Radio talk show host Howard Stern made fun of Oscar Nominatee Gabourey Sidibe calling her the fattest black woman he had ever seen, and that she'll never make another movie. I could talk about Stern's objectification of women on his show, I could talk about his miscontruded views of fatness, I could pointed out he should "get a life" like Gabourey's mother recommended, but instead I will talk about how much he has in common with her.
Stern has done very well in radio but has failed to expand in visual media other than Private Parts, which is years old. Why? Is it because he has a nice voice--one of the most recognizable voices on the air as things now stand. Is it because he's just playing to his strength? Or Is it because Hollywood doesn't want to see a tall, gangly, unattractive man on their screens and he knows it? Stern himself is a victim of the Hollywood cookie cutter. Gabourey and other fantastic fat actors like Kathy Bates, Mo'Nique, John Goodman are trapped as "Character actors", and are often stuck with stereotype roles. We don't see tall gangly men with scary faces, fat women, or plus sized men except maybe as the conventionally good looking lead's best friend. So we lose out on talented people.
Stern is wrong that Gabourey will never land another role. What she might never do is land the role as a lead in a mainstream Hollywood movie. In fact she did get a reoccuring role as a "sassy" (groan) student in the Showtime series The Big C and in an indy movie Yelling to the Sky.
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