1. Celebrity gossip and internet drama, two of my favorite things! But seriously, an interesting discussion going on about Sandra Bullock and Jesse James at Jezebel and at Shapely Prose. The comments (at SP, anyway) make for some fascinating reading and contain plenty of thoughtful debate. (Also, Jesse James is gross. But you knew that.)

Look, I truly don’t have an opinion on what’s in Sandra Bullock’s heart. But I have an opinion on that photo: Appalling and inexcusable. And an opinion on Jesse James: Racist fuckwit. And an opinion on attempts to somehow justify that photo and steer the conversation away from words like “racism” and “anti-Semitism” and “white supremacy” at all costs: Bullshit. And all of that brought me to the opinion that if Bullock wants to keep the stink off her, she’d best issue a statement denouncing her husband’s racist behavior in no uncertain terms. As fast as possible. Which means, basically, yesterday.

2. If you follow the @bigfatdeal Twitter feed and you aren’t a spammer, I’ll follow you back! Which means you can message me if you have a link or a suggestion for a post. The next two links come via Twitter.

First, @pastaqueen sends a link to the Mad Men Barbie dolls, in which the “Betty Draper” doll and the “Joan Holloway” doll have the same Barbie bodies. From the comments:

How do the Betty and Joan dolls have the exact same body? FAIL, Mattel, this was your chance to make a Barbie who could walk upright (were she human).

Yeah, those identical proportions on the Betty and Joan dolls are disappointing, and actually disgraceful in light of what the show is meant to celebrate.

I still want a Joan doll, though. I can’t help it.

3. Next, @erinty has a question that I thought I’d throw out there for the BFD readership to try and answer:

Hi – do you know an active HAES message board or community? I haven’t found one that’s really active myself. can’t find 1. having hard time with the act of losing weight while on HAES, very conflicting!

So if you know of an active HAES forum or you have any thoughts on Erin’s dilemma, please give a shout in the comments.

4. From Nonk: Jennifer Hudson is shilling for Weight Watchers. But it might not be as bad as it could be? Yet, ugh.

What’s different about Hudson’s new commercials is that she’s removed the fat-shaming element. In her other Weight Watcher’s ad below, we see a silhouette of her slimmer thighs, but for the most part her body is obscured as she emphasizes that losing makes her feel — not look — better, and, “It makes me love myself that much more.”

5. And finally, Bay Area BFDivas who are interested in a trip to Igigi on Monday afternoon to try on some clothes, a group of us are going, including Weetabix, who will be in town. Shoot me an e-mail if you’re interested! We need to coordinate with Igigi within the next couple of days, so don’t delay.

Happy Thursday!

This article has a picture of Jennifer and her mom, and says the shooting was “domestic” in nature.

Jennifer, our hearts go out to you.

Celebrities like Longoria, who apply the word “fat” to themselves when they are clearly no such thing, might be part of the problem. But how about Mariska Hargitay, who referred to herself as full figured in Self magazine? My first reaction: “Mariska Hargitay? Really?” Glossed Over says:

Is Mariska Hargitay’s appraisal of her body self-deprecation, the misuse of a term commonly used to mean “plus-sized,” or the result of working in an industry where breakfast is a cigarette and a swig of Starbucks? I don’t know, but it depresses the hell out of me.

But then Jezebel jumps in to say that Hargitay might not mean what we think she means:

I sincerely doubt that Hargitay is trying to tell Self readers that she’s at all overweight. I think it’s more that terms like “full figured,” “curvy,” “plus-size,” and “big-boned,” have become so obfuscated by the dieting industrial complex that their original meanings are essentially moot at this point.

In mag parlance, Gisele Bundchen and Jennifer Hudson are both “curvy,” (which these days means “possessing breasts”) and Whitney from America’s Next Top Model is “plus-size.” We got an angry email after New York Times reviewer Manohla Dargis described Keira Knightley as “a big-boned beauty” because the reader had assumed that Dargis was calling Knightley fat. The thing is, Knightley is “big-boned” according original definition of the word, which is “having a bone structure that is massive in contrast with the surrounding flesh.” Her shoulders are broad and her clavicle protruding, but she has little flesh on her bones.

So now my mind is a little blown. What do we mean by terms like “thin” and “curvy” or “full figured” or “average” or “voluptuous,” and what should we mean? Is “full figured” automatically a euphemism for fat, and in the celebrity world (or the real world) is it automatically a negative thing? Is Keira Knightley really “big boned”? I don’t know the answer, but I sure would be interested in having the conversation.

Thanks to Nonk for the link!

Premise 2: Jennifer Hudson is talented. She was voted off American Idol three seasons ago, and since then has won an Oscar for a very strong performance in Dreamgirls. And now she’s almost ready to drop her first album, an album that, by all accounts, she has spent a lot of time trying to get absolutely right. So it will probably be a solid, successful album.

Premise 3: This is not what Jennifer Hudson looks like. And although I would prefer to blame her record label, or her cover design artist, or The Man, or anybody else, I have to believe that someone with her kind of power–an Academy Award, a highly anticipated album, a whole lot of talent—could have said, “You know what, no. I am not cool with this.”

So, this looks like one extreme Photoshop makeover. But why? Jennifer looks great the way she is. Do the suits at RCA Records really think she’ll shift more units with her head digitally decapitated and then Franksteined onto some skinny mystery body? And do they really think her fans are unobservant enough to overlook such a radical renovation of her famously full figure?

You know, Effie would not stand for this, and neither should Jennifer. Neither should her fans.

As a huge Idol fan, and a J. Hud fan, I was really interested in this album. But now I’m way more interested in what Jennifer is going to tell her fans about this cover. Aren’t you?

I saw this ad in this week’s Entertainment Weekly; it’s the first Jennifer Hudson for Avon ad that I’ve seen so far. And I was quite struck by the “sex sells” marketing. Not only is it an obviously sexy shot of J. Hud, the perfume is named “Seduction,” and the tagline on the ad is “Where desire leads.” Although Jennifer is full-figured, the execution of this ad seems no different from, say, a Britney Spears ad for her new Midnight Fantasy perfume.

In the realm of hot chicks endorsing perfume, I’ll probably stick with Kate Winslet’s Lancôme Tresor, but this is only because Kate Winslet is my girlfriend and refused to be airbrushed and I love her beyond all reason as you all well know by now. That frees Jennifer Hudson up for you! It’s a win/win! Another sexy picture for the same campaign can be seen here. If you try Imari Seduction perfume, let us know how it is!