Monday, 11 December 2006

Kate Winslet finds ultra-thin stars 'unbelievably disturbing'

Actrress keeps magazines with size zero models away from her daughter

Kate Winslet considers images of "size zero" models and actresses "unbelievably disturbing," she says – and she keeps magazines with those pictures out of the house, where they could be seen by her 6-year-old daughter, Mia.

"It's only a matter of time before she becomes aware of it and it frightens the life out of me," the 31-year-old star of The Holiday said on BBC One's Sunday AM program.

"It's so disturbing, because young girls are impressionable from 11 up to 19 or 20, even. Women are very impressionable at those ages," she said. "They're trying to figure out who they are, and they want to be loved, and what I resent is that there is an image of perfection that is getting thinner and thinner, and it's truly upsetting to me."

Winslet is not the only one to speak out against the tendency among models and celebrities to be extremely thin. In September, the organizers of Madrid Fashion Week banned models below a minimum body-mass index, and the death of model Ana Carolina Reston last month from anorexia heightened awareness of the trend's very real dangers.

Winslet did speak admiringly of actresses Emma Thompson and Meryl Streep, saying "their faces move."

Besides Mia, whose father is Winslet's first husband, Jim Threapleton, the actress and her current husband, director Sam Mendes, have a son, Joe, who turns 3 on Dec. 22.

"I hope that in some small way I'm able to say 'I'm a normal person, I'm doing all right, I've got a lovely husband and children and I didn't lose weight to find those things, and those things are what should be important,' " Winslet said.