Howard Sternâs not hiring, so Gabourey Sidibeâs mom isnât worrying
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In the wake of Howard Sternâs comments Monday about Gabourey Sidibeâs weight and the future of her career, the best actress nomineeâs mom spoke to âInside Editionâ on Thursday, saying pretty much that she doesnât care what the shock jock says.
âHe can see, you can see, I can see Gabby is a big girl,â said Alice Tan Ridley, Gabbyâs mom. âSheâs a big woman, so whatâs wrong with that? Sheâs not like everyone else in the world.â She continued to make the point that you donât have to be âthin as a stickâ to act.
Said Ridley: âI donât see him giving jobs out to anybody, so why should we care what he says? He might not hire her, but someone else will.â
(Someone else already has, incidentally, for a movie called âYelling to the Sky.â And another someone else -- Showtime -- has wrapped up talks that started in October and cast her in âThe Big C.â Thatâs in addition to her âAmericaâs Best Dance Crewâ appearance Thursday night.)
Stern, however, on Wednesday had already expanded upon and defended his comments, saying that even though he liked her performance in âPrecious,â applauding and rewarding Sidibe might be keeping her from getting what he sees as help she very much needs.
âI kinda donât see a difference between what our Artie [Lange] did -- Artie tried to kill himself -- and I feel like this girl -- in a slower way, but nevertheless the same outcome will be -- sheâs going to kill herself.â
âI did enjoy her performance, I have nothing against her.... The girlâs got tremendous problems and she needs help. But anyway, so, we got slammed.â
Maybe heâd been a tad harsh, he said in response to e-mail comments, but he wasnât about to backtrack: âIf Iâm not pointing out the obvious,â Stern said, âthat that girlâs not going to have a lot of parts to play, also that sheâs probably going to be dead very soon if she keeps eating this way ... come on ... â
âIâm not saying sheâs not wonderful. Iâm not saying sheâs not a nice person, I donât know her, she might be a nice person she might also be a monster, I could care lessâ -- but, he said, one thing he can see is âsheâs in a deep crisis, and she needs help badly.â
As this post went live, a majority of those responding to the Ministryâs recent nonscientific online poll still agreed that âHoward is just saying what everyone else in Hollywood is thinking.â But we were there to hear the cheer that went up in the Golden Globe Awards ballroom when Sidibe made her entrance -- so what is Hollywood really thinking? When it comes to the bubbly, confident actress, the message so far has been that size doesnât matter -- with the issue of health completely disconnected from size.
Is Stern actually the one guy whoâs thinking past the surface?
-- Christie DâZurilla
Related dispatches from the Ministry of Gossip:
PREACH IT! Right, right. Because Howard Stern is the most beautiful man alive Stars galore at the 2010 Academy Awards Governors Ball
Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King celebrate Oscar nominee MoâNiqueâs success with an L.A. luncheon
The âPreciousâ posse celebrates after sweeping Film Independent Spirit Awards
Skirting danger, sipping cocktails at Women in Filmâs pre-Oscar bash
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