I'll Have What She's Having

October 20, 2014
Novelist Harrington (Penelope) undertakes a hilariously ill-advised experiment in celebrity diets ranging from Beyoncé’s master cleanse lemonade with cayenne pepper and maple syrup to Karl Lagerfeld’s guzzling reliance on Diet Coke and chronic dieter Greta Garbo’s “absolutely terrifying” celery loaf. The results of the notorious pretentious eating habits of Gwyneth Paltrow are surprisingly positive, despite a high price of groceries, whereas Marilyn Monroe’s breakfast of whipped milk and raw eggs nearly causes a fainting spell. Victoria Beckham’s “Five Hands Diet” is an exercise in despair. Fare from Liz Taylor’s diet book, Elizabeth Takes Off (1987), is also particularly insane, featuring a dip made of steak juice and peanut butter. On the Sophia Loren diet, Harrington is confronted with the devastating reality of the correct serving size for pasta. While the content is mostly lighthearted and humorous, there is a palpable undercurrent of sharp feminist commentary in this endeavor, made plain in Harrington’s closing remarks: “how terribly hard it is to be an ‘ideal’ woman at any time in history.” Illus. Agent: Jane Finigan, Lutyens & Rubinstein.