You might have noticed that one of Reba McEntire’s jokes at the ACMs the other night was at the expense of Kirstie Alley: “Toby (Keith) has a chain of restaurants…and it specializes in fried onion rings, fried mozzarella sticks and southern fried twinkies. Sounds like Thanksgiving at Kirstie Alley’s.” Kirstie must have been watching, because she tweeted the following to Reba:
“@reba wow…thought we girls would stick together…next time you need a fat joke about me just ask. Mine are funny.”
Hmmmm. I can kind of see both sides on this one. If Kirstie was privately and quietly struggling with her weight, I would say that joke would be absolutely unacceptable. But Kirstie has made a living for the past 5 years or so talking about her weight. She’s been a paid spokesperson for Jenny Craig, and she’s had not one but two TV shows with the word “fat” in the title. I applaud her for being so open about her struggle, but she also has to realize that profiting from it might make her fair game. On the other hand, it’s one thing for someone with an issue to make fun of themselves, and another for other people (like perfectly thin Reba) to make those same jokes. I wonder if she’ll apologize?