14 DAY TRIAL // Jenny McCarthy is speaking out to deny a tabloid report according to which she banned her cousin, actress Melissa McCarthy, from her wedding to Donnie Wahlberg because she’s too fat and would ruin the official wedding photos.
The rumor isn’t exactly new, but for some reason, it’s picked up in the past few days. Reports of a feud between these two have also been making the rounds for a very long time, even though, when Melissa was attacked by a film critic for her weight in a review for “Identity Thief,” in 2013, Jenny was among the first to publicly defend her.
While Jenny’s statement to People Magazine might convince everyone that she never told Melissa she needed to lose weight, it might fail to convince too many that they’re not feuding.
“They also say that I’ve ‘banned’ Melissa from my upcoming wedding, which is also ridiculous,” she says. “Donnie and I are planning a very intimate ceremony that will involve a very small group of our closest friends and that’s it – not a huge production with hundreds of friends and extended families.”
So she hasn’t banned Melissa from the wedding but she’s not invited either. Just recently, Jenny told Howard Stern that she was thinking she’d have about 80 people at the wedding, so she’s not really thinking of having a “very small” ceremony: there would still be one place for a cousin. Not for Melissa, though.
That aside, Jenny laments our current celebrity culture in which, whenever two women are mentioned in the same sentence, it’s for the purpose of having them at each other’s throats. She’s right about that.
The former VH1 VJ, who recently left The View amidst speculation that her one-year contract wasn’t renewed because she failed to deliver ratings as expected, says that she helped Melissa break into the industry back in the day when she was just a struggling actress.
“There is a crazy story going around that I once told my cousin, Melissa, that she would have to lose weight in order to get into show business. Nothing could be further from the truth. When she was starting out, I was fortunate enough to be in a position to get her a job on a show I was doing, to learn the ropes and get some experience on a TV set in front of the camera and behind the scenes,” she says.
“She has accomplished everything she has accomplished through hard work and her extraordinary talent, and I’ve only ever encouraged and supported and wished her the very best,” Jenny adds.
It’s true that Melissa has accomplished more than other women in showbiz, so she must have done it through hard work. Today, she is one of the highest rated comedic actresses, even though there still are reviewers who regularly trash her for “promoting” obesity and turning the fact that she’s overweight into a gag.