There are a couple of stories about Oscar-nominated actress Gabourey Sidibe today. I’ll start with the happy feel-good one because I don’t want to get into the negativity right away. Gabby was thrilled to meet her childhood crush, JC Chasez from ‘N Sync, and the two shared a dance together that will hopefully be aired on MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew”! It’s clear that Sidibe, 26, is seeing her dreams come true. I’d love to see this episode of her dancing with Chasez and wonder when it airs!

Oscar nominee Gabourey Sidibe is soaking up her newfound fame by living out her childhood dream of meeting ex-N*SYNC-erJC Chasez.
A longtime fan of the former boy band, Gaby at one time even expressed that she wanted Justin Timberlake to be her date to the Academy Awards. She instead brought her mom.
But on Tuesday, the ‘Precious’ star did have a chance to dance her heart out with JC at a taping of MTV’s “Randy JacksonPresents America’s Best Dance Crew,” where the former Mouseketeer serves on the judging panel. When she was told that the admiration was mutual between herself and JC, she said, “Wow, what kind of world do I live in now?!”

[From ET Online]

I don’t know a lot about Gabby as she’s new on the scene, but she really won me over when she told Ryan Seacrest on the red carpet at the Oscars that “if fashion were porn this dress would be the money shot.” I love that line! She also enthused recently about Kaiser’s boyfriend, Gerard Butler, and said “I’d hit that!”

In other news, there’s of course the controversy over Howard Stern ragging on Gabby for her weight. Stern refuses to apologize and is sticking to his guns despite widespread condemnation from just about everyone. Kaiser pointed me to this follow-up Stern did on his show in which he’s responding to the fallout from his comments. He doesn’t apologize and keeps talking smack, as can be expected.

Howard said “Obesity in this country is out of control… you do see people now saying it’s ok to be this heavy… I don’t see a difference between what our Artie did… [trying to kill yourself] and I feel this girl in a slower way… she’s going to kill herself. I did enjoy her performance, I have nothing against her… The fact is, she’s enormous.” Then Howard and his sycophant Robin discussed how they were wrong that Gabby wouldn’t get roles due to her weight, and said that they’ve since learned she does have quite a few parts lined up. Robin used that to say that people were somehow rewarding her for being heavy. “That’s more people saying ’stay this way… we’re hiring you like this.‘” Howard also said that Gabby didn’t really act in Precious and that she just “walked around looking out of it.”

Howard and Robin are so wrong. So we have an epidemic of overweight and obese people in America, and somehow that means we should never embrace less than a handful of actors and actresses who represent a significant portion of the population because it means that we’re somehow condoning it? Actors and actresses are tiny compared to the rest of the country and while we like to look at gorgeous skinny people we also want to see people that represent us and our friends and family. Not everyone is perfect-looking and we want more than just one actress who can play a heavier person of color. I guess I understand why this is some kind of stupid controversy, whipped to a frenzy by the king of sh*t stirring, but it seems so overblown. This is a talented actress who happens to be obese. We need someone to play those parts and it’s up to her if she loses weight or not. Of course her health is at risk, but she knows that and it’s just mean to keep harping on it like she has no right to earn accolades for her acting ability.