Is it me or is Ugly Betty de-uglifying a bit?
I'm probably one of the few Ugly Betty watchers who thought that America Ferrera looked cute in her Betty getup from day one. But it seems as if Betty Suarez has been slowly de-uglifying ever since. Many of our readers have noticed that America is noticeably slimmer than she was when the show started. But I've also noticed that her hair (is it a wig?) isn't as much of a shaggy mop as it has been, her clothes aren't as loud (still frumpy, but not as silly), and her brace-face isn't quite as prominent.All this may be in an effort to shape the character -- in other countries' versions of the show, Betty eventually goes through a transformation into a gorgeous woman. At the very least, it may be showing that Betty's time at Mode might be rubbing off on her in small ways. But, according to TV Guide's Mike Ausiello, some of the changes might be coming from Ferrera's reps, as he reported in a blind item today. In other words, he doesn't mention the name of the show, but most of the commenters seem to think he's talking about Betty.
Some of Ausiello's readers cited other sources that said that Ferrera requested that Betty lose her braces because they're painful to wear during what I'm sure is a pretty grueling shooting schedule. I can understand that; people don't wear braces forever, and it's perfectly realistic to see Betty lose the metal and either go with a retainer or nothing at all.
But the rest? The slimmer body, the less-loud clothes, the nicer hair? I can live with that. Look, the point of the show is not that Betty herself is ugly; she's supposed to be a contrast to the stick-skinny and shallow fashionistas at Mode, and she still is. There's no need to make Betty a complete cartoon to get the point across.
And America might be feeling the usual Hollywood pressure to lose weight. But I can tell you from personal experience, she still looks more natural and normal than 90 percent of the actresses I encountered when I was out in L.A. Most of them were so skinny, their dresses just hung off their shoulders, not showing any evidence of a figure.
So is Betty Suarez getting a little less ugly? Sure. But she's not becoming a beauty queen, at least not yet. And the character is still kind at heart. That's why we started liking her in the first place, anyway...

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