"Have Your Cake. . . and don't eat it."

“Have your cake. . . and don’t eat it.”
In light of actress Brittany Murphy’s death, I am forced to take a hard look at the culture of Hollywood. The actress, at the time of her death, looked emaciated. The tabloids and gossip magazines are lamenting her figure saying that she looked terrible. Many of them are alluding to the fact that anorexia could have played a part in her death. Their abrupt change of tune is hypocritical to me. These are the same magazines that carefully watch each morsel of food eaten by celebrities and each pound gained. Many times, I will walk through the grocery store and see blown up pictures of stars’ cellulite gracing the covers of “Ok” and publications like it.
Pictures of an overly thin Murphy were even taken and published in the same magazines that are now accusing her of starving herself. One magazine even said she looked glam and fabulous at the time. Hollywood and the paparazzi cannot have it both ways. They seem to want stars to be thin, never gain weight, but never become too thin. They like stars to walk the delicate balance between waif and anorexic.
I first noticed this problem back in 1997 when Titanic first hit the screens. During the filming, director James Cameron referred to the appropriately sized, and I think, beautiful Kate Winslet, as “Kate Weighs-a lot.” Kate Winslet, if seen walking down the street, would probably be considered thinner than the average American woman. (Isn’t the average woman a size 12?) Why then, in Hollywood, is she considered morbidly obese?
Many people reading this would assume that since I am so up in arms about this issue, I must be an overweight person, bitter about seeing lovely, thin starlets. I, myself, am a thin person. Being thin, exercising, and eating healthy are wonderful things to strive for. I am not saying otherwise. I am just saying that Hollywood pushes many actors and actresses to the brink and than scoffs when they go over.
I distinctly remember magazines and reporters referring to Brittany Murphy in Clueless as the chubby, awkward girl. Do they think this had no effect? If Brittany Murphy did die of something related to anorexia, than perhaps the media should share a little in the guilt.
The attitude in Hollywood is “Have your cake… and don’t eat it.”