When Camryn Manheim won an Emmy for her role as Ellenor Frutt on "The Practice," she concluded her speech with the cry "This is for all the fat girls." It was a shout of triumph from a woman who has had to deal with weight issues all her life, and who knew she was not alone.
"Wake Up, I'm Fat" -- the title comes from her one-woman show in New York -- recounts Manheim's journey both as an actress and as a role model for the fat acceptance movement. With large measures of wit, she traces her stations of the crass: her parents setting weight goals with a contract at age 11, being rejected or ignored by men, even, at a party where overweight women can meet men, criticized for not being fat enough. What could have been a series of tedious lectures on touchy-feeley New Agey topic is instead a personal story about the development of an actress as well as a woman learning to live within her skin.
Camryn is all that and a bag of chips...