Tina Fey opens up about dropping 30 pounds for Saturday Night Live, her facial scar and remaining a virgin until her 20s in the January issue of Vanity Fair.

LOSING WEIGHT

Fey, 38, says her career took off after she dropped 30 pounds with Weight Watchers.

“I’m five-foot-four-and-a-half, and I think I was maxing out at just short of 150 pounds, which isn’t so big. But when you move to New York from Chicago, you feel really big,” says the 30 Rock star - who started working in comedy in the Windy City.

Adds Fey’s husband, Jeff Richmond (who composes the music for his wife’s award-winning sitcom): “She was quite round in a lovely, turn-of-the-century kind of round - that beautiful, Rubenesque kind of beauty.”

Fey says she knew she had to drop the weight after catching a glimpse of herself in an SNL monitor as an extra.

“I was like, ‘Ooogh.’ I was starting to look unhealthy,” she says. “I looked like a behemoth, a little bit. It was probably a bad sweater or something. [Or] maybe cutting from Gwyneth Paltrow to me.”

She called her husband that day and announced: “OK, I’m starting Weight Watchers.”

The diet worked - too well. As Fey’s star was on the rise - she took over as “Weekend Update” anchor and became the show’s head writer - the cast grew worried about her becoming too slim.

“I got to that thing that’s so enjoyable where people tell you, ‘Oh, you’re thin, you’ve gotten too thin,’” Fey says. “[SNL creator Lorne Michaels] was like, ‘Please, please make sure you’re eating.’”

Now the actress has found a happy medium, but still watches her weight.

“The most I’ve changed pictures out of vanity was to edit around any shot where you can see my butt,” she says. “I like to look goofy, but I also don’t want to get canceled because of my big old butt.”

The star - who blames her curves on the “Greek-girl thing, I have, like, boobs and butt” draws the line at cosmetic surgery though.

“I don’t have botox or anything,” she says.

HER FACIAL SCAR

Fey opens up about the faint scar that runs along her left cheek, which was the result of a cutting attack by a stranger when she was five years old.

“It was in, like, the front yard of her house, and somebody who just came up, and she just thought somebody marked her with a pen,” her husband says.

Adds Fey, who rarely speaks about the incident: “It’s impossible to talk about it without somehow seemingly exploiting it and glorifying it.”

Growing up, Fey didn’t feel self-conscious, “because I proceeded unaware of it. I was a very confident little kid. It’s really almost like I’m kind of able to forget about it, until I was on-camera, and it became a thing of ‘Oh, I guess we should use this side’ or whatever. Everybody’s got a better side,” she says.

How has the attack affected her as a mother to three-year-old daughter Alice?

“Supposedly, I will go crazy,” says. “My therapist says, ‘When Alice is the age that you were, you may go crazy.”‘

REMAINING A VIRGIN

Fey also admits that she wasn’t very popular growing up.

“I really didn’t have very many dates at all. And that’s not an exaggeration. But also, I don’t think we should discount the fact that unplucked eyebrows and short hair with a perm may not have been the best
offering, either.”

In fact, “I remember bringing people over in high school to play—that’s how cool I am—that game Celebrity. That’s how I successfully remained a virgin well into my 20s, bringing gay boys over to play Celebrity.”

SARAH PALIN IMPERSONATIONS

Fey also responds to the criticism that she was too hard on Sarah Palin with her impersonations.

“What made me super-mad about it, was that it seemed very sexist toward me and her,” she says. “The implication was that she’s so fragile, which she is not. She’s a strong woman.

“And then, also, it was sexist because, like, who would ever go [and say], ‘Well, I thought it was sort of mean to Richard Nixon when Dan Aykroyd played him,’ and ‘That seemed awful mean to George Bush when Will Ferrell did it.’”

(source)

Making sure to stay on top of her motherly duties, Sarah Jessica Parker was spotted tending to her young son on what was a wet, chilly first day of December in New York City.

With James Wilkie Broderick following along, the mother/son duo hurried on over to school in the West Village before the “Sex and the City” actress said her goodbyes for the day.

Today is World AIDS Day 2008, which is held each year on December 1st. It is a day when everyone comes together to raise awareness about the AIDS epidemic.  This year marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day.  As the organization’s site says, “Whilst we have come a long ways since 1988, there is still much more to be done.”

If you’re looking for a way to get your beauty on and raise some awareness, check out:

• Kiehl’s Lip Balm #1 ($8.50), which sports the symbolic red ribbon.  During the entire month of December, 100% of the proceeds of this lip balm will be donated to YouthAIDS.
• MAC Cosmetics’ Viva Glam Products are available year-round and 100% of the selling price goes to MAC AID Fund.  Several choices in lipglasses and lipsticks are available.

What can $14 do?

$14 would produce 28 copies of free treatment and prevention information
$14 provides round-trip transportation for three people to attend support programs
$14 buys pantry items for nutrition program serving women living with HIV/AIDS
$14 buys formula for 15 babies
$14 covers the cost of school supplies for five teens affected with HIV/AIDS
$14 provides materials to support four volunteer tutors
$14 buys one unit of Therapeutic Recreation for one client
$14 pays for one food pantry bag, containing enough food for a family of three for one day.
$14 purchases one Hospitality Kit, containing personal hygiene and grooming products,
given to clients upon entering a housing program.

– MAC AIDS Fund Factsheet

The vivid blue color is located on toe box, swoosh, and heel. The most interesting feature on this sneaker is the colorful pattern design on the inside of the sneaker’s collar. This shoe is also complimented by a white midsole. Check your local select Jordan retailers for these in three weeks. Pics provided by Sneaker News.

Air Jordan Retro 1 - Vivid Blue/Black

My rigid bags did not fare well this weekend; standing in line in a giant snow globe to meet Santa while while holding a wiggly 4 year old in one hand (he was trying to pull all the fake snow off the trees to make snowballs) was not my idea of Sunday afternoon fun. But then I had to balance my bag in the other hand along with shopping bags and cookie/bottle of water. I kept thinking to myself, "self, why are you in a structured mood with these hand held bags? You need to find a hobo bag to throw over your shoulder and not worry about water and crumbs spilling in it". And this would be it. It retails for $400 and is available at www.carnce.com

"Pretty Boy" Buscemi: Steve Buscemi is in talks to star in Martin Scorsese's HBO pilot Boardwalk Empire. Written by Terrence Winter, the pilot is based on a book chronicling the origins of Atlantic City. Buscemi would play Nucky Johnson, a sly twenties businessman who runs a liquor-distribution ring during Prohibition. Kelly Macdonald is in talks to play Margaret, an Irish immigrant who married the wrong guy to get out of her parents' house. But it's the casting of the raspy-voiced, twenties-style-tracksuit-wearing, Atlantic City tourists that we're most looking forward to. [HR]

Scorsese's Falcon: Scorsese is also set to direct a new movie called Falcon's Tale. Scorsese will work alongside Departed screenwriter William Monahan to tell the story of James Keene, a convict serving ten years to life on drug charges when the FBI offers him a chance at freedom. All he has to do is enter a high-security prison for the criminally insane and squeeze information out of a suspected serial killer awaiting retrial. Should be easy! [Production Weekly via /Film]

Molders of Minds: The Fame remake's New York City High School of Performing Arts just picked up a slew of teachers, including Megan Mullally, Kelsey Grammer, Charles S. Dutton, and Bebe Neuwirth. Mullally will play a voice instructor, Grammer an orchestra conductor, Dutton an acting teacher, and Neuwirth a dance teacher. Given his grace on the stage, we were hoping Grammer would play the dance teacher. Alas. [HR]

Rome Reborn: Mentalist director Bruno Heller is in talks to make a movie version of Rome, wrapping up the prematurely canceled HBO drama. The critically acclaimed show was axed before the second season even aired and HBO later admitted that destroying the lavish sets and releasing actors from their contracts was probably a bad idea. If this is anything like the resurrection of other prematurely canceled but critically lauded TV shows, we can expect Rome: The Movie to land in about 2020. [HR]

Men Made of Straw: Production company Benderspink has nabbed the film rights to both The Straw Men, a crime thriller written by author Michael Marshall Smith, and its comic adaptation by Zenescope Comics head Joe Brusha. Story follows a detective brought out of retirement to solve a series of bizarre murders connected by a dark conspiracy. The book is the first in a trilogy, so expect this to be the first of some kind of Bond-on-Geritol franchise. Your grandma is pumped. [Variety]

Hail Caesar: It's a big day for the newest edition of Planet of the Apes, which finally has a director, a writer, and a name. The name is Caesar, the rebellious ape from 1972's Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, and the writer-director is Scott Frank, the writer of such varied screenplays as Minority Report and Marley and Me. Not too much is known about the ape revival other than the fact that the film will do away with time travel in favor of presenting Caesar as a chimp whose mind has advanced due to experimentation. Oh, and there will be no big ape suits. The idea of dressing up chimps in human suits to play the people has not yet been ruled out, though. [Production Weekly via CHUD]

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Filed Under: bebe neuwirth, benderspink, boardwalk empire, bruno heller, caesar, charles s. dutton, falcon's tale, fame, hbo, joe brusha, kelly macdonald, kelsey grammer, martin scorsese, megan mullally, michael marshall smith, planet of the apes, rome, scott frank, steve buscemi, terrence winter, the straw men, william monahan, zenescope comics

Wow, this Zefron/Corbin Bleu hybrid of a kid does not look happy to be adorned in this ridiculous High School Musical costume (it’s either unhappiness, flatulence, or stupidity):

To be fair, I don’t blame him.