remember when she had big black hair on All My Children?

I've always liked Kelly Ripa. When I was a kid, my mom would tape her soap operas during the day and watch them at night, and I often joined her. I still remember how shocked I was when Kelly, who played Hayley on All My Children, first took off the huge black semi-punk wig she wore for her first few months on the show and revealed herself to be a perky blonde. I like her on Regis & Kelly, too, though I've never seen Hope & Faith.

So this week's TV Guide cover story really disappointed me. Kelly is the main part of a larger article on celebrities keeping fit, and she says some things that were downright offensive to me. A selection:

But back when she was a big-haired high-school cheerleader, the 5-foot-4 blonde clocked in at 128 lbs. "That was a fun weigh-in for cheerleading," Ripa jokes. "I was stout. I had four legs, including my two upper arms." The talk-show host and sitcom star, who now tips the scales at a trim 108...

Also (this quote isn't on the web, but it's in the longer article in the print edition):

As for those current whispers that Ripa is now too thin, she insists, "I'm built like a lot of women in New York who are lean because we walk everywhere." Not that she cares about the rumors--she's just happy that when she looks in the mirror now, she doesn't see that stubby cheerleader.

Of course Kelly has the right to hate or love her body at whatever size it is or was. But I think it's a terrible thing to talk in a national magazine about how 128 lbs just isn't thin enough. For the record, I am 5'3" and 125 lbs, and though I have my self-deprecating days I know that my weight is perfectly normal. And on those self-deprecating days, I would not announce to millions of women, most of whom probably weigh more, that this weight is unacceptable.

Also, to insinuate that her thinness is due to living in New York and walking everywhere...well, I doubt it. Sure, people in NYC are thin, but I think it's part of a larger health consciousness rather than simply an increased amount of walking.

I just hate articles that talk about how a given celebrity "eats pizza constantly and doesn't do yoga, Pilates, or weights" and still weighs 108 lbs.