Did Insults to "Fat People" Lead to The Cancellation of 'Phyllis?'

[Brian Damage]

Spotted this old article in "People" Magazine... Did Cloris Leachman cause people to actually boycott her sitcom???

"My fat remarks were intended only as 'food for thought,' " insists Cloris Leachman, star of TV's Phyllis. She recently blurted to an interviewer that "maybe fatcatchers should go out and catch all fat people and put them on diets." Then the 5'4½", 110-pound actress was quoted as saying that "fat people pollute the esthetic environment." She denies making that statement, but as a result, Leachman finds herself a victim of fatlash.

Some 1,000 members of the National Association to Aid Fat Americans are demanding an apology. NAAFA, whose beef about Leachman was backed by steamboats like James Coco and Totie Fields, says "more than one person out there was insulted."

Leachman has been smothered with letters and telephone calls. One adamant champion of adiposity warned that "50 million fat viewers won't be watching Phyllis." Leachman paid heed. "I'm really not on a crusade against fat," she now says. "My concerns are not about how people look, but about how they feel." She adds, "Fat provides people with a moving island, an ingenious way to isolate themselves from the hostile world."

A vegetarian for 17 years (her daily fare is diluted lemon juice, orange juice, two fruit meals and one vegetable meal), Leachman's influence has rubbed off on colleagues. "Cloris speaks out of love and concern," says Valerie Harper, the ex-chubette who plays Rhoda. "At dancing class, she grabbed my thigh and said, 'Valerie, you're massive.' I was shocked, but I went on her watermelon-carrot juice fast and lost 20 pounds."

Leachman chum Jackie Gleason, a performer of sometimes splendid rotundity, came to her aid. "She just made a mistake with her remark about zaftig purity," he says. "I'm sure she didn't mean it."

She didn't. And Leachman is looking at the bright side. "It's marvelous," she says, "that fat people and I have gotten acquainted."

http://www.people.com/people/archive...066424,00.html

[ThomasE]

LOL.