What you find when you are bored

While I was searching for something of interest in entertainment news, I happened upon an old item in the Huffington Post. Now I don't normally read that blog, as I tend to disagree with the views there - massively. But I had seen an interesting press release from N.O.W. (while following up a different post) and thought I'd check it out.

The post was of course about women's breasts. It was a poll to judge who has the best breasts. It followed up a similar poll asking the same thing of men. Well actually it was chests for both groups, but we know for women they mean breasts.

Out of the 19 choices of Hollywood starlets, there were quite a few women not on the list. But there were a couple of big names as you might expect. And of course the group chosen was geared to the young, and White, women of Hollywood.

The top 5 according to the poll (on the site since Sept 26th)?

Salma Hayek, Heather Graham, Scarlett Johansson, Halle Berry, and Christina Hendricks in that order. Which really surprised me. I have no idea what goes on in the minds of some of these guys voting on this list.

My favorites were: Beyonce
, Christina Hendricks, Salma Hayek, Kendra Wilkinson, and Scarlett Johansson in that order.

But here is the real interesting question. If you could chose any actress, alive or dead, who would you pick as #1? It's not that easy a question but let me make it harder. Let's ask who had/has the best body? And inevitably I think the personalities and talent of the women being considered plays into the answer. But who would you pick to have had the best body of all time (foreign actresses count too - as long as they were in at least 1 U.S. film)?

And for my female readers, pick the best male body of all time. Same rules apply.

Let's see what real people thing about this.

The New Year's battle: Thin or Healthy

As the holidays progress, there are a few things you can count on. Most people will gain a bit of weight, Christmas office parties will embarrass someone after the holidays, you’re bound to get a gift that you won’t like/use, and It’s a Wonderful Life will be on television. Now of the above factors the one that will be most troubling to the general populace will inevitably be the weight gain. (Well depending on if there were pictures taken at the office party or not).

As with the never ending obsession of weight that is America today, one of the biggest New Year’s resolutions will be to lose the weight gained over the holiday season. Millions of men and women will start 2008 with the intent of dropping the pounds and looking healthier if not being so. Some will try the various fad diets that never work for more than a few days.

Some will take on various pills that promise to burn fat or restrict its absorption, avoiding the effort of eating properly and working out. The detriments of such pills are numerous, including the multiple side-effects they invariably create, the extreme cost, and often the limited results they provide.

Many will actually seek out professionals that will evaluate the BMI, nutritional diets, work-out needs of the individual. A balanced diet, with exercise has always been the most effective program, and the only one with real long-term lasting results. There are no ill effects and the only side products are the reduction in chances of cardiac disease, diabetes, looking better, and feeling wonderful.

But in that last plan, which is the most beneficial, I want to put in a point of caution and question. Don’t over do it. Far too many people want to, as an example, drop their BMI to extremely low levels. I personally don’t think that is a good thing. In addition, I don’t agree with the BMI, or the general image of health presented by the major media.

What I mean is that there is some level of common sense that needs to be applied in all this. There is no question that being thinner has been shown to be better, but looking like a model seems wholly unhealthy to me. For those that want to look like some 100 pound, 6 foot model I suggest a re-evaluation of images. Especially for Black and Hispanic/Latino women.

Too often the media says that Black, Hispanic/Latino women are fat, when that is far from true. We have often heard how stars of color are insured because of their measurements, and how they stand out in Hollywood. Take for example Mrs. Jennifer Lopez, or Beyonce. Neither is the typical waif lauded by Hollywood, and thank goodness.

If you were to go by BMI, or by media perceptions, you might think either of those women are fat. You might think that Oprah Winfrey eats nothing but bon-bons without ever working out. This of course is ludicrous. Each of these women work-out regularly, eat carefully balanced and prepared meals, and are examples of fitness. Yet none are a model.

The fact is that while too much weight is easily a bad thing, too little is equally unattractive, at least to this writer. Oprah looks ghastly at a size 8-10. Jennifer Lopez would look anorexic minus another 20 pounds (talking about pre-pregnancy weight). And so on.

My point is, as a man so take that as you will, that being thin is not nearly as important as being healthy. Trying to match up to the variable standards stated by the government (you do recall that the BMI index was reset recently and instantly made millions overweight overnight because of it) and the major media is anything but beneficial in some cases. Beyonce, J-Lo, Angela Bassett, Gabriel Union, Regina King, Gloria Estafan, Salma Hayek, Renee Zellweger, and Drew Barrymore are all sexy and beautiful women. They aren’t model thin either.

So as the New Year’s resolutions are made, and the plan to lose the holiday weight is started, remember that health trumps an airbrushed near-anorexic magazine cover non-figure any day. Expert government or Hollywood status quo be damned.