Jennifer Love Hewitt found headlines last winter when unflattering paparazzi photos prompted her to cry, "To all girls with butts, boobs, hips and a waist, put on a bikini--put it on and stay strong." Sadly, it appeared that Hewitt then took advice from 30 Rock's Jack Donaghy ("She needs to lose thirty pounds or gain fifty. In between has no place in television"), for she re-emerged sharing her weight loss secrets on the cover of Us Weekly two months ago. Now, Hewitt tells TV Guide that the mixed message was just one innocent misunderstanding:

TVGuide.com: Having lashed back at the media about that "controversy" [Hewitt blogged, "I've sat by in silence for a long time now about the way women's bodies are constantly scrutinized.... I'm not upset for me, but for all of the girls out there that are struggling with their body image"], did you hesitate about participating in that Us Weekly cover story about your 18-lb. weight loss?
Hewitt: You know what's funny is I didn't participate in it. Everybody thinks I did, but.... They talked to my trainer, who I think was just trying to say nice things and it kind of went on. I literally got a phone call saying, "P.S. You're going to be on the cover of Us, and they're talking about you losing weight." I was like, "What?!" [Laughs]

TVGuide.com: I myself thought, "How could she do that, having criticized the media for obsessing on body image?"
Hewitt: I know, and that's what everybody keeps concentrating on, but I had nothing to do with it. I didn't go lose weight because of that. I'm not a "work out" kind of girl -- I'd rather shop or see a movie! -- but I got this "bug" in me to run a marathon for my 30th birthday [next Feb. 21]. I started training, and when you're doing anything like that which you're not used to, you drop weight. When I heard all the compliments and nice things, it made me nervous. I didn't want people to think what I said [last year] wasn't true, because I stand by what I said. People's bodies are going to change. Sometimes you're going to go up, sometimes you're going to go down.... I wish people would stop talking about it all together, to be quite honest.

Perhaps, we might suggest, she should stop giving interviews about it then? Or, at the very least, stop staging paparazzi photos where she "trains" in full makeup? Sorry, Love: we're thin on sympathy around here.

• Jennifer Love Hewitt: Ghost Stories and Much More [Tv Guide]

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