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I suppose there are some things that even Scientology can’t cure. “Fat Actress” a comedy/semi-fictional account of Kirstie Alley’s struggle to lose weight uses the format of “The Chris Issak Show” to comically portray the difficulty that Alley has with her family, society and Hollywood because of her legitimate struggle with losing weight. In a sense this series pokes fun at Hollywood stereotypes and our perception of overweight people in our society. Alley’s comedic skills are as sharp as usual and with a parade of guest stars including John Travolta, Carmen Elektra, Kid Rock and a guest turn by the marvelous character actor Chris MacDonald as her crack addict brother who has come to “cure” her of her addiction. The discussion of his thin “crack ass” and the use of crack to help her achieve her goal of weight loss, is both pretty surreal and funny at the same time. ---

“On the Set” provides us with a behind-the-scenes glimpse on the set. Alley discusses the difficulty of being in “the fish bowel” of the entertainment industry. She also discusses the double standard that exists in Hollywood and how “Fat Actress” mercilessly lets the air out of Hollywood’s tires when it comes to this double standard about women, men and weight issues. “Premiere Party” is a brief featurette on the party for “Fat Actress” that Showtime put together when it first appeared. It’s more fluff than substance. The deleted scenes included for the series are quite entertaining. “Showtime Shorts” is the fluff piece that Showtime ran on its own network to promote theshow. There’s an ad for DISH Network although how that’s an extra is beyond me. There’s also a slew of text biographies on the main actors onthe series and creator/writer/producer Brenda Hampton. We also get previews for Showtime’s original programming “Reefer Madness”, “The L Word”, “Queer as Folk” and “Our Fathers”.