I'm not sure why, but I have always loved Jennifer Love Hewitt. I can't say she's ever made a movie that I liked, or have even seen, for that matter. But I've always liked her. The most obvious reason is that she's ridiculously beautiful. But she's ridiculously beautiful in a way that is at once wholesome and sultry. Not many women can pull that off. (Cameron Diaz does it, too.) And, let's be honest, who doesn't like a beautiful woman.

She has also always seemed very comfortable in her own skin. Which is why I love her even more today. Because her skin has been all over the Internet in the past few days. In a bikini. With - gasp - a little bit of cellulite. She was photographed frolicking in the waves in Hawaii while celebrating her engagement to "the love of her life."

(The first, most obvious problem here is simply that we need to leave people alone. Good Gods, I hope no one ever wants to photograph me while I'm on vacation!)

The pictures have been circulating along with vitriolic gossip about how "fat" she is and perhaps she ought to cover up a bit. People are suggesting that love has gone to her hips, that she's not looking after herself, and the ever-obnoxious TMZ (I swear, these people are THE WORST) commented, “We know what you ate this summer, Love — everything!”

Nice. But here's the deal. Jennifer Love Hewitt is a size 2.

This makes me sick to my stomach, for some very real reasons. But mostly as a woman, and as the mother of a little girl. When is this going to stop? When are we going to accept women's bodies (and men's) for what they actually are? When are we going to stop punishing and ridiculing people for being human? When are we going to GIVE UP this ridiculous - inhuman - ideal of perfection that is, for the most part, unhealthy and unattainable? When people say things like this about Jennifer Love Hewitt, what are they saying to every other woman out there who would kill to look like Jennifer Love Hewitt?

It's sick. It's cruel. It's demeaning. And it so debases people that the very humanity is drained from our psyches and we live in a state of proof and denial centered around the acquisition of artificial ideals and the approval of people who should have little or no impact on our lives.

So, why do I love Jennifer Love Hewitt even more, today? Because - besides being ridiculously beautiful, with her curves and all - she released the following statement:

“A size 2 is not fat! Nor will it ever be, and being a size 0 doesn’t make you beautiful. What I should be doing is celebrating some of the best days of my life and my engagement to the man of my dreams, instead of having to deal with photographers taking invasive pictures from bad angles, To all girls with butts, boobs, hips and a waist, put on a bikini — put it on and stay strong.”

In so doing, she has crossed over from being "just" beautiful and charming into being smart, strong, clear-thinking, well-spoken and able to look out for - and support - larger issues that impact real people in the real world. She took her celebrity platform - and her seriously hot body - and used it to stand up for things that actually matter, in a world that tries to boil us all down to the lowest common denominator and a base existence that just isn't a place where the human spirit can soar.

Who else is going to chime in on this? Please, can we start an overwhelming chorus in love of real women with healthy bodies and body-images.

Look, I'm not perfect, in any way. I would love to lose the 5 pound that I am always saying I'm going to lose, next week. And really, would boobs have been too much to ask for? I fall victim to some of those same messages - and some of it is okay because it keeps me working out and eating right. But there is rarely a moment when I don't believe that i am beautiful, and very sexy. And I have lumps and bumps in places I never had them. My breasts are making the same southbound retreat as every woman who has given birth, breast-fed a child and had the audacity dance merrily into middle age.

But sexy, like beauty, is an attitude. I claim my body. I love it. I share it. I revel in it. It brings pleasure to me, and to my lovers. And it is mine And with every step I take, i hope to show my daughter that this real body, this real woman, is beautiful. So that when she is growing up and looking at her own body, she will be able to look through it and see what it represents, rather than just what it looks like.

And to Jennifer, if anyone knows her, I don't own a bikini. But it's because I am scared to death of water and you won't find me in it. But if you want to have a Billion Babe bikin Bash, I will not only put on a bikini with you, I will get in the water, swim and splash with a million women of all shapes and sizes. And yes, I'm serious. We have an opportunity here to be real, and real sexy. And take back both our bodies and our minds, and render impotent, once and for all, the media messages that distort reality to the detriment of women and girls everywhere.

(My other thought was that we should go get naked photos of all those people at TMZ, and give them a taste of their own medicine, but I , for one, refuse to lower myself to their standards.)

I did try to find a picture of myself in a bikini, but the only ones I could find were at Burning Man, and I was not wearing enough to pass muster on a family friendly site. (Which, maybe, is another blog post..... why is it that we are so afraid of human bodies? ) (hmmmm, come to think of it, that's the same question!)