This week’s National Enquirer claims that Kirstie Alley is upset because she signed a deal with Oprah to do her own talk show last year, but that talks stalled and Kirstie’s plans were on hold. When she heard that Jenny McCarthy got a lucrative deal with Harpo Productions, Kirstie was very upset that she was passed up in favor of McCarthy:

Now Kirstie, whose own Oprah-sponsored talk show stalled, believes that Harpo productions is passing on her project because she’s packed on a huge amount of weight this year – some 83 pounds, according to a source close to Kirstie.

“Kirstie feels like she’s been kicked in the head!” the source confided.

“Last year she signed a deal with Oprah to do her own show. But nothing ever came to fruition and many speculated it was due to her weight gain.

“She thought she’d discuss her future talk show after her most recent appearance on Oprah, but by then Harpo producers were on the bring of announcing Jenny’s new show, which is expected to air before the end of the year.

“Kirstie’s show is still just an idea,” the source said.

“She’s really mad that she didn’t push harder and nag Oprah more, because now she sees Jenny’s show as taking her spot on the Harpo lineup.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, June 1, 2009]

Remember when Kirstie Alley announced in February, 2008 that she wanted to start her own weight loss brand after she was ditched by Jenny Craig? She said “I want to create something new that will help millions of people end the seemingly never ending fatty-roller coaster ride.” She went on to gain even more weight and then she did that mea culpa press tour a month ago with more promises that she would lose the weight and had some great program to reveal afterwards. Usually her weight gain would be no one’s business except that Kirstie keeps bringing it up.

Kirstie signed her deal with Oprah back in March, 2008, and instead of stepping up and becoming a little fitter after that point she kind of “spiraled” – to use a Scientology term – down. She didn’t need to get down a size 6, she just needed to show that she was committed to following through on her promise and getting healthier. So she lost her deal with Oprah. Oprah has faced her own battles with food and should of course understand that life happens and people gain weight. When it’s that much weight after someone hinges their whole public image on losing it, it just makes them look like they can’t follow through.

I feel bad for even covering this issue though and like Oprah Kirstie should be applauded for bringing awareness to something so many people struggle with. It’s possible Oprah just realized that Kirstie was a liability, though, and her weight wasn’t even an issue. Kirstie is a Scientologist who has a lot of strange beliefs that don’t seem to be based on any kind of facts.