CELEBRATE

15 YEARS

OF GOOD TASTE.

through with this, and
I'm going to work with
what I have and try to
be happy and take
some of this energy
and put it someplace
else:"
The energy went into
writing her semi-auto-
biographical debut
novel, Good in Bed,
whose troubled, zaftig
heroine winds up living
happily ever after with-
out shedding a pound.
That's more or less
what happened to
Weiner, who is now
married to a mentshy
attorney, with a 2-year-
old daughter and a stel-
lar writing career to
Playing Bubbie: Shirley MacLaine as Ella
boot.
Hirsch in In Her Shoes.
Her wickedly witty
but flawed heroines
have made her the
pounds were pertinent to the way
biggest chick-lit success story
her character "feels about herself
since Helen Fielding's Bridget
and her transformation:'
Jones's Diary, according to
The movie also features amus-
Entertainment Weekly. The
ing, if occasionally cliched, Jewish
Jerusalem Post called Weiner the
characters based on residents of
Jewish girl's answer to Fielding.
the Florida retirement community
where Weiner's grandmother
lives. There is also a joyous Jewish
wedding and a grotesquely carica-
Weighty Issue
tured Jewish American Princess,
Weiner says she enjoys creating
the sisters' wicked stepmother.
Jewish, plus-sized heroines partly
Weiner — who finds the char-
because she is writing what she
acter "recognizable" — loves the
knows, and partly because such
scene in which the "Stepmonster"
characters are often invisible in
the popular culture. Heavy women gets her just desserts (she discov-
ers that her biological daughter
especially are ignored or played
has joined Jews for Jesus).
for laughs: "Take Kirstie Alley in
If the fictional sisters enjoy
Fat Actress, cutting Lane Bryant
their Cinderella-like happy end-
labels out of her clothes and
ing, so does Weiner. Her books
sewing Prada labels in instead','
have sold more than 2.5 million
Weiner says by way of example.
copies worldwide; Hollywood is
"And Sarah Rue in [TV's] Less
Than Perfect. Like, excuse me, size snatching up the movie rights,
and her latest novel, Goodnight
10 is less than perfect? The aver-
Nobody (Atria Books) just hit
age size for women in America is
bookshelves.
12. So there's a marginalization
And then there's the Shoes pre-
that goes on, and you don't ever
miere, where the author will
see that someone [overweight]
sashay down the red carpet not in
can be beautiful and happy"
glass slippers, but in strappy Nine
Considering Hollywood's
West silver stilettos.
weight phobia, Weiner felt victori-
No doubt she's hoping her sister
ous when actress Toni Collette
will wear something else. ❑
(The Sixth Sense) agreed to gain
25 pounds for the film. Collette
has admitted she was reluctant to
put on the weight: "I have done it
before, and now I say I actually
In Her Shoes, rated PG-13,
really will never do it again',' she
opens Friday, Oct. 7, in
said at a press conference. She
Detroit-area theaters.
said she gained weight for Shoes
because she believed the extra

JN

October 6 2005

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