Issue Date: June 15, 2003
When an actress is criticized for weighing too much, her "problem" must be fixed. If she's too thin, the collective attitude is "So what?" Why the double standard?
Joe Prichard, Festus, Mo.
Because no matter how much we all pretend there's room for curvy women, show business is about image, and fat isn't "pretty." Just ask "American Idol" judge Simon Cowell, who in a particularly cruel moment told contestant Vanessa Olivarez she should drop a few pounds. (He gave no such advice to 350-pound winner Ruben Studdard.) There's occasional tsk-tsking about an unhealthily thin body, but a too-slim figure can be hidden; obesity can't. "Friends"' Jennifer Aniston, who reportedly follows the Zone diet to stay impossibly tiny, has said she couldn't even get auditions until she lost 30 pounds. And, although Oprah Winfrey seldom acts, her weight came up in discussions about the part she was to play in "Beloved". Of course, none of this nonsense is new; even the great Judy Garland was told she was too fat, which led to a dependence on diet pills.
I'm hooked on TLC's "Trading Spaces", and carpenter Ty Pennington is a major reason. Tell us all about him. Does he have a girlfriend?
Stacey Reed, Lansdale, Pa.
Indeed, the handsome hammer man has a significant other of five years. "It's the longest relationship I've ever been in," he tells us. "She's a wonderful human." Lucky, too, as Pennington, 38, is on fire this year. This renaissance guy may spend his free time playing soccer, hiking, skateboarding and surfing, but mostly he works. He moved to L.A. last November to pursue TV ("I'm out there pitching to the networks"). He also has designed furniture "you can put together easier than Ikea" for his line, Furniture Unlimited (sold only at furniture-unlimited.com); recorded a mock CD, "Thrifty Velour" (he has a thrift-store obsession); and more recently became a spokesman for the allergy drug Claritin. This weekend ends a nationwide "On the Road to Clarity" tour. Yes, he really has allergies. He says he got them from his mom.
Is CNN's Andrea Koppel related to ABC's "Nightline" anchor, Ted Koppel?
Buck Traxler, Conrad, Mont.
Yes. She's the eldest of four, and she tells us her dad worried that her name might make a journalism career more difficult. Still, she was drawn to it after a failed career as a trade representative for an American company in China. She'd been hanging out with Western journalists there, and "hearing [them] talk about their jobs, it sounded so fascinating." Koppel, 39, even met her husband of two years, Iraq expert Ken Pollack, who wrote "The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq", on the job.
Top 5 things Koppel learned from Dad:
1. Care about helping the voiceless.
2. Be passionate about people. "One of my earliest memories is when my parents took me to the Taj Mahal. I was 3, and I remember taking our box lunches and giving them to poor Indian people."
3. Make time for your kids. "He always makes time, no matter what's going on."
4. Keep your commitments. "My parents are about to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary."
5. Pay attention. "It's important to really listen to the person you're interviewing, not think ahead to the next question."
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Saxophonist Dave Koz, 40, isn't married and has no children, but he was treated like a dad last week. The National Fatherhood Initiative celebrated Koz and his brother, jazz guitarist Jeff Koz, at its national fatherhood summit. They were honored for "Golden Slumbers", their new lullaby CD. Koz, whose past work includes chart-topping jazz albums like "The Dance" (1999) and whose radio show is heard in more than 75 markets, tells us he was inspired after the birth of his niece, when his sister-in-law couldn't find "quiet, instrumental, beautiful" music to play for her. As for his own father, now deceased, Koz recalls that he "recognized I was passionate about the saxophone and bought me my first sax when I was 13. If it wasn't for that, I don't know whether I'd be here today."
I think John Grisham is the best fiction writer of our time, and I love the movies based on his books. Are there any plans to make a movie of "The Street Lawyer"? Matthew McConaughey would be great as Michael.
Irene Bellows, Fairfield, Maine
A movie is unlikely, because ABC plans to bring the book to TV. Last fall, the network brokered a multimillion-dollar deal to create the pilot for an hour-long prime-time drama series about the young corporate lawyer who leaves his firm to work at a legal aid clinic. Filming began last month. Grisham, 48 -- whose latest work, "The King of Torts", was No. 6 on the "New York Times" best-seller list at press time -- will executive-produce. But the prolific author of 15 books (six of which already have been made into movies, some better than others) isn't doing the writing this time.
With: Frappa Stout
Contributing: Mark Miller, Evelyn Poitevent
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BIRTHDAYS
June 15: Leah Remini, 33; Ice Cube, 34; Courteney Cox, 39
June 16: Joyce Carol Oates, 65
June 17: Venus Williams, 23; Greg Kinnear, 40
June 18: Paul McCartney, 61
June 19: Paula Abdul, 41
June 20: Nicole Kidman, 36
June 21: Prince William, 21
 Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!
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