Thanks to my colleague Rebecca for passing this one along.
The Guardian reports today that Kate Winslet was awarded £25,000 in libel damages after a British newspaper columnist claimed the actress lied about the fact that she doesn’t follow a strict exercise or diet regime.
The columnist in question – the controversial Liz Jones – wrote:
“There is no way Kate despite her protestations … has not worked supremely, vomit-inducingly hard to get the figure she has today.
I can see the fact she has ‘gone for the burn’ etched on her woefully drawn features. She might say it is down to 20 minutes of gentle Pilates a day but, trust me, it ain’t. I’ve done that amount of Pilates for years and I do not have anything approaching Ms Winslet’s enviable muscle tone.”
Yes, Winslet’s body – albeit not the stick figure frame that most Hollywood actresses sport – is enviable, but if the lady says she doesn’t exercise, she doesn’t exercise. Am I jealous? A little. (It sounds like Liz might be, too.) But I also love Winslet for the fact that she’s so outspoken about body acceptance. In a statement released after today’s verdict, she says:
“I strongly believe that women should be encouraged to accept themselves as they are, so to suggest that I was lying was an unacceptable accusation of hypocrisy.”
I guarantee you those are words you’ll never hear from, say, Victoria Beckham.
