Celebrities weigh in on struggles

On the A&E show "Kirstie Alley's Big Life," the star sits in bed, working on her laptop and talking to her kids about her weight. "Does it upset you that I'm fat?" she asks them. "No," they both reply, the end of the word going up slightly the way it does in uncomfortable situations.

"Slightly?" she says. "It's never embarrassing?"

The kids — 17-year-old son True and 15-year-old daughter Lillie — look down and say no again.

"You're not —" True begins, and Alley finishes his sentence: " — circus fat?"

Welcome to the era of the fat celebrity. No longer is it shameful, shocking or a career killer for the famous to make weight struggles the centerpiece of their lives. In fact, they're making money off of it.

And we can't get enough.

In addition to Alley's show, we have:

"Carnie Wilson: Unstapled," in which cameras follow the singer-performer-author as she goes about her life. They chronicle, among other things, her efforts to lose the weight she gained after bariatric surgery and after giving birth to two children. She complains to her trainer that stretching hurts, frets to her sex therapist that she doesn't feel desirable and worries that her young daughter Lola is becoming a little too fond of sugar.

"Celebrity Fit Club: Boot Camp," a reality show that pits a bottomless pool of chubby D-list notables against one another to see who can drop the most pounds through rigorous diet and exercise. Put through their paces by tough-but-lovable trainer Harvey Walden IV, some lose weight, some maintain and a few actually gain during the show.

"My Footprint," a new book by actor and comedian Jeff Garlin, who plays Larry David's portly friend and manager on "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Proving that food obsessions aren't just a girl thing, Garlin writes about the repercussions of his compulsive overeating in excruciating detail. He'll start his diet after he finishes those empanadas. No, after Yom Kippur. No, after eating that entire box of chocolates.

Then there was the Kevin Smith cause celebre, in which the director and actor was booted off Southwest Airlines earlier this year for being too heavy to fit into his seat. He tweeted the news himself, touching off days of Internet ranting and media discussions on obesity, fat acceptance and whether obese people pose a safety risk on airplanes. Smith has been frank about his size before in his blog and various interviews, previously confessing to once breaking a toilet. No doubt Smith isn't finished thrashing out this subject.