Last week, Oprah’s weight was in the news. This week, it is the former Mrs. Huxtable, Phylicia Rashad. Bossip reports today that the noted stage actress has signed on with the weight loss company. I assume the campaign will begin next year. I don’t know about you but I put Ms. Rashad in a class above the other spokespeople the company has employed: Kirstie Alley, Valerie Bertinelli and Queen Latifah. She’s won a Tony Award for goodness sake.
Sure, we have noticed that the 60-year-old actress’ (can you believe it!) body has filled out as since her run as Clair, but it has never been a topic of conversation or criticism. We were too riveted by her performances in “A Raisin in The Sun,” “Gem of The Ocean,” “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof,” and yes even a guest stint on “Psych” to think about such a trivial thing as pounds. But there is no doubt that Ms. Rashad’s health is of utmost importance.
But I do hope that she will talk to the people at Jenny Craig so her spots have a bit more class than Kirstie Alley and make more sense than Queen Latifah’s—who never mentioned actual pounds in the first 3 or 4 months of her commercials. Also, what was the end result of the Queen’s campaign? Kirstie and Valerie came on and told us about their total weight loss but we haven’t seen much of the Queen lately.
Anyway…I am saying this all because I hate to see Ms. Rashad’s reputation besmirked in any way. Before the very real Michelle Obama came along, Ms. Rashad’s portrayal of Clair was the standard bearer of the sister we all aspired to be. And although she was playing a character, you could tell that there was a very authentic essence of the real actresses character imbued within that role. Please don’t let Jenny Craig kill that.
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