Elle Speaks Out About Melissa McCarthy Controversy

The interwebs has gone a little nuts with the release of four ELLE magazine covers featuring actresses Melissa McCarthy, Marion Cotillard, Shailene Woodley, Reese Witherspoon, Naomie Harris,and Penelope Cruz who are all Elle covermodels on this month’s “Women in Hollywood” issue.

The issue at hand is that of the six actresses, five are what you would consider “slim” and obviously comedienne and all round awesome chick Melissa McCarthy whom you would all know from “Bridesmaids” although I loved her in my guilty pleasure show “Gilmore Girls”. All five “slim” actresses have been styled in tight or revealing outfits, and Melissa has been styled in a chic, yet very concealing winter coat.

The critics are slamming Elle for covering up the curvy actress. Slate’s stance was that McCarthy was cast as the  “token plus-size cover girl,” whose coat is “so huge that she could hide her ‘Mike and Molly’ co-star Billy Gardel underneath.”

Go Fug Yourself said “I kind of can’t believe they put the plus-size actress on their cover BURIED INSIDE A GIANT COAT.”

Model Cynthia Bailey told Good Morning America “times have changed. Fashion has changed … I just immediately thought, “What a missed opportunity to represent all the curvy girls of the world.”

In response, Elle has released a statment:

“On all of our shoots, our stylists work with the stars to choose pieces they feel good in, and this is no different: Melissa loved this look, and is gorgeous on our cover. We are thrilled to honour her as one of our Women in Hollywood this year.”

Melissa additionally released a statement:

“[Elle is] a magazine I grew up with and I hadn’t done anything quite like that. I was nervous… It was kind of amazing.”

While its great that Melissa felt amazing and looks gorgeous and she felt comfortable, there is certainly something to be said for the stark contrast between covers.

See for yourselves below. Thoughts?