Chelsea Settles: they're settling, and I'm unsettled

MTV is going to have a reality show with a plus-sized star:

The show will follow the recent college grad as she arrives in Los Angeles from a small town near Pittsburgh, and will chronicle issues like her long-distance boyfriend, social phobias and weight loss [she's 324 pounds].
The docu-drama appears to be a viewer-friendly blend of reality dramas like “The Hills" and weight loss programs like “I Used to be Fat” or “The Biggest Loser.”
“Chelsea Settles” premieres with a special hour-long episode on Oct. 11 at 11:00 p.m ET, and you can watch the trailer here.  [CNN]

(If you're not in the US the trailer might work for you here.)

Judging by the comments on the story, I shiver to think of the abuse this young woman is going to have to put up with, being in the public eye. Well, I guess she's willing to take that risk in order to launch a career. I just remember all the Mike and Molly stuff, it was so so nasty. How harmful to your self-esteem to put yourself in that firing line.

The catch line is "a new kind of heroine" but as her heroic journey appears to be focused on her weight loss... I'm a bit meh. If the show also has a good dollop of body-acceptance along the way that would be cool, but since she's trying to be a model, I le doubt it. I don't think this is going to do anything positive in terms of having a plus sized person on TV. Or even a person of color on TV. Over all this show seems like a train wreck.


Let's find something beautiful to counter its effect...


          
        

Why are Roseanne Barr and George Clooney taking a baseball bat to the chocolate?

An excerpt from "A fabulous article by Roseanne on her career and sexism and how little has changed" that my brother sent me. You could also call it: How the sexist basts tried to steal her creation!!

It didn’t take long for me to get a taste of the staggering sexism and class bigotry that would make the first season of Roseanne god-awful. It was at the premiere party when I learned that my stories and ideas—and the ideas of my sister and my first husband, Bill—had been stolen. The pilot was screened, and I saw the opening credits for the first time, which included this: CREATED BY MATT WILLIAMS. I was devastated and felt so betrayed that I stood up and left the party. Not one person noticed. 

...I read The Art of War and kept the idea “He that cares the most, wins” upmost in my mind. I knew I cared the most, since I had the most to lose. I made a chart of names and hung them on my dressing-room door; it listed every person who worked on the show, and I put a check next to those I intended to fire when Roseanne became No. 1, which I knew it would.


...When the show went to No. 1 in December 1988, ABC sent a chocolate “1” to congratulate me. Guess they figured that would keep the fat lady happy—or maybe they thought I hadn’t heard (along with the world) that male stars with No. 1 shows were given Bentleys and Porsches. So me and George Clooney [who played Roseanne Conner’s boss for the first season] took my chocolate prize outside, where I snapped a picture of him hitting it with a baseball bat. I sent that to ABC.

Not long after that, I cleaned house. Honestly, I enjoyed firing the people I’d checked on the back of my dressing-room door. The writers packed their bags and went to join Matt on Tim Allen’s new show, Home Improvement, so none of them suffered at all. Tim didn’t get credit either.  

... I gave Joss Whedon and Judd Apatow their first writing jobs, as well as many other untried writers who went on to great success.