Posted on 08/27/2002 7:28:19 AM PDT by SlickWillard
MORE magazine's True Thighs
By Amy Wallace
Jamie Lee Curtis wants you to know the difference between celebrity illusion and all-too-real life.
Jamie Lee as she really is -- no lights, no makeup, no retouching. Photo: More magazine September 2002 |
|
Jamie Lee Curtis wants to expose herself to you. It is, she says, the only way to make things right.
Look at her, traipsing around a whitewashed Los Angeles photo studio in nothing but a sports bra and tight spandex briefs. But don't let the swagger fool you: She knows she's taking a risk. The 43-year-old movie star has certainly showed more skin in the past than she's flashing right now. But in a very real way, she's never been more naked.
"There's a reality to the way I look without my clothes on," she says. "I don't have great thighs. I have very big breasts and a soft, fatty little tummy. And I've got back fat. People assume that I'm walking around in little spaghetti-strap dresses. It's insidious -- Glam Jamie, the Perfect Jamie, the great figure, blah, blah, blah. And I don't want the unsuspecting 40-year-old women of the world to think that I've got it going on. It's such a fraud. And I'm the one perpetuating it."
But not anymore. In an age when divas often use their clout to nix unflattering photos in magazines, Curtis has demanded the opposite: Glam Jamie will pose only if Real Jamie gets equal time. She even knows what this article should be titled. "True Thighs," she declares.
A glam Jamie gets some help. Photo: More magazine September 2002 |
|
She knows that her body, held up as an icon of female perfection in movies such as, well, Perfect, has made some women think that they don't measure up. She knows how that feels -- not being good enough. The daughter of two members of Hollywood royalty, Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis, this actress has struggled with feelings of inadequacy all her life. In youth-obsessed Hollywood, where the dearth of good roles for women over 28 is a constant lament, it's a ballsy move to admit your age at all -- let alone revel in it. But Curtis is seeking something bigger than her next acting job. She wants to feel at peace with her flaws, her genes.
This is not the first time that Curtis' work has led her to make changes in her life. In 1999, after writing her third children's book, it occurred to her that, even as she was urging kids to pay attention to their feelings, she had difficulty expressing her own. The result: She quit drinking and ended a lengthy addiction to painkillers that she said began when she was recovering from plastic surgery. Yes, that's right: Curtis is a veteran of the nip-and-tuck.
"I've done it all," she says....
To read the complete article and learn everything you ever wanted to know about Jamie Lee Curtis, see the September issue of more magazine, which hits newsstands on August 27.
She's a great woman and BTW she wrote a great book for children, which I bought for my girl child who happens to be in her 20s and loved the book.
Amen. It is pointless to continually hold people to an unrealistic standard of appearance.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.