Vanity has always been the name of the game in Hollywood, but ‘quick fix’ weight loss options like GLP-1 injections have taken things to a new, scary skinny, level.
Megyn has covered the sudden – and shocking – slim down of stars like Meghan Trainor, Ariana Grande, Oprah Winfrey, Demi Moore, and Kelly Osbourne, and while not all stars have admitted to taking weight loss drugs, the increasingly gaunt appearances of celebs on red carpets and elsewhere has many, including Megyn, concerned.
On Thursday’s show, she was joined by Adam Carolla, host of The Adam Carolla Show, to discuss the alarming weight loss trend.
Olivia Wilde
Actress and director Olivia Wilde became the latest Hollywood star to sound alarm bells after her recent appearance at the San Francisco International Film Festival. Social media users expressed concern over the 42 year old’s more angular facial features, including what some described as “sunken cheeks,” and a thinner frame.
There is no indication Wilde is taking Ozempic or a some similar weight loss drug, but Megyn said she was worried about the star’s “unwell” appearance. “People are saying, ‘Oh, is the camera angle?’ I mean… I watched the video. She looks skeletal… She looks like a corpse with the very sullen eyes… She looks truly unwell,” she noted.
“I don’t know if she’s on Ozempic, but she certainly looks like she is… And there appear to be some people in Hollywood who can take Ozempic and look good, like, I’m assuming, all of the Kardashians,” Megyn explained. “And then there are these people who I probably had an eating disorder anyway… and for whom this drug has allowed them to take it to a place that is truly sick. This is just my opinion. I have no confirmation she is doing any of this. But the drastic transformation of this woman is shocking.”
Washington’s Slim Down
In Carolla’s view, this is not just a Hollywood problem. He said politicians from coast to coast have also been stepping out with noticeably slimmer physiques.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Tim Walz looks like he’s down about 45 pounds from when he was running,” he speculated. “Tim Walz was… on the campaign trail and everywhere all the time and never thought to lose an ounce of weight… And then that ended, and he looks like he is down 35 or 40 pounds in the last few months.”
He had a couple of examples from his home state of California as well. “Karen Bass, our mayor of Los Angeles, was not obese, but she was kind of heavyset, a little bit roly-poly, a little bit round in the face. She looks like she’s down about 20 pounds herself,” Carolla noted. “And Katie Porter, our favorite [gubernatorial candidate] – she decided to stop eating mashed potatoes, evidently, off her husband’s head. Katie Porter’s got to be down 30 pounds.”
Last but not least, a midwestern governor with presidential ambitions. “[Illinois Gov.] J.B. Pritzker is not what he was,” Carolla added. “He is down.”
While none have acknowledged their slimmer looks or are known to be on any medication, Carolla believes the trend is notable. “These people are all in their fifties, they were all heavy set, morbidly obese, porky, fat all the way through, and then, all of a sudden, they kind of hit the national stage and look,” he said. “I think all of them are on it because they all made a drastic move in, like, the last six months.”
In Megyn’s view, there is a difference between many in Hollywood and those in politics. “I support that. Katie Porter looks a lot better, and J.B. Pritzker was going to die if he let himself go on like that,” she said. “[But] the super skinny actress who goes… truly skeletal, if that, in fact, is what she is doing and how she did it, is so wrong.”
Cause for Concern
In the most extreme and unnerving cases, Megyn wondered where the medical professionals are. “Who keeps giving her the drug,” she asked. “When she comes in for the weigh-in and she is down to, like, 90 pounds from the looks of it, what doctor is like, ‘Yeah, let’s keep this rolling’?”
“I really think you’re seeing mental illness on the faces of a lot of these celebrities, and it is a terrible message for young girls in particular,” Megyn concluded. “If you can’t handle it and keep it at a regular, healthy body weight, you need to go off of it.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Carolla by tuning in to episode 1,307 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.