Back in May, Kate Winslet sued The Daily Mail for libel, over a piece they ran back during the awards season. The article was by a Mail reporter/columnist named Liz Jones, and it was called “Should Kate Winslet Win an Oscar for the World’s Most Irritating Actress?” Jones blasted Kate for discussing her diet and workout regime in the press, and Jones claimed Winslet “lied” about only doing Pilates and nothing else. Jones wrote that Winslet “has become, in my opinion, as drippy and as impossibly vain as the rest of them. She caught a nasty dose of Hollywooditis. It happens to the best of them, of course it does. It is the duplicitousness that enrages me and most other women I have spoken to.” When Winslet sued, she asked for a settlement in the neighborhood of $200,000.
Winslet was vindicated in the courts – sort of. She won the lawsuit, and she was awarded $40,000. Winslet released a statement on the legal victory: “I am delighted that the Mail have apologized for making false allegations about me. I was particularly upset to be accused of lying about my exercise regime, and felt that I had a responsibility to request an apology in order to demonstrate my commitment to the views that I have always expressed about body issues, including diet and exercise.” Here’s more:
Lawyers for Kate Winslet say the actress has accepted 25,000 pounds (more than $40,000) in damages after the Daily Mail falsely reported in January she lied about her exercise regime.
Winslet was not in court for Tuesday’s settlement, but through her lawyers said she wanted an apology “to demonstrate my commitment to the views that I have always expressed about body issues, including diet and exercise.”
Winslet has been an outspoken critic of excessive dieting. In 2007, she won damages against a British magazine which wrongly stated she had visited a diet doctor.
The actress won both an Oscar and a Golden Globe earlier this year for her performance in “The Reader.”
Associated Newspapers, owners of the Daily Mail, apologized for “any distress caused.”
[From The Huffington Post]
Winslet is known as someone who will threaten lawsuits or actually sue publications over anything. Maybe I’m being too harsh – while I admire that Kate stands up for herself legally and professionally, and I definitely think these publications had it coming, Kate only seems to get angry when it’s about body image stuff. In 2003, GQ UK had to issue Winslet an apology over the digital enhancement to Kate’s body. Then in 2007, Winslet won another libel lawsuit, this time against Grazia Magazine, who had claimed she was visiting diet doctors. She got another apology for that one.
Here’s the thing – I like Kate and everything, but she’s lied in the press before, especially when it comes to her image as a working mother, just like everyone else. While I don’t think she visits diet doctors or anything, I do think she’s worked hard to become this more streamlined Hollywood actress. Maybe I’m totally off base – but I found her Oscar campaign a little annoying, too.
Kate Winslet and her son Joe Mendes are seen in New York on September 25, 2009. Credit: INF Photos.
I don’t know why the magazines obsess about her weight. I think she looks fantastic, beautiful and healthy, and more importantly she is a tremendously talented actress who completely deserved all the award attention she received last year.
I can’t blame her for not putting up with what they write about her. Not only does it possibly have an impact on her career, but it sends a very poor message to other young women.
She seems to be a nice woman and a good mom to her kids, and she has never, in my opinion, exhibited any of the stupid Hollywood type behavior we normally see. After Titanic she could have easily gotten into the fame and party scene, but she seems to have focused on her career and getting great roles.
Has anybody else read Liz Jones? I’d like to sue her for being annoying.
She can do no wrong as far as I’m concerned. One reason I’m so glad not to be famous is – I never have to worry about people judging me for what I look like rather than my skills/intelligence/abilities. If they do judge me, they keep it to themselves and it’s not splashed on tabloids, with pictures of cellulite blown up 3x.
man, reading your website is torture. Women can’t win, can they? It seems you guys have something negative to say about every woman in Hollywood. Isn’t this site written by women? Shameful.
I wish more actors and actresses would sue the tabloids and so called entertainment news programs. Truth doesn’t sell so cover stories are often fanciful lies. There are so many performers who are constantly ridiculed, embarrassed, and harassed. I could think of a long list of people who have been victims of an over zealous tabloid media but maybe the most famous would be the “golden triangle” of Pitt/Jolie/Aniston.
I applaud Ms. Winslet’s proactive approach to the objectification of women. By taking legal action against media outlets that publish lies about her fitness/diet/health she is setting an example for young ladies: you don’t have to take it.
Her words aren’t contradictory; I believe that she does not place the same value on appearance as does Hollywood/media. That said, she doesn’t have to take their very real abuse because she doesn’t share their values.
This is the message I want women to hear: your value is not calculated by your measurements BUT by golly you do NOT have to tolerate someone calling you fat.
Love her.
I love her as an actress. I think she’s top notch on that end. But I’ve heard that she can be a bit of an a$$. I never wanted to even believe it before but now I do.
I think it’s funny how you write an article about how annoying Kate Winslet is and everyone defends her and has no negative comments.
I bet if Liz Jones would write a piece about someone like Gwen Paltrow (someone most people can’t stand), it would be about what a lovely person she is.
My point, reporters need to stop kissing up to celebrities and write what people actually want to read.
I really don’t know why Kate keeps harping on how she’s called ‘fat’ by the industry. Everyone who has a brain knows that the industry isn’t about pleasing the actors/actresses, it’s about pleasing the audience. As for her being called ‘fat’ in the past, it is the past not the present. She keeps going on and on and on about how she isn’t a neglectful mother who hires nannies, blah blah blah.
I’m tired of it because all these actresses are working 24/7 to be portrayed as ‘better’ than the other dolt actresses and the only one who doesn’t is Megan Fox and yet she (Megan) is bashed nonstop. Kate is an actress and has dyed her fantastic hair blonde; she’s not exactly working in the Peace Corps.
I love Kate Winslet and I think she is beautiful, but I am tired of hearing about her “weight and body issues”. She just like Reese W. spend a little too much time trying to relate to real women and they both come off as insincere. And I too was a little annoyed by the relentless Oscar campaign (and the fawning) because she is too good of an actress to buy into that crap.
While I also wish her interviews weren’t all so body image et al heavy, I think good on her for suing. The utter crap that’s printed these days is constanting going unchecked which apparently makes it okay. If more publications were held accountable things would be a little easier. Go Kate.
I just wanna know wassup with the Kate, Sam and Leo triangle. Any news on that front?
her kid looks fat. Maybe she should rethink her ‘excessive dieting’ stance.
LOVE her!
The entire legal action in itself is proof of her annoying aspect and ego, as it is with all celebrities; to be an actor, you need some ego. That’s a fact. What I find irritating is the way actors deny it, then they do something that disproves their alleged normalcy. Clogging up the legal system with petty lawsuits ‘for the supposed principal’ is pure ego and part PR. To think that these celebrities clog up the legal system with their egotistical rubbish, instead of turning the other cheek and getting on with their work.
The fact is that she was airbrushed. The fact is that all women know that you can’t seriously shift flab without intense exercise that goes beyond pilates. Women are aware of these facts but actresses like Kate Winslet and Nicole Kidman actually insult the collective intelligence of women. I swear, I’m on the lookout for old Kidman magazine covers going back to her pre BMX Bandit days, so I can publish that just to prove her “everything you see is natural” rubbish is just that, rubbish.
silly woman, silly lawsuit
i dunno.. i like how she keeps pushing back at how stupid diets keep using her as an excuse to spread themselves further.
she’s got a daughter now. i doubt she wants her daughter growing up thinking that a woman’s body is all that matters. all moms try to educate their daughters on body image, but kate’s one of the few who’s in a position where she can try to change the very system that beats our little girls down.
i think that’s what she’s trying to do.
Good on her.
For Kate Winslet, its not just about body image, but its about her career. For many she is seen as the exemplification of a ‘healthy’ body in hollywood- its part of her appeal.
As such, claims like this not only affect her personal reputation (ie, someone has told thousands of people that she is a liar with no basis for that allegation) but also her ability to make a living. Just because she has a public profile, doesnt mean that people can slander her.
If I was in the position where someone called me a liar, I would be p*ssed, and just like Winslet, I would sue the person, or publication that was libeling me.
“Clogging up the legal system with petty lawsuits ‘for the supposed principal’ is pure ego and part PR. To think that these celebrities clog up the legal system with their egotistical rubbish, instead of turning the other cheek and getting on with their work.”
I still can’t understand why they don’t just get on with it and then sue only when they have absolutely no choice at all when it comes to their reputation. As for principles, if they had them they would not be in the entertainment industry.
Humph. Everyone knows what she looks like because she won’t keep her damn clothes on. What’s next? Best Supporting Litigation, Most Improved Martyrdom Complex? Guiness World Record for Most Prolonged Oscar-Grub in History? Least Convincing Everywoman? Fullbright Scholarship for her work on a personal history of solipsistic self-pity? Can you imagine if Strom Thurmond teamed up with her and just filibustered the roof off of the place?
I was intrigued by the title of this entry because I wasn’t sure where it was going to lead. I absolutely don’t envy the pressure, but after reading that she’s still going on about this, I’m feeling a little twitchy. I didn’t realize that she had sued SO many people. I don’t really know what the point is at this point. We’ve heard her say her speech (for fifteen years), I don’t think anyone wants to be made to feel unattractive. Being assertive and standing up for yourself is one thing, but to me, this constant over-earnest pandering–for the sake of the ‘kids’–is just silly and vain. The best revenge is living well and not letting yourself be drawn into the melee. These hissy-fits are just enervating. She’s talented, she’s got money, a family, a successful career and respect from her colleagues. She’s good-looking (I don’t buy for a second that whole ‘You think I’m beautiful? What, me? false modesty is genuine, but whatever), she’s healthy, and she gets the pick of the litter for all of those middlebrow ‘very serious drama’ roles… I mean, I don’t know her life, but I’m feeling like she should go to the fridge, stop obsessing about the contents, and have a big glass of ‘quit-yer-bitchin juice’.