According to Barbra Streisand, all she was trying to say was that Melissa McCarthy looked “fantastic!”
In April, McCarthy had taken to Instagram to share a photo of herself with her friend, director Adam Shankman, at a gala event in Los Angeles wearing matching pastel outfits. “Give him my regards,” Streisand replied in the comments, before adding, “did you take Ozempic?” Those final four words triggered an online brouhaha — one Reddit discussion amassed nearly 600 responses, ranging from “100% this is how boomers and above communicate on social media” to “Babs what are you doing!?!” Even Richard Simmons chimed in: “What a question,” the fitness guru wrote on Facebook. Streisand deleted the comment and posted an explanation on X: “She looked fantastic! I just wanted to pay her a compliment,” she said. “I forgot the world is reading!”
McCarthy, for her part, took Streisand’s faux pas in stride — at least, publicly: “The takeaway, Barbra Streisand knows I exist,” McCarthy said in a follow-up video. “She reached out to me, and she thought I looked good! I win the day.” The original photo she posted, however, was deleted. Americans have long considered discussions of appearance — of our bodies, in particular — taboo in “polite” conversation. But social media is a not-polite place, and this taboo has rarely been upheld at school lunch tables, grocery stores and family reunions. In actuality, overweight people are often not extended the common courtesies that thinner people may take for granted.
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