Marie Claire editor and columnist did not wait long until the controversial article posted about "Mike & Molly" get too out of hand. They have apologized following more than 1,500 comments online and 28,000 complaints via email. But even after that, creator of the show Mark Roberts could not help but comment that it brings both negative and positive impacts at the same time.
A piece of article titled "Should 'Fatties' Get a Room? (Even on TV?)" by relationship blogger Maura Kelly set fire on readers for her comment of "I think I'd be grossed out if I had to watch two characters with rolls and rolls of fat kissing each other." Kelly additionally wrote, " ...because I'd be grossed out if I had to watch them doing anything. To be brutally honest, even in real life, I find it aesthetically displeasing to watch a very, very fat person simply walk across a room."
In her apology, Joanna Coles said to Fashionista.com, "Maura Kelly is a very provocative blogger. She was an anorexic herself and this is a subject she feels very strongly about." Meanwhile, Kelly has updated the article to tell readers how sorry she is and how she didn't mean to offend anybody.
"I would really like to apologize for the insensitive things I've said in this post. Believe it or not, I never wanted anyone to feel bullied or ashamed after reading this, and I sorely regret that it upset people so much. A lot of what I said was unnecessary. It wasn't productive, either," Kelly said in the first paragraph.
Some Marie Claire readers have canceled their subscription since the article was published and some have blamed it on Kelly's own body issue. But Roberts preferred to look at it with better eyes.
"To judge anyone that harshly and make those statements about other human beings," he said, "...even when they come out and apologize for it, I don't know how to address it. It makes me sad. But we're just trying to put on a fun show about two people falling in love, and Melissa [McCarthy] and Billy [Gardell] are two of the biggest talents I've ever met. And yes, I used the word 'big,' and I regretted it the minute it came out of my mouth."
But he pulled something positive out of this. "At the end of the day, there's a giant heart attached to the show, and it certainly has to do with the fact that we found these two wonderful actors," he said to Zap2It. "So if [the controversy] gets a few more eyeballs on our show, then thank you very much, Marie Claire."
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