Our apologies to Kirstie Alley for the tongue-in-cheek headline, but we couldn't resist! We know she's got a sense of humor, though, because tabloid after tabloid in recent years has talked about her weight gain from "Saavik" on
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan to her time on
Cheers and then to her title role in
Veronica's Closet and beyond that. And so she stuck her tongue out at all of them and got with Showtime to co-create and star in
Fat Actress, playing herself essentially and laughing at Hollywood along the way for the town's taboo against overweight female leads.
The series had debuted just a week and a day ago (March 7th) and aired two episodes - about a third of its initial super-short first season run - when
Variety dropped a bombshell yesterday:
Fat Actress will be on DVD in May! Yes,
May 24th to be exact.
Variety's sister publication, home video industry trade mag
Video Business,
carried the story as well (registration required). Here are some highlight quotes from that article:
FAT ACTRESS HAS QUICK TRIP TO DVD
Arrives within three months of cable debut
By Scott Hettrick 3/15/2005
MARCH 21 | In an effort to capitalize on unusually high publicity and awareness for a Showtime series, the network is rushing its Kirstie Alley comedy Fat Actress to DVD May 24...
...The seven half-hour episodes, about an actress whose weight gain has become the subject of tabloids and creates hurdles for her in finding work, will be released as a two-disc set priced at $34.99...
...The quick turnaround and recent decision to do so has producers scrambling to put together bonus features, which they expect will include audio commentary by Alley and producers as well as footage from the gala premiere events.
Our thanks to several readers, such as Alex, for taking the time to make sure we knew about the announcement. Look for loads of welll-known faces appearing in this show: NBC bigwig Jeff Zucker, John Travolta and Kelly Preston (she in a role, he as himself), Kid Rock, Carmen Electra, Melissa Gilbert,
Blossom's Mayim Bialik, Kevin Nealon, and more!
We're looking forward to catching the DVDs of this fun show, and looking forward to more seasons, and seeing both more of Kirstie (on screen) and less of Kirstie (in terms of size). She's got a great talent to make us laugh and we're very pleased that she's back behind the cameras and doing so well. Stay tuned, and we'll bring you final details and cover art about this release once distributor Ventura makes them available.
