Camryn Manheim stepped out in New York City to support Rosie O'Donnell at her one-woman show, and the photo stop ahead of opening night put her changed appearance front and center. The 65-year-old arrived in blue jeans, a patterned boho top and a white singlet, with a slicked-back hairstyle and a bright smile.
For readers who remember Manheim as Ellenor Frutt in The Practice, the sight landed with extra force. She rose to fame in the 1990s with the role, later won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the series, and once told the crowd at the 1998 Emmy ceremony, “This is for all the fat girls!”
That history matters because Manheim was long identified with body-positivity advocacy and with pushing Hollywood to make room for plus-sized performers. She told The Hollywood Reporter that she worked hard to pave the way for plus-sized people, adding that she had made her mark by being vocal and wanted roles defined by power and spirit, not size. She also said she wanted to normalize the word “fat” so it would lose its sting, a position that made her a rare public voice at the time.
Now the attention has shifted to her slimmer frame, even as the values she championed remain part of her public identity. Manheim has appeared to undergo a weight loss transformation in recent years, but she has not publicly laid out how much she lost or explained the change in detail. The contrast is sharper because Rosie O'Donnell has also undergone weight loss in recent years and has credited the GLP-1 medication Mounjaro with helping her shed weight after a type 2 diabetes diagnosis in 2022.
For now, the immediate story is the one that played out outside the show: Manheim showing up for a close friend, smiling for the camera, and drawing a new wave of attention before opening night. What remains unanswered is the same one her appearance keeps raising — whether she will ever address the transformation herself, or let the photos stand on their own.
