Busy Philipps had a fan comment on her weight at Rite Aid
I remember Steve Martin once discussed how people feel they have access to a celebrity because they have followed their career. He referred to it as “an assumed familiarity.” Most of us have a celebrity (or celebrities) we read every word on and feel like we know them as well as family. The line between being an ardent fan and an assumed familiarity might be thin, but it’s an important one. Busy Philipps said she just encountered a woman who didn’t stay on the right side of the line and felt at liberty to discuss Busy’s weight – while in a drugstore.
Busy Philipps has a tip for fans who want to approach female celebrities and comment on their weight: don’t.
The 38-year-old actress told her Instagram Story followers about an awkward encounter she had at a Rite Aid Friday night with a female fan who recognized Philipps from her time on the ABC/TBS series Cougar Town and made an uncomfortable comment about Philipps’ body.
“She was so sweet and had such a calming manner and in a loveliest way, she said, ‘You’ve lost some of your plumpness from Cougar Town. You look nice still, but you’ve lost some of your plumpness.’”
While Philipps said she thought the fan had the best intentions, she couldn’t help but be bothered by the woman’s words.
“It was a compliment. She was very sweet when she said it. It just was an interesting choice of [words],” Philipps said. “I don’t think I was plump.
“There’s no way to really handle it in the moment without coming off like an a——,” she added. “So you just have to say, ‘Oh, I’m glad you liked the show’ and moved on.”
Weight is such a can of worms isn’t it? It can unpack a decade of insecurities with one ill-phrased sentence. Busy said after the woman made the comment, she tried to pinpoint the time frame on Cougar Town the woman was referring to (The show ran from 2009-2015), eventually assuming it must be when she returned to the show five weeks after giving birth to her daughter Cricket. I do the same thing when someone compliments me on a change. Instead of accepting what the person sees now, I worry about what I looked like then. Busy said she’s had plenty of practice, her entire career people have felt compelled to comment on her weight. And she’s not talking about casting directors and producers, she’s talking about the people she bumps into at the grocery store or Bed Bath and Beyond.
Busy makes the point that there is a right way to compliment someone on their weight and I agree with that. However, I’m not sure I’d qualify a comment that includes, “You still look good” as a compliment. And I feel bad for Busy because she’s been actively trying to eat healthier and, by extension, lose weight. She just completed the latest trend diet Whole30. She also did a sponsored Home2Suites post in which she emphasizes that the chain’s suites have kitchens so she can bring her own food and keep to her diet. Personally, I think we’d all be better off sticking to Busy’s philosophy that “it’s a good thing to err on the side of ‘Let’s not talk to people about their bodies unless they bring it up first and they want to talk about their bodies.’”
Photo credit: WENN Photos, Backgrid
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