[Alley] recently bragged on her Twitter site that she’s lost 50 pounds with exercise and her Organic Liaison weight-loss program. But those close to her say she’s lost barely half that weight and that there’s no way she’s down to 180 pounds!

What’s more, a photo taken on Sept. 29…shows that the plus-size actress hasn’t lost nearly as much as she claims… The struggling star “has been goosing her weight-loss numbers” – insisting she’s dropped 50 pounds, when it’s more like 25…

In September, while in Italy, she tweeted that she had lost 50 pounds, posting a photo of herself surrounded by handsome men. But the picture appeared to be air-brushed to make Kirstie look thin, and she hid her lower body behind one of the hunky men.

As if weight-loss programs aren’t enough of a scam, hers doesn’t even temporarily work! I hunted down that picture so you can see for yourself. She does look pretty airbrushed, no?

2. Ricky Gervais has lost weight recently, and now feels like jokes about fat people are off-limits.

“Now I’ve got to stop making jokes about fat people, which is annoying. When I was fat, it was okay,” the creator of ‘The Office’ tells People. Gervais, 49, lost “20 or 22 pounds,” he says. “It wasn’t so much about the weight. It was more that I was a fat, lazy, out of shape slob, to be honest.”

Ricky Gervais shutting up about fat people is probably for the best, then, isn’t it? Oh, Ricky.

3. Kim Kardashian posed nude for W Magazine (photos at this link are NSFW) and the pictures are everywhere. There have been a lot of ugly comments that I’m sure you can find if you search for about ten seconds, but I liked this one:

I’m 5’1 and I love the way I look, and it’s nice to see more women with hourglass figures in the media lately, being unafraid to [bare] it all, like Christina Hendricks and Ms. Kardashian here. I’m not going to stop loving myself just because I have the figure of a cartoon character.

Stop the hate, people! There’s so much hate in the world, do we really have to tear each other down over how we perceive each others’ bodies?

4. Crystal Renn is a size 10, and Manolo for the Big Girl is over it.

There’s nothing wrong with being a size 10. She’s had a tough row to hoe body-image wise and if that’s where her body is happy then far be it from me to complain.

But she’s a size 10.

That’s not plus-sized, that’s not close to plus-sized and even though I am the biggest fashion industry apologist on the planet, I just can’t pretend that she counts as a plus-sized model in any meaningful sense and therefore she deserves no more and no less press or attention than any other model who doesn’t wear plus-size clothes.

I’m a big proponent for variety and I’d rather see a size 10 model as a staple than a size 20 as a gimmick every few years, but the days of breathlessly reporting on her every move as a victory for fat girl kind –inasmuch as I ever have– are over.

5. Via The F Word, celebrities who have struggled with eating disorders include Felicity Huffman, Elton John, Kate Winslet, Victoria Beckham, and Snooki.

For years she denied the rumors that she had an eating disorder, but Calista Flockhart finally admitted to her problem with anorexia. “I started under-eating, over-exercising, pushing myself too hard and brutalizing my immune system. I guess I just didn’t find time to eat.” Even though the actress hasn’t gained much noticeable weight she ensures, “I am much more healthy these days.”

I recently read Kathy Griffin’s Official Book Club Selection, where she talked frankly about her binge eating, her husband’s binge eating, and going to Overeaters Anonymous—as well as the botched liposuction that nearly killed her.

Who were these “flabulous” celebrities? Beyonce, Jessica Simpson, Britney, Kirstie Alley, and Snooki. I mean, seriously. Did you doubt they would all be women? Plus, they sent me some accompanying photos showing the offenses, and they all looked like this. Where’s the “love handles” on Beyonce? Not that there’s anything wrong with “love handles,” Jesus. At least they have a cute name.

2. Okay, here’s a link, and it’s a good one: the “obesity stigma” is not actually helpful. Well, no effing duh. Which is basically what The Well-Rounded Mama says:

I suppose I should be grateful that someone is taking time to disprove the kinds of lame claims that more stigma is needed, not less. On the flip side, though, is that while they are concerned about the negative effects of obesity stigma on fat people, the big concern is that this stigma gets in the way of obesity intervention efforts…

But at least they are saying something against obesity stigma and countering the usual nonsense out there. It just amazes me that some idiots can actually believe that obesity stigma is really an effective tool for health improvement.

3. Another good one: obesity ills are “a myth” according to an Ohio State University study, via Big Fat Blog.

“There is a myth going on. Our findings show being overweight is no different from being what we believe is a healthy weight and this is across a person’s entire lifespan. For college-age adults, this should help them realize that they don’t have to worry so much if they have a BMI of 27 or 28. Some young people with these BMIs feel like, ‘I’m going to have all these problems, I need to try 50 different diets.’ And what is all that stress and dieting doing to your body? Probably more damage than the extra 15 pounds is.”

4. I ran across a Listmania list on Amazon today called “Large-size heroines and more.” Leonard Nimoy, The Gossip, and Nikki Blonsky are all represented, as are some projects I’d never heard of, such as an anthology called Such A Pretty Face…

Each tale has a plus-sized heroine or hero, ranging from a mermaid to a fairy-tale princess.

As well as a guide for plus-sized brides, some Fat Studies readers, and a UK series called Fat Friends.

I can’t vouch for level of empowerment each thing on the list has–for instance, I know Queen Sized was problematic, and there’s a weight loss memoir on there from someone named Michelle McManus, who won Pop Idol in the UK–but there were enough interesting things listed that I figured I’d pass it along.

5. Finally, 340 (and counting) blogs have been added to the comprehensive Fierce Freethinking Fatties Feed, and there are sub-feeds like Fat Acceptance, Fatshion, and Political Allies. (And other sub-feeds that do allow diet talk, so click those with caution.) If you want to find some new reading material or to add your blog to one of those feeds, check it out. Thanks for the heads up, Shannon!

I started modeling in 1998, at the age of 19, at 5’11″ (180 cm) and 120 pounds (55 kg). I grew up hating my body. I was always too tall and too thin. I loathed every encounter with the school nurse (she used to ask if my parents fed me), and by the time I was 13, I had acknowledged the fact that I was labeled a freak by the society around me. I can’t even remember how many times I have been asked (sometimes by total strangers on the street) if I had an eating disorder. Both of my parents are tall and thin, as are my siblings, but my body was the freakiest of all. I felt abnormal, and now in hindsight I wonder if I felt like that only because of the mean comments people made. I have a feeling I would have developed a more normal relationship with my body if I had been allowed to be who I was.

2.    The totally reliable Examiner is claiming that Megan Fox was kicked off the Transformers 3 set for being “too skinny.”

Fox and Transformers director Michael Bay had a “huge row” over her weight. The 24-year-old stormed out after the blow-up after Bay called her “unhealthy”.

“[Bay] thinks she has lost too much weight and looks too frail. He wanted her to put on some weight and it all kicked off.”

Bay wasn’t the only one concerned with Megan Fox’s weight loss. Even the crew said she was far from sexy and more a “gaunt, pale image”.

3.    The L.A. Times covers the fat celebrities who make their money (and careers) from their size. (Goddamn it, Kirstie Alley.)

Welcome to the era of the fat celebrity. No longer is it shameful, shocking or a career killer for the famous to make weight struggles the centerpiece of their lives. In fact, they’re making money off of it.

“Fat celebrities are particularly irresistible because in the real culture people are constantly struggling with what’s wrong with their bodies,” says University of Colorado law professor Paul Campos, author of “The Obesity Myth: Why America’s Obsession With Weight Is Hazardous to Your Health.” “People can identify with that, and this is another way of tapping into the fascination with celebrities as being both unique but somehow just like us.”

4.    iVillage is throwing a contest—who loves themselves the most?

iVillage Beauty & Style is all about making women feel confident. Whether through a perfect manicure, a head-turning dress, or your go-to lipstick, iVillage encourages you to express your personal style with pride.

Upload a photo and sound clip of yourself, talking about how hot you are and why, on IVillage’s fotobabble site and maybe win $500.

5.    Check out Letters to My Body, a very cool community-based body image project that you can join.

The purpose Letters to My Body (LTMB) is to serve as a catalyst for open discussion and free speaking about the positive and negative feelings that we have concerning our bodies.  The hope is that through an anonymous vessel such as a letter, we can begin to heal the wounds that have been cultivated over our lifetimes, and also to praise our bodies and recognize that they are beautiful–no matter what shape, size, or condition.

In addition, I hope that Letters to My Body will bring awareness to the countless women and men who suffer from eating disorders.  I want this silent disease to stop being so silent.

When someone is fat shamed, the person doing the shaming often justifies it as them being concerned for the fat person’s health. Of course we know that’s bullshit. Fatphobia has nothing to do with health, if someone was really concerned they wouldn’t harp on it to the detriment of fat people’s self esteem. And a ton of fat people can attest that they eat healthily and exercise. I however, cannot. So is the health argument justified in my case? Well, no, because fat also has nothing to do with health. It’s the food I eat that’s the issue. It’s the fact that I eat when I’m definitely not physically hungry. It’s my lack of exercise.

I shouldn’t be expected to prove that oh well I’m trying really hard not to be fat but OMG I’m still fat so leave me alone! If I’m fat by design then so fucking what, I’m “choosing to be fat”. Of course I would still be fat if I ate well, didn’t overeat and exercised, though I might be less fat. But guess what, I don’t really give a shit right now. I am the stereotypical lazy fat person, and I have a right to be that if I damn well please. I’m not repping for the entire FA movement. I’m not trying to set an example. And really, if it’s unacceptable to be a non-HAES fat then how can we say we’re accepting fat? We’re only accepting it if you make sure to do everything right but are still fat? We say fat isn’t a choice. Is it wrong if it is? I’ve gained roughly 10 pounds or so (I’m guessing by the way my clothes fit) since my surgery simply because I’ve chosen to not follow the rules. But that’s my choice and I am sure as shit not going to be shamed by either HAES enthusiasts or bigoted fatphobes.

In response to the comments at Jezebel, Tasha has posted a followup that’s also worth reading:

I’m sorry if you feel like my wanton gluttony is making your fat friends look bad because they exercise and eat right and here I am, blowing it for them, being the stereotype they try so hard not to be. My point was that, again, FAT PEOPLE SHOULD NOT BE EXPECTED TO OUTLINE THE WAYS THEY’RE TRYING TO NOT BE FAT, OR THE MEASURES THEY TAKE TO COUNTER THE ILLEGITIMATE CLAIMS THAT FAT = UNHEALTHY.

Right after I read this, we got a comment that I considered unapproving. But instead I think it fits right into this conversation, because it outlines helpfully outlines exactly what kind of fat people we’re allowed to be.

MY support is with those overweight people who will not quit and whose attitude shines with optimism and a desire to become healthy people-inside and out. YOU ARE AN INSPIRATION!!!

That’s right–as Kirstie Alley and Carnie Wilson have shown us time and time again, we’re allowed to be overweight as long as we “never quit” trying, publicly and vocally, to be thinner. As long as we stay on the merry-go-round of dieting, and publicize how well we eat and how much we exercise. And it’s the best first line of defense against a lot of people–it shuts people up. Yeah I’m fat, but… (but I exercise four days a week, but I’m a vegan, but I never eat fast food, but I take a dance class, but but…)

What if the real answer is: yeah, I’m fat. And so what?

ETA: A follow-up by Snarky’s Machine that’s also well worth reading.

Why he went on the show:

[I]t was just about the life experience. When else is someone going to hand me money to and pay me to lose weight? And It’s driving a lot of people to my site who had never been to my site before and they get to see my stuff. Fuck it, I want to have life experiences. I had a paid vacation in L.A. where all I had to do was work out and get every meal delivered to my front door for 3 months. I mean, who wouldn’t want to do that?

I love when celebrities articulate the realities of their weight loss. Because for a lot of these celebs (especially ones who have babies and then are on the cover of magazines a week and a half later all, “How She Dropped The Baby Weight!”) weight loss becomes their entire job. A chef makes them food, and all they have to do all day is work out. Jay McCarroll doesn’t usually have that life, but a lot of celebrities do. So his outside-looking-in perspective is interesting to me.

On being back in the real world:

Now it’s just a matter of finding a balance. Because I’m back in a world that has bread.I know I’m never going to be 150 pounds and I’m never going to have a six-pack and I needed to get over that.

On making his weight a public issue:

Oh, yeah. People have been very positive about it. That’s the only thing that worries me. You’re a public figure and you lose weight on television and everyone’s happy for you and then you gain the weight back and it’s a whole other story.I don’t want that to happen. I also know reality, like today I had a six-hour meeting about my new fabric line and I didn’t have time to like, sit down and have grilled salmon and then head off to the gym. I was occupied with other things. Now it’s a matter of working it deeply into my schedule. I have to.

I think celebrities who lose weight on TV kind of make the proverbial deal with the devil. Because you have an audience, and people rooting you on, and then suddenly that audience feels ownership in your results. And so then you’re like Carnie Wilson or Kirstie Alley, constantly having to publicly humble yourself and beg forgiveness for gaining the weight back.

And finally, on the fashion world:

You don’t feel beautiful, but you feel drawn to beautiful things and you want to make beautiful things and have beautiful things all around you so people won’t notice that you’re not beautiful. That’s where I ended up. I wanted to be in a place where I felt like I could add beauty to the world because I felt like I had no beauty to offer the world myself. But then getting to that track in fashion and getting to that place where what is considered beautiful is completely repulsive to me, i.e., Kelly Cutrone and her world, there’s nothing beautiful about that. It isn’t real. Fashion week and all that stuff, when you’re a fat teenager, that’s what you aspire toward.

But when you’re an adjusted 30 year old, that stuff doesn’t look beautiful anymore. And that’s just how I feel about it. It’s just a circus of dysfunctional fucking people who have low self esteem and body image issues. Fashion is full of people who drink coffee and smoke cigarettes for a meal.

My dream is still for Jay to go out and do a plus-sized line. Because come on, how fabulous would that be?

Anyway, I’m going out of town this weekend and am teaching classes up until the very last minute, so posting may continue to be light until next week. In the meantime, here are some links for you! (I think there are a few potential juicy conversations in here, so I may pull out some comments and start spinoff posts if it seems like we want to talk more about something.)

The Oscars, cutting calories, Kirstie Alley, schisms in the fatosphere, and a feminist take on LOST coming right up…

1. The Oscars are on Sunday! I can’t wait to see what Gabby Sidibe and Mo’Nique decide to wear. Here they are at the NAACP Image Awards: Gabby in a short, sparkly gray dressand Mo’Nique in a bridal-looking white gown. The Rungay boys on Mo’Nique:

It’s a pretty dress and she looks good, but it’s the same effect that happened with Kate Winslet last year. She got nominated for an Oscar and sand blasted all her unique quirkiness away to make herself look like an Oscar nominee.

2. Urging “small caloric changes” to fight obesity is misleading.

[T]he “small changes” theory fails to take the body’s adaptive mechanisms into account. The rise in children’s obesity over the past few decades can’t be explained by an extra 100-calorie soda each day, or fewer physical education classes. Skipping a cookie or walking to school would barely make a dent in a calorie imbalance that goes “far beyond the ability of most individuals to address on a personal level,” the authors wrote — on the order of walking 5 to 10 miles a day for 10 years.”

“Instead of focusing on weight or appearance, focus on people’s health. There are things people can do to improve their health significantly that don’t require normalizing your weight.”

3. Kirstie Alley should stop trying to lose weight and just own the fat.

Some advice: if Kirstie Alley is going to do a show about being fat, she needs to go Ru-Paul on our asses and work it. Don’t use the word fat as a stand-in for disgusting. Fat is lots of things, but it is not gross. For every outspoken self-hating fat celebrity out there, there are a million fat chicks just trying to be okay with their bodies. Alley has the chance to be a champion for all the chubby girls in the house. How much fun would it be to watch her fabulous, slightly insane self walk around town being all, “I’m fat! What! Pass that cake!” Show her working out (News flash! Lots of fat people work out!), shopping (News flash! We want cute clothes too!), dating (News flash! Lots of dudes dig fat ladies! And thin ladies! Really, men just want to get with a lady!) and just being all about her fabulous fat self.

Jenfu said this very thing a few months ago! Thanks to Becca for the link.

4. Third-wave fat acceptance? An interesting conversation in the Fierce Fatties comments.

There are so many different perspectives in Fat Acceptance. And every time I’ve heard someone say that everyone in fat acceptance agrees on something, I end up thinking about all the instances where that is so not true.

We don’t have a single leader or a single idea that we follow in FA. Even the “big names” of fat acceptance say things like, “we don’t want fat acceptance to be monolithic”…

If fat acceptance is a smorgasbord of ideas, I think each of us needs to pick those things that work for us and discard the rest.

I feel like I’m so out of the loop on FA gossip and drama! I don’t even understand the thing with the three competing feeds; should BFD be on any other feeds? Or would BFD be shunned by the other feeds? I have no idea.

5. I won a Beautiful Blogger Award! Okay, it’s just a little graphic, but it reminds me of the day we won Diarist.net awards and pretended they meant things. (Oh man, Diarist.net is defunct now! Who knew.) Well, it is a lovely compliment to be on Rachel’s list… so thank you!

And in the spirit of the awards, I will point you to the awesome feminist blog Tiger Beatdown, which recently did a feminist analysis of LOST.

My problem with the “most interesting story lines” though, to be troublesomely ladybusiness for a moment, is this: Claire’s most interesting story line was having a baby and a boyfriend. Sun’s most interesting storyline is having a husband and a baby. Kate’s most interesting story line is having two potential boyfriends, between whom she cannot choose, and also a baby eventually. Juliet’s most important storyline was that her boyfriend might have thought for 1.5 seconds about liking another girl so she had to fall down a mine shaft and explode three times on screen.

Happy reading!

Oh, Kirstie Alley. You’re a ridiculously beautiful woman. You’re reasonably talented, you’re fairly charming, you’re actually pretty hilarious, even. My point is, you have many excellent qualities, all of which are ripe for the picking and/or exploitation. You could have a career, Kirstie Alley! You could be an Actress, full stop. You don’t have to spend the entirety of your career being a Fat Actress. You don’t have to base all your attention-getting activies on the size of your body and the shape of your ass. Enough with Jenny Craig and the bikinis on Oprah and swearing that you’re going to get back into a bikini, on Oprah.

What I’m saying, Kirstie Alley, is that you don’t need to have a goddamn reality show about how you’re going to lose the weight. Kirstie Alley, you are equally hot and you are equally talented at every size you have ever been. But more importantly, Kirstie Alley: you are more than your goddamn fat. I’m tired of hearing you talk about it and I’m tired of hearing you complain about it, and I’m tired of hearing you hate on yourself and your body and your life.

I’m sorry, Kirstie Alley. I didn’t mean to get angry at you. It’s just–please believe me, Kirstie Alley, when I say that I’m not discounting your struggle, how difficult it is to be an actress in Hollywood, how incredibly hard it must be to work in an industry where you’re only as good as the size of your ass. I just wish, I guess, you didn’t have to buy into the game. I wish you didn’t have to say ha ha, everyone, I know how awful it is that I am fat! It just makes me sad. It just makes me wish you could be simultaneously happy with your size and happy in your career and successful and while I’m at it, I may as well wish the same for everyone, and ponies for all, and world peace and teleportation technology via the magic of physics. You know, the easy stuff.

In the People interview she refers to herself as “disgusting” because at 5’8″ she let herself get up to 228 lbs. Yes, god forbid someone who’s 5’8″ should weigh that much. Can you imagine?! Jesus, how disgusting!! She also enlightens us all about how she got to such a disgusting size: she “went wild”, she banished her workout equipment to the garage, and for dinner she would eat two cups of pasta with six tablespoons of butter. Um, OK, actually that last part *is* disgusting. In fact it’s so disgusting that I’m going to go ahead and suggest that it’s an exaggeration (or dare I say a lie?). But even if she really did eat that much butter on her pasta, unfortunately the implication is that other people who weigh 228 lbs. eat six tablespoons of butter on their pasta too. And they just “go wild” with their eating, and of course they don’t work out. (Otherwise how could someone get to such a disgusting weight?!) This is just what we need, isn’t it?

I would also point out that she thinks she has to be “below 140 to really look good” but that her “real goal” is 128 pounds, because the producers on Cheers told her offhandedly one time that she should lose 20 pounds. Oh, Kirstie.

Anyway, the People article also pointed out that she has a Twitter account, so I went and checked it out. And here, for your edification, is what I discovered!

1. She Twitters a lot… I mean, a lot. I tried to count how many Tweets she posted yesterday, and I lost count after 100. A lot of those are replies. Very charmingly, she says she’s a “speed tweeter” and reads all her @ replies; in fact she does reply to people all the time. Definitely an accessible Twitter celebrity.

2. She’s pitching a weight loss show. “it is really funny and really fun. a different spin on the subject.”

3. She also has a weight loss “system” coming out in November. (That makes me wonder if the blind item celebrity might have been Alley after all.)

4. She believes weight is a personal choice, saying she wants to be “thinish.” She also says:

“YOUR own personal goal is the important thing..after all it isYOUR life and YOU are the only one who knows how u really feel”

And also:

“tell your daughter she is beautiful as she is..but she is the only one who can decide what weight is right for her.same with all of us”

5. She claims not to care what people say about her weight.

Here’s the real deal..I don’t really care what comments peeps make about my weight..Including Perez..I just like to throw down!!

6. She recently spent a week at a “fat farm“ which was expensive and involved four-hour workouts. She was the second-fattest woman there.

7. She believes in “The Secret.” (Okay, I’m kidding.) (But maybe.)

I know if I just keep saying I am a size 4 instead of saying I am fat all the time I will be a size 4..thats the way the universe works..i hope

8. She blames herself for being fat…

Trust me, I’m far from HARD on myself. How do U think I got so damn fat in the 1st place? Being REALLY easy on myself.mmmmmcake

YES, IT WILL BE FUN..WE WILL HAVE TWITERTAINMENT AND POPCORN AND CANDY AND.i think you see how i got fat…lol

…and says she has always been thin, due to being an athlete in her youth.

I have been thin my whole life. I was competetive swimmer from 8 to 16. always some athletic something.

9. She says she’s a member of the “Fat Pack,” not the Brat Pack or the Rat Pack. Okay, that’s kind of funny.

10. She loves herself, but not her fat. Oh, Kirstie.

No no..BEING FAT does not make YOU hideous…but trust me it does make ME hideous! I love MYSELF, don’t get me wrong..not my FAT”

If you refer back to point number one, you’ll realize this is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what Kirstie has to say regarding herself and her weight. I didn’t even do a search, just skimmed her last two million or so posts. If you find anything else interesting, post it in the comments!

Also, as I was putting this together, I discovered that celebrity weight loss is a timely topic! I especially thought this was relevant:

“…the pursuit of thinness may mean as much as thinness itself,” says [Charlotte] Biltekoff. “Oprah and Kirstie are performing this for us.” Kate [Harding] agreed. “Once you acknowledge that your body is not O.K., then people love you, because that’s what expected of fat people all the time,” she said.

And Kirstie is doing exactly that… not only conforming to the “I hate my fat” paradigm, but also planning to capitalize on it with a show and a weight loss “system.” And she’s doing it all live and in real time, on Twitter.

Jennifer Jonassen: Any dream roles?

Jen Ponton: My dream role? I have the soul of a leading lady, not a sidekick–so a dream role ?(that doesn’t yet exist) would be a FABULOUS fat leading lady who is successful, comfortable in her body, in love (or on her way there)… just like any other starlet. The more we see fat women in those types of roles, the sooner it will be socially acceptable to BE fat.

Amen, sister. And I loved this answer too:

Jennifer Jonassen: How does your size help or hinder your career?

Jen Ponton: You know, being plus size really equals out to the same pros and cons as if I were slim. When there IS a role for me, my competition is nearly non-existent–but there aren’t a whole lot of roles for me. If I were slim, there would be LOADS of roles… and thousands and thousands of girls! So I actually feel that my size is a positive/neutral factor.

She’s also working on a one-woman show called “Fat Chicks Don’t Get Plotlines.” Jen, you are awesome, gorgeous, and inspirational. The world is lucky to have you!

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…