Thursday, April 02, 2009

Your Dog Is Fat Adorable!

"Was That Phat?"


Late last night, I was reading columinist Liz Smith over at wowOwow about Peggy Siegal and her upcoming piece on the Oscars. Ms. Smith said, "I like even better her complaint as a writer who has to put up with being over-edited. Siegal sniffed at Avenue’s hand on her manuscript: “Why, they wouldn’t let me describe Barbra Streisand’s little Maltese dog as "fat?" I had to change it to ‘"adorable.’”

I wrote back, "If Ms. Siegal described the dog as "fat," I am assuming that was her first impression, or overall impression, "That dog is FAT!" ::scribbling in notebook:::

So she gives her piece to her editor and it’s fat "Adorable!" If the dog is fat, could we say the dog is "portly," "rotund," "chunky," "solid?"
What is really at stake here? That a reader will see the word "fat," and jump to the mindset, "Barbra is fat!" "Zut!"

"Barbra is fat!" "Wait a minute. Siegal put an extra "a" in Barbra. Strike that, tooz." Isn't that what this is about? That means Kirstie Alley is fat... adorable? "Marie Osmond is a lot less adorable than she used to be?" "Wyonna Judd wants to be a lot less adorable?"

"Adorable!" STET

-30- *
*And for those not in the know, STET was (and maybe still is) editor language for "leave it alone - as is,"
while -30- began in the Civil War at the end of messages to mean "this is the end of the message." This practice shifted over to newspapers to mean -30- "this is the end of the piece."

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8 Comments:

Anonymous Twinkie said...

Awwww! This post made me feel very VERY adorable! ;)

4:46 PM  
Blogger Cyndy said...

I may be more adorable than Barbra, but I'm definitely not as adorable as her dog!

5:20 PM  
Blogger Washington Cube said...

I don't think Barbra is feeling very adorable in that photograph. And, yes, Cyndy, the dog is cuter. One reason I wrote this piece is the degree editors are protecting stars, that you can't even report accurately anymore.

6:43 PM  
Blogger Phil said...

She is just fat-boned.

8:06 PM  
Blogger Washington Cube said...

What's interesting to me, Phil, is this woman of great talent (depending on who you ask,) needs to be tippytoed around by some half fried, second tier editor..DON'T CALL THE DOG FAT!

Please. It's insane.

8:22 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Miss B. can handle it -- she cleans up really well. Doesn't this remind you of the Jamie Lee Curtis' photo shoot, when she agreed to a gorgeous glamour shot only if they would also shoot her as she really is (not as thin as she used to be, but real). She wanted the world to see her as she is -- middle-aged, a woman who has had children -- and she is fine with that (and married to Christopher Guest, how cool). No editors got in the way.

What the hell has fat got to do with talent? Barbara Cook has talent; Judy Holliday had talent; Judy Garland was a genius (with or without the pounds).

Rarely is the word "talent" paired with "editor."

grine

9:58 AM  
Blogger Washington Cube said...

Judy! :(
Hit it, boys....

~~~
http://lostvocals.ning.com/video/judy-garland-the-man-that-got

10:15 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

barbra's dog is not a maltese!

7:31 AM  

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