Photographed for FHM by www.cahanphotography.com
Posted on 03/02/2009 3:19:55 PM PST by AreaMan
Rachael Ray Doesn't Regret Racy Photo Shoot
Monday March 2, 2009
Rachael Ray's mother was furious when she stripped down for a racy 2003 FHM photo shoot, but the 40-year-old talk show host has no regrets.
"I think I was 35 at the time," she tells ABC's Nightline in an interview airing Monday. "And I thought about it for a while, and I said, 'You know what? This magazine has as young as 17-, 18-year-olds in hottie bikinis, and these are all actresses, models, pin-up girls. I don't belong to any even remote club of theirs.'"
Can you believe these celebs are in their 40s?
"And I thought, 'If I'm gutsy enough to do this, this is a good thing for everybody. This is the everywoman, here she is,'" she adds. "And I did it, and it was the most scared I've ever been, and I wouldn't change a thing. I'd do it again tomorrow."
See photos of celebs who have posed topless
Ray also raised some eyebrows for her endorsement deal with Dunkin' Donuts.
Chef Anthony Bourdain famously said the TV spots were "evil" and "like peddling crack to kids."
"I absolutely love Tony Bourdain," Ray says. "I have an enormous amount of respect for him. It's a free country."
She admits the endorsement "wasn't the greatest thing for my PR," but says she respects the company's attempt to make donuts healthier by removing trans fats.
"They came to me and they said, 'We want to make healthier food for America. You drink a lot of coffee. You grew up on Dunkin' Donuts. Have a cup of Dunkin' Donuts on us,'" she says. "They gave their support and their money to [Ray's children's charity] Yum-o. They've been very supportive of me. I don't regret a thing. Not for a minute."
See photos of celebs pigging out
"I'm an all-things-in-moderation kind of person," she continues. "I do eat a warm donut occasionally. I especially enjoy a cider donut when I'm apple picking. I don't think there's anything wrong with that."
Ray says she doesn't mind public criticism.
"If you spend so much time thinking about the people who dislike what it is you're doing, you're doing a disservice to the people that employ you," she says. "I'm not employed by those people. I work for the people that want the type of food I write [about], the type of food we share with people."
Ray also says anyone could have done what she's done.
"I absolutely 100 percent believe that," she says. "I'm a waitress from upstate New York. Anyone that likes chatting, that likes to cook, certainly. Could have happened to anybody."
See today's top celeb news photos
Ray reportedly earns up to $18 million a year and says "it makes me a little sick."
"It makes my stomach flip. I'm not comfortable with it ... because I don't like to think of my life as that far away from me," she says. "People that make that kind of money -- it's just too foreign of an idea."
Says Ray, "I'm not a chef. I haven't created any new technique in the kitchen. I'm not a rocket scientist. I think I'm good at writing accessible, fun, and affordable meals for the average American family. That's what I think I'm good at."
Ray also raised some eyebrows for her endorsement deal with Dunkin' Donuts.
Chef Anthony Bourdain famously said the TV spots were "evil" and "like peddling crack to kids."
If anyone knows about crack it would be Chef Bourdain.
I like watching Bourdain but please...don't like Dunkin Doughnuts...don't eat one.
What she should regret is bloating up so nobody would offer to take that kind of picture to her now. And Bourdain hates everything about Ray, he might have actually liked Dunkin Donuts until she did those ads.
I like Bourdain’s show too but he’s rather pretentious. The show I like most is the bald guy who eats weird stuff.
“I like watching Bourdain but please...don’t like Dunkin Doughnuts...don’t eat one. “
I agree that if anyone knows about crack its him, and with the stuff he’s eaten there is no room for criticism of donuts.
I thought he just really, really liked powdered sugar ... for his cooking!
anyone who eats hog anii has nobuisness lecturing anyone
about donuts.
I concur.
Innocent!
It was way back when I was young. I think I was only 35 at the time.
morality and family values are dead dead dead. our country is doomed
The relative “greatness” of Bourdain is that he is fully aware that his current gig demands his self-caricature, and he more or less cheerfully does that. It is the captured moments of when he is being sincere and genuine that are what really makes his show the best of its genre.
All day or night its all Bourdain or its Man vs. Food or its Bizzare Foods.
Maybe something bizzare would to actually do shows about travel. Like Samantha Browns shows.
I used to like Rachel Ray but her in your face personality ALL the time has got tiring. She used to seem like somebody from the neighborhood. Now she seems like Oprah light (or is that Oprah white).
Now Giada is easy on the eyes.
Paula would be fun to meet. Guy Fieri would be fun to meet also. His show actually makes me want to check these places out.
We are heading for a hard landing on the rocks and soon.
Other than that, she's ok, I guess.
I just can’t stand Giada.....She talks to her audience as though we are retards...”Now you take your spoon and scoop up a piece, and put it in your mouth....Isn’t that pretty....That’s so pretty....And thyme is this lemony oh so fresh herb and it’s so pretty”.....and she’s bossy....”Ok now everyone can start eating...OK guys pick up your forks and dig in”.....She’s a nuisance to me...I like enjoy Bourdain and Ina and Iron Chef.
I was never a huge fan of Samantha Brown, but at least it had something to do about traveling somewhere, and seeing something worth seeing, somewhere else.
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