THIS YEAR IS THE 30TH ANNIVERsary of the pilot of The Ricki Lake Show. Looking back, it was unbelievably presumptuous for me to think I could host a show at the age of 24. I didn't have a sense of who I was or what I believed in at that time.
I had a very sheltered upbringing and grew up in a small town outside of New York City, where I went to public school until 11th grade. My dad was a pharmacist, my mom was a homemaker and I had one sister. Very generic. I wasn't around openly gay people and my town wasn't that diverse. I was very young and innocent in a lot of ways. But meeting [director] John Waters, and working on the movie Hairspray (1988) at the age of 20 with the most outrageous people of all walks of life, blew my world wide open.
I think playing Tracy Turnblad in that movie and being the fat girl that overcomes adversity, gets the guy and wins the contest, made me more relatable and "girl next door." I'm someone who struggled with my weight openly, and came from out of nowhere and became a star overnight. I think my story was appealing to a lot of people; I was very non-threatening, which made me palatable to an audience as a talk-show host.
Hosting My Own Talk Show I was 100 percent myself while hosting Ricki Lake. One of the things I'm most proud of is that I refused to wear an IFB-a device you wear in your ear, so the control room has access to you and can tell you, "Don't forget to say this." I didn't want someone telling me what to say, and I didn't want to be distracted, so I kind of produced myself on the fly, along with my co-executive producer, Gail Steinberg, who would be on the sidelines.
Denne historien er fra December 30, 2022-utgaven av Newsweek US.
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Denne historien er fra December 30, 2022-utgaven av Newsweek US.
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Can Alternative Therapies Treat Cancer?
Doctor and breast cancer survivor Liz O'Riordan addresses misinformation around managing the disease
Falling for Romance
A new book, Nora Ephron at the Movies, celebrates the writer/director best known for her iconic rom-coms and strong female characters
Cracking the Norse Code
Walrus DNA has shown that Vikings were likely the first to have encountered Indigenous North Americans
Monumental Shift
The discovery of 165-million-year-old crystals Easter Island has upended the longheld notion of how the Earth's \"conveyor belt\" moves
'OUR FOREIGN POLICY AND DOMESTIC REFORMS ARE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN'
It is a well-known fact across the globe that the North Korean regime is irrational and unpredictable, but we have been consistent in strengthening our defense posture against the threat from North Korea since the Korean War, and I believe that their conventional capability is much inferior to that of the Korean military.
'They Read My Eulogy As I Lay in an Open Grave'
Like Paris Hilton, Natasia Pelowski claims she was subjected to abuse at a teenage therapy program
Russian Economy Faces 'Burnout
Vladimir Putin admits difficulties” as the country’s key interest rate reaches a historic high
China's 'Silent Chemical War'
The U.S. must investigate Beijing's role in the manufacturing of fentanyl that is killing Americans, says one mom whose daughter died after accidentally taking the illicit substance
HARSH HEADWINDS
President Yoon Suk Yeol's BATTLE to reform a South Korea beset with structural problems under the specter of an increasingly aggressive neighbor to THE NORTH
Bridget Everett
BRIDGET EVERETT NEVER THOUGHT SHE'D BE THE LEAD OF A TV SHOW. \"I come from the downtown world in New York, a cabaret singer, and these things just don't happen, you don't find yourself with three seasons of HBO.
