Melissa McCarthy covers this week’s issue of People Magazine, probably because she is genuinely having a great month. Spy opened at #1 last weekend, and the combination of Melissa plus writer/director Paul Feig has proved to be a stellar combination. I saw Spy last weekend too, and I actually thought it was Melissa’s strongest comedic performance ever, going even beyond Bridesmaids (I liked that film but I didn’t think it was the best.comedy.ever like some people). Spy was well-reviewed too and Melissa is a bona fide movie star, one of the few women who can “open” a movie in a lead role.
She’s also promoting her new clothing line. That’s sort of the reason she’s on the cover of People, to shill her clothing line, although I doubt People would have given her the cover if Spy hadn’t been a hit. What sucks a little bit is that we’ve seen some of Melissa’s designs throughout the promotional tour of Spy, and most of us were underwhelmed. Anyway, some highlights from the interview:
How to be funny: For years, she says, Hollywood had certain expectations for female comedians. Being funny “couldn’t be through your personality or actions, you just had to look crazy. I just think that we’ve gotten rid of, luckily, a lot of those guidelines. Funny is funny, and it can come in 8 billion different shades and flavors, so I think it’s silly to kind of limit it.”
She loved working on Spy & she loves how successful it is: “I’m having the time of my life.”
She loves Jason Statham: “Jason Statham was literally crawling up my body like a ladder. And I was like, ‘What am I doing and how did I get here? And how delightful is this?’ ”
Her clothing line Melissa McCarthy Seven7: “You look much better when you’re comfy. From grade school until age 20, I had one thought in my head, which was doing women’s clothing. To get to come back to it, is kind of crazy. It’s pretty dreamy. I started this line because I wanted to know: Where are the normal clothes? This really is a selfish venture. I wanted to build a better closet for myself.”
She has strong feelings about sleeves: “Yes, there are lots of sleeves here! Hallelujah! Do you know how many fights I’ve had about sleeves? I was actually told once [by a manufacturer she’s not working with now], ‘Plus-size women do not want sleeves, in any capacity.’ I was like, ‘Are you crazy? That’s not accurate! I am plus-size, and I want them, I have friends who are size 26 and size 8 and they want a sleeve! Very few things [in Seven7] don’t have sleeves. My stuff has sleeves, my stuff has pockets, you can count on that.”
I believe she was told (probably by someone snotty and a size 2) that plus-sized women don’t want sleeves. I believe it because it seems like the kind of dumb explanation for the sleeve-hatred of so many designers. I love a good sleeve too and I think sleeves-on-gowns and cocktail dress with sleeves are very underrated in the current fashion climate, where tube dresses and mermaid dresses are king. It’s so stupid. So yes, I love that Melissa is standing up for sleeves. But I still think her designs are too Amish, too covered-up.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
‘Spy’ makes Budapest look so beautiful (its pretending to be Paris). I went to see the film mainly because I wanted to see my city on the big screen, but it was actually really fun. Melissa is hilarious, such on point comic timing. I’m glad that shes proud of her talents 🙂
So it’s worth seeing? I go back and forth on whether to see it or not because I’ve been disappointed by some of her films.
Yes! It’s really funny. Jason Statham is a riot, too.
I think so. I like McCarthy but her films usually don’t interest me. But the reviews and buzz on this one were good so I went last night. A little too long but fun and enjoyable. The whole cast is tremendous. I LOVE Rose Byrne (somebody give her a starring role in a comedy STAT!) and was so glad to discover Miranda Hart.
And I really liked how it ended.
The movie was great. I was in tears laughing at some scenes. Melissa is perfect. And both Jason Statham and Miranda Hart are hilarious.
It was good, but you get what you expect.. There’s hype to this movie that it falls short of.
Definitely worth seeing! Was Miranda Hart her CIA friend? She was HILARIOUS. The whole cast was great, Statham especially. Our whole audience was cracking up every time he showed up on screen.
It’s worth seeing just to see two good looking men (Statham and Law) play the side roles for a change.
I saw that yesterday night with both my parents and I don’t remember the 3 of us laughing so hard while seeing a film. All characters that are supposed to be funny are really funny but not in an offensive way. And the moral of it all it’s good. It’s ridiculous in a very uplifting kind of way. Go Melissa! Statham is SO RIDICULOUS and plays it so well that I became a fan. And the actor who plays Aldo was hilarious. I’m still feeling the adrenaline hapyness form that film hahaha
I was super disappointed by the movie she did with Jason Bateman, and vowed not to see another one after that. And yet I find myself wanting to see this… because Jason Statham.
Would you recomend it for a my dd´s 9 and 10 yo?
Love Melissa McCarthy and I will go see her new movie. But that brown dress she is wearing in the second photo looks too much like someone sown together a bunch of snakeskin that was just shed. This dress she is
wearing in the last pic is nice.
She looks so great in tailored clothes but insists on designing these tents. If the sleeves are big, can’t the rest of it be smaller? Does the skirt have to be huge too?
She’s lovely but she seems to not get the idea of camouflage and fooling the eye.
Even skinny women wear tight dresses with black inserts on the side that make them look even thinner. A skinny black skirt or pants with bigger top creates a much nicer silhouette than a big puffy skirt and big puffy sleeves and fabric up to your chin.
And her color and print choice just makes it worse.
They DO look comfortable, though. I’m not a plus size, but I’d wear one of those dresses to work.
Me too! The dresses pictured here look comfy pretty and light enough for warm weather. Besides, I love me a good sleeve too!
I love sleeves as well! I get so cold sometimes and I hate having to wear jackets and cardigans and extra layers when sleeves would take care of everything.
It seems like recently, there is just so much sleeveless stuff. Especially on dresses.
She’s one of my favorites. She may not always be the funniest but her personality and her heart come through in every performance. Her attitudes about life are great and she really seems like someone who is a great friend.
Even Tammy?!
Or Identity Theft?
I just watched Tammy – turned it off. Ugh. I hated it. But I actually enjoyed Identity Thief.
Okay so I forgot about those. I think I was blinded by lack of coffee and the greatness of Sookie St. James. Forgive me..Tammy and Identity Thief were horrible.
I love Melissa, I do, but she seems to play the same character over and over again,and her weight is often the but of the joke ( that was my problem with Bridesmaids, why did the fat girl have to be obnoxious?). Sookie was probably her character I liked the most.
I actually love her designs, but do think with that much coverage, perhaps an updo? The hair makes it feel too drapey everywhere.
Good call. It makes me realize she rarely wears her hair up. It is pretty but I agree the loose hair is too much with the drapes dresses.
I love the dresses, if only they were in darker colours. It’s so hard to find dresses that are completely covered. Some of us like them that way!
And I like her hair down.
Yes! I’m not plus size but I want clothing that completely covers me, and you just can’t find it in stores.
SPY was awful.
The first 20 minutes were great, the rest was predictable and puerile.
Seriously?
I thought it was incredibly refreshing. I actually CRIED at the end because it was the first action movie I’ve ever seen that never once removed a woman’s agency or bodily autonomy, and that called out sexist BS, and that didn’t end with the predictable pairing-off. I even hate violence and gore, and the goriest scenes were some of the funniest. For that alone, it was far from “predictable” to me.
It also proved that you can make a film about fighting without using gratuitous objectification or relentless bloodshed. I want Paul Fieg to make ALL the action movies now.
Totally understand the puerile part though. I guess it isn’t for everyone… just surprised me that you could like the first 20 but hate the rest.
If the main acress wasn’t overweight, would there have been a pairing-off?
Someone didn’t stay to the end of the credits…
I’m going to have to agree with you. I thought it was awful. I was embarrassed by the crude language she used – it was a big turn off. And I thought Jason Statham looked and acted like a doofus. All the characters were giant pains in the asses. As someone said up above, she does the exact same role in every film and it’s tiring. Her clothing line looks very matronly – I am full sized and I would not wear those caftans. I like to be covered up and not sleeveless or short skirts but I would not buy her line if that’s all she has to offer.
Here’s a pet peeve of mine: news anchors wearing sleeveless dresses all winter long! Wth? And a lot of ’em could stand being covered up! I know it’s hot in a studio, but that’s just showing skin for ratings, amiright?
You know what? That annoys me, too! Especially since the men are all suited up.
That annoys me as well. My other pet peeve is when the anchors dress like they are going straight to a club afterwards. I wish they would all look professional. I don’t really need to know that te weather girl has a great body.
Ur right! It’s usually the weather gal cuz she’s gotta stand up and show it all! The other day one was wearing a tight, white dress and the spanx were wayyy too obvious. Smh.
Do weather girls need some sort of education to do their job? Here you need to have a degree in meteorology ( so a BA in physics) to be a weather man/woman.
Also, all our news anchors wear suits. One news anchor wore a revealing shirt and she got reprimanded.
Hear, hear! While I’m not saying female anchors need to wear a suit and tie, I do feel there should be some correlation between their dress level with that of their male counterparts, who always wear suits. And it’s not just the sleeveless dresses but the big hair, spray tans, and night club makeup. And all of it only goes to emphasize that the female anchors are often several decades younger than the male ones.
In LA, the weather girl fashion choices are something of a joke. There was a Norms restaurant commercial that came out with a montage of weather girls bouncing around saying the forecast was sunny, which got the guys in the commercial in the mood for sunny-side up eggs at Norms.
The boob/egg comparison was pretty obvious!
Lolz at that commercial idea!
I’ve noticed that too! Sometimes I think…did they tape this in advance somehow, at a different time of year????
I think you’re right that it’s about showing that extra bit of skin on screen. There must be some studies that show it keeps people on that channel.
Bianca de La Garza, anybody? I guess you have to be a Bostonian but it is so ridiculous the stuff this news anchor would wear, and this is like, during storm coverage. There’d be a blizzard going on and she’s got on a blouse with an eyelet thing showing her cleavage, absurdly tight clothes, etc. And like every female news anchor in Boston-more makeup that the Kardashian family combined.
Meanwhile, ZERO eye candy for the ladies. Jeff Glor was only local news anchor I ever crushed on and he went off to anchor the Sunday edition of CBS Evening News.
I demand equality!!!!!!
I’ve gotta check this out now! I would’ve bet this kind of thing was NOT going on in BOSTON, of all places! I’m in DC, so figured it was more of a southern thing. Although last night I did notice Maureen Bunyan wearing a beautiful silk shirt dress with the loveliest cuffed sleeves. Thank god she doesn’t put up with any of that tomfoolery!
*coughs* I think her website says it all:
http://www.biancadelagarza.com/
She seems like a nice lady and all, I just don’t see her as a real news anchor, much less a real journalist. Then again, the quality of news anchors on local Boston stations has been steadily declining for years. Basically, just a bunch of pretty faces with no real journalistic talent. But who knows, maybe that’s all that’s required these days?
I just googled Maureen Bunyan and yeah, she seems like the real deal. Send her to Boston please!
EDIT: Apparently Bianca recently left the morning news anchor spot to pursue a career in the entertainment industry…LOL…good for her I guess.
Not so for us down here in New Orleans. We have a legit model- turned actor-turned news anchor, to swoon over. Charles Divens. Look him up. Yummy.
@Girlinbayou-GOOD LORD he is hot. I remember he played Chad on Passions and I was in love with him lol…he’s a news anchor now?? The ladies of Nola are lucky!
Oh BROTHER, this Bianca! Idk if I’m stereotyping regions or if I’m just naïve, but I figured NE anchors would be a bit preppier, or more classic-looking. Was I wrong! Well, plus, I’m old. The banner on her website looked a bit soft-core, dontcha think?!?! Lol!
Maureen Bunyan is not allowed to go anywhere.
http://www.elsiglodedurango.com.mx/noticia/218130.10-chicas-del-clima-mexicanas-que-aumentan-la-temperatura.html
this is what we deal here in Mx -_-
I think she looks good in her designs. I love the flowiness of the dresses. They look light and comfy. And I’m assuming that’s one of her designs she’s wearing on the People cover. I love it! It’s very flattering. She’s a really beautiful woman (inside & out).
You’re awesome, Melissa! Don’t ever change!
Sleeves can be tricky once you get into plus sizes. A lot of women carry a disproportionate amount of weight in their upper arm area, but make bigger sleeves and they look ridiculous on the other half of your customer base who don’t have that issue. The obvious answer is to make the dresses in stretchy fabric, but once you get above a certain size the market for form-fitting clothes shrinks.
A lot of people will just live with it if a skirt is a little tight or a pair of jeans don’t fit quite right or if a waistline isn’t exactly where it should be. But I’ll fitting sleeves make it hard to move properly and you feel and look like the Hulk. It’s not worth it to designers to add sleeves and turn off a lot of their customers when they can just make jackets and cardigans and wraps and customers who need to can go up a size or two for those items.
I’d never thought of that but it makes sense. With any size, I’d guess it’s easier to just not deal with making sleeves. I personally hate anything sleeveless and was really upset when I needed to get a dress for my sister’s wedding a couple years ago and it took me forever to find something with a little cap sleeve, which to me is so much nicer and more flattering than sleeveless. J Crew.
Last year I needed a new dress for another event and I didn’t even bother to try to find one with sleeves. I just bought a cardigan to go with it. Which ended up working out fine since the a/c in the venue was on full blast the whole time. Everyone was shivering.
Short sleeves are not that tricky, really (longer sleeves can be more problematic, but interestingly, they are a lot easier to find than short sleeves). Most short sleeves in my size fit me just fine. I think it’s just lazy designing. Most women who are not in tip-top shape, even those who are not overweight by any standard, but do not have a lot of muscle definition either, prefer to cover up the top of their arms in everyday life, yet I feel like 90% of dresses and 70% of summer tops are sleeveless. It’s very annoying. It’s very easy to go sleeveless if that’s what you prefer, but it’s super hard to find sleeves if you want them.
Sleeves are also practical for sun protection in the summer.
So, go, Melissa! Sleeves and pockets forever, let’s make clothes practical again, rather than see through eye candy with no sleeves and deep cleavage.
Great cover! I saw Spy and loved it, it was hilarious and everyone in it was fantastic.
We know you had fun working with the ultimate bloke. I know I would.
I like the dress in the cover but I dislike the beige dress ( beige and show more skin please) and her hair is too long for me
I really like the designs, too. Some people want to have things covered, and why not have it in a beautiful pattern and a nicer design. It’s like modern modesty. Now, I tend to fancy a deep V myself, but am all for full leg and/or arm coverage
I am kind of tired of her trying to position herself as some fashion expert because took some textile class in college or whatever before she dropped out. I don’t mind the dresses but they look kind of dated to me.
She went to FIT, a pretty prestigious fashion school, not sure for how long, but she at least does have some education in the field. A lot of celebrities start clothing lines with much less than that.
I’m a size six, but in my family, we all have big upper arms, not pretty Michelle Obama ones either, disproportionately big…I too love sleeves…I look terrible in sleeveless. Hooray for sleeves!
I have the same exact issue! My arms are huge for my small size. I’ve actually had people point it out to me , like I didn’t know or something right? Total bingo arms! No workout in the world has ever done a thing- it’s depressing. So I feel the “I NEED a sleeve all the time” pain. Even in the summer I won’t go sleeveless – 3/4 length is my best friend lol although the dead of summer is a beast but I wear my sleeves and deal. Sleeveless items for women with bigger arms just isn’t flattering , yet clothing companies just don’t get it. Well really they don’t care. I mean I can’t count how many shirts,dress and so on I have that are way too thin and see through. Yeah because that’s what women want! So asking for a sleeve is way too much to handle apparently. Haha
I could be a size 2 and my arms would still be huge. I was just looking for maternity wear with sleeves and found nothing. So frustrating.
I thought I was the only one! I’m also a size 6, but my arms are so huge, it’s depressing. All the cardio, weights, and healthy eating in the world won’t make them smaller. Even at my lightest, they were still huge. I am dreading spending the summer in south Texas because the heat and sleeves will make for some very uncomfortable moments. In short, hooray sleeves!
Love the design, but she needs to work on fabric selection. Sleeves- in hotter climates, they are almost unbearable this time of year, so hooray for cardis. Love Melissa and Miranda Hart- watch seasons 1 and 2 of Call the Midwife for lots of Miranda!!
I vote yes for sleeves. No one wants to see my upper arms!
Honestly compared to bedazzled illusion netting, bandage dresses, layers of spanx- I’m into this- great dress ideas, moar sleeves- Go Melissa!
I have skinny toothpick arms and I LIVE for sleeves!!! I never, ever go without. Even in summer. Go Melissa!
“Jason Statham was literally crawling up my body like a ladder. And I was like, ‘What am I doing and how did I get here? And how delightful is this?’ ”
Right on. I’ve honestly really only seen her in a couple of things that I didn’t really like, but she’s starting to grow on me. I may have to check out some of her other work.
I really like the top dress. She should swap up the sleeves in length &/or materials, though.
If you like Jason, you’ll love Spy. He basically plays a caricature of himself and it’s WONDERFUL.
I love her (fell in love with her as Sookie) and she looks drop dead beautiful on People’s cover. Haven’t seen Spy yet but want to see it this weekend!
She’s just so gorgeous. Like Adele, she looks good the way she is, no need to lose any pound.
I like to be covered up so I like her dresses. She looks beautiful.
She will always be Sookie St. James to me. Love her! She had great comedic timing even way back then.
I love whenever Melissa McCarthy wins because a win for her really seems like a win for the average American woman, and I mean that has a huge compliment. Melissa is beautiful, smart, funny, and she really does seem to be just like so many of us- balancing career and family, wanting to be healthier and stronger and more self confident and finding ways to have those characteristics without losing balance in her life. I hope she has more and more hits on film. I am going to see Spy this weekend and cannot wait. I liked Bridesmaids fine, but I really liked Heat. Sandra Bullock doesn’t get enough credit as a comedic actress, but she is really quite excellent, and of course, Melissa rocked that movie.
I like her and her hair/makeup look great. I am not a fan of her fashions so far, but she gets props cause she is doing it her way. And it sounds like she is having a blast.
I saw spy over the weekend and thought it was so fun! Good ensemble cast.. and melissa has excellent comic timing.. almost a natural. Really good movie. Will make for a fun night out 🙂
Is it just me or does she actively seem to be sucking in her cheeks and biting down on them to make her face look slimmer in the cover pic? The weird open mouth laugh-gasp that she’s got going on here is a dead give-away.
See Carolina Herrera post, …she has sleeves….. lovely!
“How I did it my way”- what the actual faulk, People? why not say “Look! Fat girl from the farmland makes good”.. asshats.
I saw Spy with my husband and we both laughed out loud too many to count. No “fat” jokes. Rose Byrne bantering with Melissa McCarthy was priceless. These woman are really good together. Jason Statham was hilarious. I thought all casting was good. I cannot remember the last comedy I saw that truly made me laugh. I could see there being sequels to this one. I say go MM you work it and enjoy JS crawling up you like a ladder!
What on earth is she talking about here: For years, she says, Hollywood had certain expectations for female comedians. Being funny “couldn’t be through your personality or actions, you just had to look crazy…”
Reminds me of her comment about larger clothing sizes being hidden behind the tire section at stores.
I pretty much like her but those two comments make it seem like she’s just making stuff up to illustrate how difficult her life as a larger woman and female comedian was and neither claim is true. It makes me like her less.
I don’t know what it is, but she leaves me cold. And her appearance on Graham Norton…snoooooze. I’m glad for her she’s getting successful in a famously superficial industry, but I just can’t with her.
I just saw it last night! Spy was lots of fun, burst out laughing hope not to pee your pants, tears streaming down your face funny! She was great. It was also a treat to see Jude, Jason & Miranda!