Busy Philipps has a tip for fans who want to approach female celebrities and comment on their weight: don’t.
The 38-year-old actress told her Instagram Story followers about an awkward encounter she had at a Rite Aid Friday night with a female fan who recognized Philipps from her time on the ABC/TBS series Cougar Town and made an uncomfortable comment about Philipps’ body.
“She was so sweet and had such a calming manner and in a loveliest way, she said, ‘You’ve lost some of your plumpness from Cougar Town. You look nice still, but you’ve lost some of your plumpness.’ ”
While Philipps said she thought the fan had the best intentions, she couldn’t help but be bothered by the woman’s words.
“It was a compliment. She was very sweet when she said it. It just was an interesting choice of [words],” Philipps said. “I don’t think I was plump.
“There’s no way to really handle it in the moment without coming off like an a——,” she added. “So you just have to say, ‘Oh, I’m glad you liked the show’ and moved on.”
Sadly, this isn’t the first time Philipps has experience this sort of a comment from a stranger.
“You know how when you’re a woman, sometimes people feel like they should be able to comment about your body all the time or make laws about your body? Well when you’re an actress, or any female in the public eye, everyone feels that they can comment on your body all the f—— time. Always,” she said. “The amount of people in my long 20-year career in this industry who’ve come up to me in grocery stores and Bed Bath and Beyonds to talk with people about my weight … I think it’s a good thing to err on the side of ‘Let’s not talk to people about their bodies unless they bring it up first and they want to talk about their bodies.’ ”
The mother of two, who has been open with her followers about her recent Whole30 journey and often shares videos of her LEKfit workouts, went on to say that there’s a way fans could say something about her weight without being offensive. “There’s a difference between saying to someone, ‘You look amazing!’ You look great,’ ” she said. “There are ways.”
Later, Philipps wondered whether the woman had been watching the season of Cougar Town when she had gone back to work five weeks after giving birth to her daughter Cricket. “This is how my brain works,” Philipps said of the “plumpness” comment. “I’m going to be thinking about this for the next … whatever.”
