Jennifer Love Hewitt: Instant Bikini Icon

Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt has been inadvertently propelled into the spotlight thanks to photos of her in Hawaii wearing a bikini. Hewitt, 32, showed a little more flesh than some people expected, and blogs exploded in recent days with rude remarks ranging from just calling her fat and lumpy to up close inspections of her cellulite.

Hewitt, who was on vacation to celebrate her engagement, responded with a post on her official website lambasting her critics and calling on all girls to embrace their bodies and put on a bikini. She added, "A size 2 is not fat!" That spunk, applauded by women, had her hailed as a hero and has landed her bikini pictures their own segment on the Today show ("Changing Beauty Standards"), Access Hollywood, and the View (watch below), to name but a few. Now it's even landed her the cover of new cover of People magazine. That cover will stay on newsstands nationwide through December 16, so it looks like the Hewitt bikini story still has legs.

From Today, which plastered a Wednesday body image segment with the photos:

The View talked about it Tuesday:

The People Cover:

Comments

[REDSTATEREFUGEE]

Just watched several minutes on MSNBC "news," involving two bubbleheaded female reporters conversing at length about the relative merits of JLH's current weight gain. I am far less concerned about the actress's physique than I am the apparent "dumbing down" of our national news media.

Not only is the story selection banal, but viewers are now treated to the pedestrian commentary of self-appointed airtime social critics. It is depressing enough to know that Glenn Beck, O'Reilly, Hannity, and their ilk appear regularly, but at least we can escape them by quickly surfing past their talking heads.

Trash news is embedded within more legitimate stories, so the viewer is ambushed. Too, newscasters always add their mundane two cents for our edification. No wonder younger viewers no longer watch television­...