Oscars hype is at fever pitch ahead of tonight’s 97th Academy Awards.
For the nominees, the chance to bag a statue is the dream, of course, but for every attendee – from up-and-coming Hollywood starlets to headlining movie stars – the red carpet offers an unparalleled opportunity to showcase just how gorgeous, irresistible and employable they are.
Everyone wants to dazzle, not just in front of the multi-million global TV audience, but also the casting directors, agents and hotshot producers who will be at the ceremony and glittering afterparties.
Traditionally, this has always been achieved by an onslaught of pre-Oscar makeovers – months of intense workouts, a well-timed dose of Botox or filler, some lipo, even a subtle facelift.
But this year, for Oscars 2025, there’s a new trend in town.
Microdosing, or taking tiny amounts of Ozempic and other GLP-1 weight-loss jabs like Mounjaro, Wegovy or Zepbound is the very latest way for celebrities to effortlessly attain that Awards-night silhouette.
Extreme skinniness, after all, is one way to get yourself noticed – although some might say a handful of the female stars at last weekend’s Screen Actors Guild Awards are in danger not of making an impact, but of disappearing altogether!
It has become one of LA’s favorite guessing games: who is jabbing themselves to lose weight and who isn’t?
Rebel Wilson’s plus size was her calling card, yet the actress, 44, has dropped 80lbs since starting on Ozempic. The actress is pictured at the Fashion Awards in London in December.
Hollywood agents were reportedly appalled at her weightloss and worried she’d lost her unique selling point. She is pictured in 2014.
Stars such as Rebel Wilson, Oprah Winfrey, Sharon Osbourne, and Kathy Bates have been open about the spectacular amounts they’ve lost on the drugs.
Rebel Wilson’s plus-size was once her calling card, yet the 44-year-old actress has dropped 80lbs over the course of a weight-loss program that started in 2020 and included a high-protein diet, daily exercise and the use of Ozempic, to reach her goal weight of 11 stone 4lbs.
Her agents were reportedly appalled when their big star became a smaller one because, alongside the weight, she also lost her unique selling point.
Other stars are more coy, especially those who were not overweight in the first place, have no medical problems, and are only microdosing to do up the zip on a tight size zero.
‘Celebrities are using these medications for a little refresher, to lose a few pounds, fit into an outfit and not look puffy,’ top Beverly Hills facial surgeon Dr Babak Azizzadeh tells me.
Dr Azizzadeh, who is co-founder of the online aesthetic health platform Persana, points out that he is not endorsing microdosing, but believes there’s no way to put the Ozempic genie back in the bottle: ‘In the last six months, it’s become a really, really big trend. I see it in my patients, as have fellow colleagues in the medical world and wellness space.’
Another leading Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, Dr Kelly Killeen, finds the Ozempic bandwagon more concerning.
‘In my practice, a very high percentage of patients coming in for procedures are on these medications and it’s very surprising to me,’ she says.
‘I have people who are very, very thin and I ask them why they are taking the [weight loss] medication and they tell me they have three to five pounds to lose.
‘You’d be shocked at some of the stars who see this as a weight-loss tool. They’re already at a completely normal weight and have no medical problems but they’re still scrambling to lose weight.
‘Until we can be assured that bouncing on and off these medicines is not causing people harm, I don’t support it.’
Oprah Winfrey shows off her new figure at the Golden Globe Awards in LA, January 2024.
Newly slim Oprah at the Grammy Awards in February 2024.
Winfrey, seen here at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival, has been open about her use of Ozempic.
Indeed, the pharmaceutical industry and some diet medics say there’s still not enough data about the effects of weight-loss drugs on people with low BMIs or about the consequences of off-label use.
Even in Hollywood, where people are generally very open about aesthetic procedures, many stay tight-lipped about their use of GLP-1 jabs.
‘Some celebrities have been honest about being on [Ozempic] for large amounts of weight loss combined with medical problems, and that’s socially acceptable because society looks kindly on people in larger bodies taking steps to be smaller,’ says Dr Killeen.
‘Whereas society doesn’t look kindly on people taking weight loss drugs when they are already in smaller bodies. Those people are already fitting society’s beauty standards. It’s viewed as excessive.
‘I certainly don’t see celebrities publicly admitting [that they’re using the drugs] for small amounts of weight loss.’
In Hollywood, of course, thin is always in, no matter how much people talk about body positivity.
Los Angeles obesity specialist Dr Pooja Gidwani says she understands the attraction of a last-minute drop in weight before a big event and is sure some A-listers will be using fat jabs to shift the odd bulge for the Oscars. But she sounds a note of warning about the growing trend.
‘Someone who wants to lose weight in a way that’s good for their health should be doing it over the course of eight to ten weeks,’ she says. ‘I like to tell my patients that losing 1.5 to 2lbs is a good, steady pace to lose weight.’
Los Angeles obesity specialist Dr Pooja Gidwani, is sure some A-listers will be using fat jabs to shift the bulge for the Oscars, but sounds a note of warning about the growing trend.
Neither should microdosing ever be self-administered, she warns: ‘Without the guidance of a doctor, users can see muscle loss, bone loss, nutrient deficiencies, thinning hair and a crash of metabolism if you lose weight too quickly. You can become extremely cold and there may be changes in your hormonal profile.
‘If you’re not doing weight loss the right way then you’re hurting your chances at longevity. The best way is to have a practitioner supervising.’
But some experts claim Ozempic and other GLP-1s are a healthier option than some of the extremes Hollywood has known in the past.
As a young actress, Judy Garland was put on amphetamines to keep her weight down, while Elizabeth Taylor, who described herself as a ‘meat and potatoes girl’, went on yo-yo diets all her life. Jane Fonda has said she was bulimic till the age of 50.
More recently, pop star Lady Gaga and actresses Lily Collins are among the many stars who have admitted bingeing and purging when they were young to fit Hollywood’s standard of beauty.
Dr Gidwani says these kinds of extreme measures are clearly dangerous, and that the use of Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy might well be safer.
She also points to other benefits from the drugs that are just emerging.
‘New research shows that these medications can also increase mental clarity, reduce inflammation and help people tame their cravings for more than just food,’ she says.
‘When these medications came out, there was no talk of microdosing. We’ve seen this trend emerge quite recently because of these additional perceived benefits.’
‘It’s definitely happening, not just with celebrities and big events like the Golden Globes or the Oscars, but with other people who are looking to lose weight before events like a family wedding.’
Dr Babak Azizzadeh, who specializes in facial plastic surgery, says he sees two distinct groups of patients on weight loss drugs at his Beverly Hills clinic.
‘Younger individuals who have good skin elasticity still have bodies and faces that can handle a certain amount of weight loss,’ he says.
But while they do want an ultra-lean body, he adds, they don’t want a thin-looking face, so need to plump it back up: ‘They will come in and ask for relatively straightforward procedures like fat grafting [to the face].’
Kathy Bates, who has admitted taking Ozempic alongside diet and lifestyle changes to lose weight, showed off her svelte figure at the SAG Awards in Los Angeles on February 23.
Bates, at an LA event in 2015, is one of the few stars who has been open about taking Ozempic.
For his older clientele, it’s a different story.
‘Older people, particularly women who have been through the menopause, can see a noticeable decrease in facial fat, sometimes dubbed “Ozempic face”.
‘The number of facelifts I’m doing on patents who have this condition has gone up 20 to 30 percent. Many women haven’t wanted to have facelifts before, but now they have a lot of sagging and volume loss, and they’re concerned about it.
‘If you’re not obese and you lose a few extra pounds, all of a sudden you can look gaunt. It’s a balancing act and I think microdosing is being used for that. Individuals are going on it, getting off it, then going back on again.’
Ahead of last year’s Oscars, Eli Lilly, the company that sells Zepbound – a brand name for Tirzepatide, a medication similar to Ozempic – took the extraordinary step of scolding thin and normal-weight Hollywood stars for their obsession with weight-loss drugs.
The pharmaceutical company took out a TV ad that showed a shot of a glittery gold dress and the red carpet, with a voiceover saying: ‘Some people have been using medicine never meant for them for the smaller dress or tux, for a big night… but that’s not the point.’
A year on, and tonight’s red carpet will show whether Hollywood took much – or any – notice of that surprise telling-off.
