A brave journalist friend of mine, as it happens, had the idea years earlier, donned a pillow-filled suit and an artificially inflated face, and turned her ordeal into a touching magazine piece. It wasn't an entirely original gambit even in 2003. Kaley Cuoco, a very assured and attractive young star, plays a girl named Aly (real teen's name: Ali - creative license?), who disguises her athletic body and adorable face with padding and prosthetics so that she can live life as a fat person - and then turn her experiences into a documentary called, surprise surprise, 'Fat Like Me.' It takes about 15 minutes to set up the premise, which is based on a New York teenager's real-life adventure, taped and aired by ABC News in 2003. She literally shuts the door in the viewer's face.
When, in tonight's film, the teenage heroine's mother cries, she does it off-camera. In addition, all women depicted must be 'empowered' to some degree, with no sign of weakness.
