Alice Alyse Back In The News
We first posted about Ms. Alice Alyse all the way back in March, which is positively geological time in blog years. She's suing a theater group because she says they fired her over her breast size. Today she has an really long write-up in the Washington Post in which she actually comes off very sympathetically.
Alyse claims that her generous breast size got her fired from the cast of "Movin' Out," the Broadway show choreographed by Twyla Tharp to songs by Billy Joel. Alyse was an ensemble dancer in the national tour until her bra size "naturally increased" from a C cup to a D, according to her lawsuit against the production company. The growth spurt happened while she was on leave last year with an injured big toe; the 29-year-old says she neither gained weight nor got implants. When she returned to the show, she needed new bras sewn into her costumes, and for this, she alleges in her 42-page complaint, she was sexually harassed, verbally abused and wrongfully dismissed.
Let's leave aside, for the moment, questions about what other factors might have been behind Alyse's dismissal (which we can't really answer, because the show's management won't tell us its side) and whether a woman can continue to develop well past puberty. Musical theater is an entertainment outlet that routinely depicts women as sexpots, curvy dimwits and window dressing — so if you believe Alyse's account, the hypocrisy is evident. Allegedly getting fired for the prudish-sounding sin of busting out of one's costume is even more surprising given that Tharp's all-dance spectacular bumps and grinds from start to finish. With Joel's rock-and-roll framing a Vietnam-era loss-of-innocence tale, the show rides on an orgy of go-go.
Read it all, it's rather longish, but really quite interesting as lawsuit stories go. The best line in the whole article comes from Alyse's mother, though:
Asked to sum up her own feelings about her body, Alyse is speechless. "Umm," she says, looking uncertain. Klayman has momentarily left the table; she glances at his empty seat as if willing him to materialize and help her out. She says nothing.
"I'll answer for her," says her mother. "She hasn't come to realize yet that she has a great body. . . . She hasn't realized yet: To hell with everybody."
Again, as noted back in March, she appears to be nicely built, but not overwhelmingly so. Judge for yourself.
UPDATE: James Joyner notes Blue Crab Boulevard's monumental investigative skill. Others blogging: Ann Althouse, Tinkerty Tonk.
UPDATE: James Joyner may think we are crack journalists here in the Crabitat, but Mark in Mexico brings cracked to a whole new level! I think it's a Google record.
Other Links to this Post
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Gone Hollywood — Monday, 12 June , 2006 @ 2:50 pm
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Outside The Beltway | OTB — Monday, 12 June , 2006 @ 2:51 pm
