomach and grin like hell. Voila! The “after” picture!
If it seems to good to be true…
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Advertising, BFD Classic, Celebrities, Cold Hard Cash, Gossip, Jessica Simpson, Kirstie Alley
Jessica Simpson?
That’s an excellent guess, BLS.
Are you sure its not Kirtsie Alley? I heard she left Jenny Craig in the hopes of starting her own line.
But yeah….Jessican Simpson probably, since the latest pictures show her down about 10 pounds.
But really, it could be anyone, since weight fluctuations are a normal part of everyone’s life, even celebrities.
Jessica Simpson is no stranger to infomercials either….she did the Proactive ads, and she has a line of fake hair or wigs or something too.
Put it this way: If it’s *not* Jessica Simpson, I’ll be shocked. Can’t help but think that the initial buzz about her weight gain was just “laying the groundwork”, so to speak.
For those “before” photos, they also use photoshop. Yeah, it not only takes away the fat, it can add it back on.
I think we just need to assume that photos can no longer be trusted.
Considering that Simpson’s ‘dramatic’ weight gain looked about convincing as those ‘before’ pictures did to me as a kid (even at nine I’d pretty well sussed out the fact that losing weight was unlikely to cause the inevitable increase in bust size that was always included in the ‘after’ photo), and her entire life has been one long series of exploitations for profit, I’d be gobsmacked if it wasn’t her.
I figure when the commercials start playing I know where the mute button is on my remote without looking.
I echo Jessica Simpson. MSNBC’s Scoop already speculated on this a few weeks ago:
“She’s loving it,” said a source close to Simpson, who suspects her weight gain is strategic. “It will probably get her back on covers right when she is a ’supporting’ act on tour. I bet Joe (Simpson) has already sold the weight-loss story.”
I am actually surprised no one has thought of this scam before. There’s a few I’ve seen where the “before” model is clearly not the “after” and where I suspect the person was just wearing a fat suit. But wow, this is over the top.
Adding my guess as Jessica Simpson since the attention’s been on her. It only takes the careful selection of mom-jeans and a couple other bad cuts to make you look 15-20 pounds heavier than you are (depending on build) and a lot of those “weight gain” pictures looked to me like unflattering clothing choices instead.
I just tagged the post with J. Simp, because I think it’s an excellent guess… you guys are good!
I’m going to say Britney Spears.
I’ve seen ads where the before and after literally weren’t the same people. Not just “wow, she looks different” but “wow, they didn’t do a good job making these two women look the same”.
I, personally, do not care if celebrities gain weight, lose it, have babies, or shoot heroin. But then again, I’m one of those crazy bitches who thinks that public people deserve to have private lives (and that public people are not products for consumption). You go anonymous celebrity woman, sling that diet crap! I’ll be watching commercial free television so I hope to never hear about it.
Jessica Simpson seems the most obvious choice. But given Oprah Winfrey’s huge public meltdown over her weight gain back in January, it wouldn’t surprise me if she was the one to launch her own weight loss program.
Bree, I never even thought of Oprah, but can you just imagine the reaction she’d get if she pulled something like this? After the way she came down on Dr. Phil for shilling his diet plan, she’d look pretty hypocritical. Plus, doesn’t Oprah always say that diets don’t work?
Everyone’s probably right about Jessica Simpson. My first thoughts were of Britney Spears or Kirstie Alley.
Godless Heathen, you SO ROCK!!!!!!
Kinda on topic, not really… I find the banner ads on MySpace to be hilarious. There was one where the before and after picture were completely different races. I’m thinking, I send you $24.99 and whatever pill or patch you send will turn me into a skinny black chick? Wouldn’t the CIA want to patent that kind of weird DNA-altering stuff? :-) If something like that existed, and you OD’d on it, could you turn yourself into a hamster or something?