Former “The Facts of Life” co-stars Lisa Whelchel and Mindy Cohn gab about flab in the upcoming (June 3) issue of People magazine.
While Whelchel says she was ordered to lose weight while playing Blair Warner on the ’80s sitcom, Cohn says she was told, in no uncertain terms, to actually gain weight for her role as Natalie Green.
“Imagine having your entire puberty onscreen. That’s what we lived with,” Cohn, 46, tells People.
(The issues is out today on newsstands in New York and LA.)
“Our bodies were a topic of conversation,” says Whelchel, 50. “There wasn’t the Internet, but we knew what people were saying. Joan Rivers called us ‘The Fats of Life.’
“The producers sent me to quite a few fat farms!,” Whelchel says. “I’d say, ‘I’m going to Texas on my hiatus,’ and they’d say, ‘Oh, no you’re not. We bought you a ticket to a fat farm.”
“They did the best they could with what they had, but the producers were men who were talking to teenage girls about their bodies,” says Cohn. “Awkward!
“The summer I turned 17, my metabolism changed. I became active. I came back from hiatus — looking good, mind you — and was told, ‘What happened to you? You have to gain the weight back.’
“I took offense because Natalie wasn’t defined as ‘the fat girl,’ ” Cohn says. “People on the outside defined her like that, but there weren’t fat jokes about her on the show. I came home saying, ‘I have to gain 40 lbs.’ And my mother said, ‘That’s not happening.’ She told the producers to go to a school to see what normal girls look like at our age.”
“The Facts of Life” aired for nine seasons on NBC (1979-1988).
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oe Bastianich and Graham Elliot . . . GSN airs a sneak peek of “Minute To Win It,” with host Apolo Anton Ohno, tomorrow (10 p.m.) following the season finale of “The American Bible Challenge” . . . For the first time in its history, Telemundo beat The CW, for the season, in adults 18-49 and adults 18-34 from 8-10 p.m. . . . Jay Leno guests on this Sunday’s episode of “Overhaulin’ ” on Velocity (8 p.m.) . . . Former “American Idol” judge Randy Jackson shills his “American Tribute” guitar collection this Saturday on HSN (across all platforms).