“Huge” New Show Starring Nikki Blonsky
A few days ago, I had never heard of Huge, but it occurred to me that we hadn’t heard from Nikki Blonsky in a while. Lo and behold, IMDB informed me that she (and Glee’s Ashley Fink) were starring in a new show on ABC Family called Huge. Here’s the description from Wikipedia:
Huge is an upcoming ABC Family network television series based on [the] young-adult novel of the same name by Sasha Paley. The hour-long drama series revolves around seven teens sent to a summer weight-loss camp called Wellness Canyon. Savannah Dooley and Winnie Holzman (creator of My So-Called Life and scriptwriter for Wicked) wrote the pilot. The series has been described as Glee meets Ugly Betty.
Well, I haven’t read the young adult novel (anyone?) but my first thought is that’s quite a pedigree. The descriptions of the characters on Wikipedia are interesting too: there’s apparently a clique of “thinner” girls, indicating a pecking order based on weight. I’m hoping the emphasis will be on those interpersonal relationships rather than any kind of “transformations” ala The Biggest Loser. But I guess we’ll see on June 28, when the series premieres.
But has Huge been using Photoshop to make Nikki Blonsky look huger? That’s the question asked in an email from Eve C.:
While reading the July issue of O Magazine, I came across a print ad for the show. There is a picture of Ms Blonsky in a swimsuit, and damned if it doesn’t look as though the pic has been photo shopped in order to make Ms Blonsky look larger than she actually is. It’s bad enough that women are photo-shopped to be thinner, but I’d like to know the reasoning behind making the star of the show look bigger.
I’m unable to forward the pic to you in the email, but the ad is on page 39 of “O”, and I’m sure other magazines are running it.
I found the picture that Eve is writing about, and it appears at the top of the post. But here for comparison’s sake is a photo taken of Blonsky at the Young Hollywood Awards last month, next to the swimsuit photo. To me, honestly, they look pretty plausibly the same basic shape. What do you think? And are you planning to watch the show?
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Biggest Loser, Celebrities, Glee, Magazines, Nikki Blonsky, Photoshop, Question, TV
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kind of around her face maybe? but then, she’s got her shoulders hunched and her chin down in the swimsuit one. we probably won’t get the show here until 2013, but i might watch online
There are some perspective issues I can spot right off from my experience playing similar tricks with photographing Breyer horses back in the day.
In the first picture, the awards show one, the camera is being held at or above head level and angled down. This produces the illusion that her chest and shoulders are larger and her hips and legs are smaller and slimmer.
In the second picture, the bathing suit one, it’s being shot from dead on in front, she’s holding her arms in front of her chest (minimizing how big her chest looks), and her shoulders are hunched in which serves to make them look thinner and her hips wider by contrast.
Also the difference in clothing… a form fitting skin tight swimsuit versus an average fit dress/skirt combo with a loose sweater of some sort layered on top (I am NOT a fashion person at all, so forgive me if I don’t know what kinds of skirt-dress-thingy and sweatery-thing they are LOL).
OH! And the heels in the first shot. Even modest heels change the entire angle of your thighs and hips, and make your legs appear slimmer and longer.
Basically it’s the same optical illusions humans have been using since the invention of clothes heh.
I haven’t read the novel, but based on your description, I’ll check it out, since it seems that they’ve got some talent on board both behind the scenes and in front of the camera – which makes a tremendous difference regardless of the subject matter. Here, I think it matters a great deal, because there’s so much fertile ground for decent dramatic writing.
I had the same thought you had – I really hope that the show focuses on relationships rather than a Biggest Loser type crapfest.
I must say that I am happy to see Nicki Blonsky working. Sorry that she has to be cast because of her fat rather than just a girl…but still…
Overall, I think seeing fat and happy people on our TV will have a postitive affect on our national mentality about being fat. Hopefully this show will be an opportunity.
Regardless of the topic, if you see fat people living their lives, experience success and great relationships,etc., and enjoying themselves EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE FAT…it will get into people brains that this is actually possible.
I’ve got my fingers crossed for the positivity.
I am the person who sent the email, and glad that you decided to reference it in your post. I’m not certain that I would have chosen the pic that you did to compare, but c’est la vie. I’m still suspicious. I do need to find out who styles Nikki because she always looks fab on the red carpet.
I too am glad to see her working again, and look forward to seeing the show. Praying that it’s something positive.
Haven’t read the book yet, but I was a bit confused because I recently added a YA book titled _Huge_ to my reading list. It, however, is by a different author about a different subject altogether. Found that strange, though.
That said, I agree that it’s plausibly the same shape. In the awards picture, her hips are tilted away from camera which makes that area look smaller, versus the swimsuit picture which is nearly dead-on, but actually tilted in such a way that you get the full length of the body part in question and tricking the eye into making it look longer. It’s just the difference of a few degrees but it makes a big one. But besides that, her entire posture is completely different from picture to picture. The first, she is standing up straight, shoulders back, and in heels. The second, she is hunched forward, head/neck pulled in, shoulders up. Taking all those factors into consideration, I don’t think it’s too far off the mark to think they didn’t purposely retouch w/ Photoshop…they just used the typical tricks of the camera and posing.
I might give the show a try. ABCFam now has two shows based on YA Lit novels that have piqued my interest.
my great friend allison directed the pilot. don’t know many details, but she said it’s really well-written, and she’s proud of it. she’s not fat, but she is a feminist & an awesome human being. i’m definitely going to watch! plus, what’s not to love about nikki blonsky?
Hi Eve… I chose that pic simply because I was trying to find the most recent one I could. If you find a better one let me know!
I forgot to say I kind of like the ad, too.
I’m pretty impressed that Nikki was willing to do a poster for this wearing a bathing suit with the word “huge” over her head in block letters. There are a lot of actresses who’d say “no way” to that. I think the ad is very effective and definitely plan to check out the show.
I’m hesitantly excited for this show. I like a few other ABC Family shows, though they’re now known for their subtlety. One of Nikki’s character’s lines in the trailer made me laugh – something like “I think that inside of me there’s an even fatter girl waiting to get out.” Plus I believe I spotted Gina Torres among the adults at the camp – love her.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB-d0vCc4oM
It looks promising! I like Nikki a lot and think her creed as an actress would have stopped her from being a part of the show if it was one of those typical poor fat girl won’t be happy until she’s thin kind of shows. It seems more like poor fat girl won’t be happy until she realizes that society’s made up idea of perfection is bullcrap.
Gah, I adored Nikki Blonsky in Hairspray, but I don’t want to watch this. I wish there was more stuff on about people who just happen to be fat. There was a soap here in the UK called Fat Friends, which I originally naively assumed to be about some friends who were fat but apparently it revolved around a weight loss group.
Or possibly I feel extra weird cause the swimsuit pic looks like me :)
I dunno, if it comes to the UK I might well watch an episode or see what my friends say. I liked Ugly Betty despite some reservations – white cis able bodied straight guy always wins, sigh – so maybe I will enjoy this.
this doesn’t really say much about the show(don’t know much about it) but Eve, why does it seem like you’re saying it’s worse to make her look bigger than look smaller? that kinda seems to be falling into the whole “women always want to look smaller” size=badness that I use this and similar blogs as an escape from. I do believe that they were deliberately trying to make her look as big as possible on the show ad, presumably because that’s what her character is, whereas most awards show advice that I’ve seen is all about looking thinner. so I don’t know that I’d call either of them “accurate”, if one picture can ever really be called the definition of accurate.
I hope it’s her in the swimsuit because I weigh close to 300 pounds and she definitely has the same body shape that I do. I would proud and honored to watch the show, if it’s not about weight loss, which I believe gets crammed down our throats on a daily basis on television. Interestingly, SOME news sites like huffingtonpost sometimes body neutral. We’ll see.
From what I have seen on the ads Nikki Blonsky loves her body the way it is – the specific scene in question is when she is in a counselor’s office and asks “What if I love myself the way I am” or something along those lines. And then snarks something about one of the “pretty girl’s” motives for being there in a group therapy scene. I dont think its a “reveal / weight loss” type show. I will wait to see it to judge any further. Although mu husband was not pleased with the name, so he may not give it a chance. :-)
Gah, the links to the pics that I was focusing on are so darn long.
kb- I just take issue when any photos are “re-touched” to make a woman look larger or smaller. Just let the photographer capture the woman as she is.
Awww! I love Nikki. She is so cute.
I like the idea that we’ll see a show about fat people where they are not all some sterotype and hopefully there’s no transformation at the end. Perhaps a show with fat people who are….*gasp* NORMAL PEOPLE!?
Haven’t heard of the novel, I’m reading about this new series over here first. Happy for Nikki, more exposure and work for her. But WHY do plus size actresses mostly have to be in movies/series where the main topic revolves around their weight? Makes me scream.
i REALLY hope it’s not about self-esteem through weight loss. but yes, i do plan to watch it.
Well, since it’s just a TV series, and the actors really are plus-sized, they can’t really make it about weight loss, right?
Somehow, I don’t see Nikki getting skinny during the filming of this show.
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i will most definitely be asking J to add this to our download list :) (otherwise we’ll prolly NEVER get to see it here!!)