Melissa McCarthy Elle Cover Receives Backlash For Being Too Clothed, Magazine Defends 'Women in Hollywood' Issue
Actress Melissa McCarthy is on the front of Elle magazine's annual "Women in Hollywood" issue, but not everyone is happy about the way she is dressed on the November cover.
The publication received criticism for covering up the curvy 43-year-old, who is barely showing any skin wearing a charcoal Marina Rinaldi coat as she looks away from the camera.
Previous covers for the annual issue featured Reese Witherspoon in a fitted black Versace dress, Shailene Woodley wearing a black swimsuit, Sarah Jessica Parker in a cutout dress and Jennifer Aniston in short pants with a matching tank top.
Elle responded to the backlash by defending McCarthy's cover look.
"On all of our shoots, our stylists work with the stars to choose pieces they feel good in, and this is no different: Melissa loved this look, and is gorgeous on our cover," a spokesperson for the Elle said in a statement. "We are thrilled to honor her as one of our Women in Hollywood this year."
McCarthy's appearance has received backlash in the past as well. Some speculated that she had her face Photoshopped to look slimmer in a United Kingdom promotional picture for her film The Heat.
In June, film critic Rex Reed wrote a derogatory review of McCarthy in The New York Observer for her performance in Identity Theft. He described the mother of two as a "hippo," "tractor-sized" and called her "a gimmick comedian who has devoted her short career to being obese and obnoxious with equal success."
The Bridesmaids star later addressed the comments in The New York Times, saying she was concerned about the criticism solely because it showed society to be image-obsessed.
"I felt really bad for someone who is swimming in so much hate," she told the newspaper. "I just thought, that's someone who's in a really bad spot, and I am in such a happy spot. I laugh my head off every day with my husband and my kids who are mooning me and singing me songs."
We live in a society where there is a "a strange epidemic of body image and body dysmorphia," she added, noting how articles like Reed's "just add to all those younger girls, that are not in a place in their life where they can say, 'That doesn't reflect on me.' "
