CHAPTER 1

Cheating Is for Jude Law, Not for Your Diet
The Best Food Tips from Hollywood

The average woman spends 31 years of her life on a diet.
—Marie Claire magazine

I eat two or three bags of chips and I love fried chicken. I love french fries. I love salt so much that I'd lick my own hand for some salt. Whoop! There it is. This is how I got two butts and six chests.
—Whoopi Goldberg

HALLE'S HELP

"I got tough when I was a little girl. That's when it all came together," Halle Berry says confidently. "That's where I learned to put on my big girl panties and deal."

Halle deals like no one else, and the gorgeous actress and body ideal tells BB that these days her own pre-pregnancy exercise program is as much for peace of mind as it is for her famous figure.

"You have to tell yourself that you can. You can do it. I go through phases where for three weeks I don't work out or I'm traveling and I can't work out. It's hard to get back into it.

"But I guarantee you that once you start, the endorphins your body releases will allow you to be excited about doing it again. It's really a good feeling," she says.

"When you start feeling strong and healthy, it becomes addictive. I'm addicted to feeling good," she adds.

What does Berry eat when not pregnant? "I'm diabetic, so I eat really well. I eat clean and exercise, but more for good health. My physical self just reaps the benefits of it. I don't smoke. I don't drink. I have wine once in a while. I don't do any of those things excessively, and it shows," she says.

What about the double size zeros out there? One of the most gorgeous women in the planet just sighs.

"I just don't think it's healthy for them," she says. "I also don't think this is a healthy image to send out to the world. These girls need some help and need to get healthy. Hopefully, they will do that for themselves. I feel bad for them."

OPRAH'S GUILTY PLEASURE

Our hero Oprah Winfrey is one of the smartest and richest women on the planet, but even she likes the simple pleasures. When things get too hot in her life, she likes to chill—literally. "One of my great life pleasures is a Popsicle. Whenever your mama was mad and told you to come in the house, she didn't have a Popsicle. She should have had a Popsicle. It would have made it better," says Miss O. Of course, not just any Popsicle will do. "One of my favorites is Dreyer's Fruit Bars. They're so good," says Oprah. That's one brain freeze we're willing to try.

PFEIFFER'S PFITNESS

"When I'm not working, I'll cheat a little bit more than normal," says legendary screen beauty Michelle Pfeiffer. Before you get any ideas that she's stepping out on her husband, David E. Kelley, Pfeiffer makes it clear that her daily dalliances are love of a different sort.

"At this age, I'll say, 'What the hell' and eat a Krispy Kreme," says the 49-year-old with a decadent laugh. "A big night out for me is Mexican food. I'll eat all of the chips in the bowl. And then order another bowl. I just don't deny myself anymore."

Doughnuts. Fried junk food. Looking at her over breakfast at the Four Seasons Hotel, with nary a flaw on that gorgeous face, you might have to call in a lie detector.

"Of course, you can't do that every single day, but you have to give yourself these little breaks," says the wispy blonde in pencil-thin pants and a navy silk sleeveless blouse. Yes, past 40, Michelle Pfeiffer feels, it's her constitutional right to bare arms.

Don't get her started on all the Rexies out there in Hollywood. (Hollywood Speak: Rexy—the current trend of women who are anorexic and thus dubbed sexy.)

"It's women doing it to each other," Pfeiffer says. "I don't think men really want women to be doing all of this stuff to themselves—to be undernourished and bony and all this grotesque plastic surgery. Why are we doing this to each other? Young women have such a big challenge ahead of them now," Pfeiffer says. "And it doesn't seem like the trend is going away."

When the stress gets to be too much, Pfeiffer takes to the streets. "I used to be a long-distance runner, but now I'm much more into sprints, with some hiking and some Pilates."

Excerpted from Black Book of Hollywood Diet Secrets by Kym Douglas, Cindy Pearlman. Copyright © 2007 by Kym Douglas, Cindy Pearlman. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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