KIRSTIE ALLEY FIRED FOR EATING JENNY CRAIG
Samantha Dryden, Entertainment Correspondent
March 8 2008
Hollywood, CA – New details have emerged regarding the termination of Kirstie Alley as the spokesperson for Jenny Craig, the weight loss service that helped to recharge her career over the last few years.
Officially, Alley stepped aside to make room for new spokesperson Valerie Bertinelli, with whom she shared the commercials for a number of years. This would leave Alley free to pursue other projects open to her no after her mild professional resurgence.
Sources behind the scenes though have shed a new light onto the situation, saying that Alley was let go not for putting on weight (as some news outlets reported) but for a physical confrontation with the diet guru herself.
According to sources, the two met at Craig’s California home in mid February for a casual get together, but the discussion between the “Cheers” actress and the septuagenarian American health icon, turned into an argument which quickly descended into violence between the two women. Allegedly, Alley took to biting into Craig after losing ground against her much older opponent. The two were split up and Alley was put on a plane for home. Two days later she received notice from her agent that she had been let go as the voice and face of the company after three years of service.
Alley’s people are sticking by the original story behind her departure, and representatives for Craig have officially declined comment. ACI Capital, the New York based firm which owns Jenny Craig Inc., and to which the guru still has very strong ties, gave a very terse no comment in response to our queries.
“She’s doing fine,” said the insider. “Of course she was shaken by the incident; it’s the last thing anyone would have expected, but she is doing fine. Alley took a big chunk out of her, I’m surprised, but I guess she just has a really big mouth. I guess the canapés just weren’t enough for her,” He added wryly.
Alley’s diminishing career was given a boost once she started with Jenny Craig, even spurring the television show “Fat Actress” as she poked fun at her weight gain and loss on the program.
“She really owes a lot to Jenny,” continued the insider. “It’s really too bad that things had to come to an end this way. Hopefully she’ll find happiness in something other than eating, whether it be food or otherwise.”
