Valerie Bertinelli News Update: The Hot in Cleveland star knows how much pressure Hollywood gives on women to look a certain way.
Bertinelli, 53, gained few pounds after a broken foot left her unable to exercise and found herself feeling embarrassed about her weight.
The actress candidly talked about her experience on CBS's The Talk last Wednesday after recent photos from the set of her sitcom "Hot in Cleveland" emphasized her plump figure.
She asked, "Why do I feel so much shame? Because the cameras are on me? Because the paparazzi can't wait to get a picture of me looking like I've gained a few pounds?"
"Because I broke my foot three months ago and I've not been able to work out, the weight starts to creep up," she told the co-hosts. "It's like, we have to take the shame out of it."
According to E! Valerie admitted her fluctuating weight didn't sit well with her either. "It started to panic me and panic me. And then I thought, 'Well, wait a minute. This is my body. I'm almost 54. I broke my foot, I haven't been able to move.'"
The actress said she only recently returned to the gym after her doctor advised her not to do anything that can raise her heart rate. "I'm back in the gym and ready to go," she told "The Talk" co-hosts. Bertinelli also expressed her intention of not starving herself.
"I still like to eat, and I'm going to eat," she said.
"We all need to give each other a break, especially women. Let's leave each other alone," she added.
Biography retell her television and film career, 'In January 1975, Bertinelli got her big break when she was called to appear in the television situation comedy One Day At a Time, produced by Norman Lear. Bertinelli played Barbara Jean Cooper, one of two daughters of Ann Romano, a recently divorced woman played by Bonnie Franklin. During her nine years on the show, Valerie grew from a chubby, awkward teenager to a television sex symbol.
Bertinelli also starred in two other short-lived situation comedies,Sydney (1990) and Café Americain (1993). She also joined the cast of Touched By An Angel in 2001 for the show's final two seasons.
Bertinelli has alos appeared in feature films such as C.H.O.M.P.S.(1979), Ordinary Heroes (1986) and Number One with a Bullet(1987). Bertinelli was also the protagonist in the TV miniseries I'll Take Manhattan (1987), based on a novel by Judith Krantz. In 1981, she formed her own film company producing and starring in such films as Shattered Vows (1984) and Silent Witness (1985).
In 2010, Bertinelli returned to television sitcoms, starring in the hit show Hot in Cleveland with fellow TV veterans Jane Leeves, Wendie Malick and Betty White. Bertinelli's character Melanie Moretti is a divorced writer and mother of two college-age children who, along with her 40-something friends played by Leeves and Malick, decide to relocate from Los Angeles to Cleveland where they're not judged by Hollywood standards and still considered "hot."
On August 22, 2012, Bertinelli received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.'
