Melissa McCarthy Feels Bad For Hateful Rex Reed

Melissa McCarthy’s weight often, and lamentably, supersedes her talent and comedic ability in coverage of the star, and Rex Reed’s body shaming attack on the actress earlier this year was a strong example of that.

In a review, Reed said Melissa McCarthy was “tractor sized,” and added that she was “a gimmick comedian who has devoted her short career to being obese and obnoxious with equal success.”

That was months ago, when Rex Reed was assessing Identity Thief, in which McCarthy starred with Jason Bateman. Now the actress has addressed his hurtful and frankly pointless comments with some criticism of her own, wondering aloud why Reed’s comments passed the editing stage at all.

Ultimately, Melissa says, she feels sorry for Rex Reed and said of his cruel words:

“I felt really bad for someone who is swimming in so much hate. 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.”

McCarthy says that the comments would have “crushed” her younger self, but now feels more like the criticism Reed lobbed at her “just [adds] to all those younger girls, that are not in a place in their life where they can say, ‘That doesn’t reflect on me.’ ”

In the New York Times article in which Melissa McCarthy addresses Rex Reed, her husband Ben Falcone — with whom she starred in breakout hit Bridesmaids — says the pair are busy contending with a suddenly busy roster of roles.

Falcone explains:

“We’re not very far removed from having to take any job that we can find, to get a job, because you want to be working. Someone sends you a script for the craziest idea ever — it could be about, like, the Abominable Snow-Woman — and you could be like, ‘I don’t know, maybe we should consider it?’ ”

Melissa McCarthy is on deck again for her next film alongside Sandra Bullock, called The Heat — but even in the promotion of that film, the actress was heavily digitally enhanced for posters to appear thinner.