Kirstie Allsopp has led the fans defending Meg Ryan from “misogynistic” comments, after she was described as being “unrecognisable” during a rare public outing.
On Thursday, the Sleepless in Seattle star, 61, attended a screening for friend Michael J Fox’s forthcoming documentary Still at Lincoln Center in New York.
For the occasion, Ryan wore a pair of brown plaid pants, a red blouse, a black trench coat and her hair down, according to photos published by the DailyMail, which described the actress as looking “unrecognisable” during her “first public outing in six months”.
On social media, the description of Ryan has been met with backlash, with many criticising the focus on the When Harry Met Sally star’s appearance.
“She looks fabulous” one person tweeted, while another said: “Leave Meg Ryan alone.”
Others suggested the description of Ryan was “misogynistic,” with someone else writing: “A typical misogynist, ageist comment.”
“It’s called ageing you remorseless f***ers,” Allsopp said in a blunt tweet shared to her half-a-million followers, “and it’s articles like this which push women in the public eye to extremes. This kind of thing boils my blood!”
Fans also condemned the outlet for including a photo of Ryan when she was younger in the article, with many pointing out that ageing is a natural process.
“So she doesn’t look like she did 35 years ago. None of us do. Who cares and let her be,” one person wrote.
Another said: “Everyone ages. Please stop this,” while someone else added: “You’re comparing a photo from 30 years ago to now… I don’t know anyone who still looks 30 when they’re 60. Give her a break. She looks great.”
“She looks like Meg Ryan but a little older,” someone else noted.
Ryan previously addressed comments about her appearance and speculation that she has undergone plastic surgery in 2015. She told Net-A-Porter’s Porter magazine at the time that she doesn’t “pay a lot of attention” to the discourse and that she “loves” her age.
“I love my age. I love my life right now. I love what I know about. I love the person I’ve become, the one I’ve evolved into. In my life I’ve been scrappy as hell, but I feel easy with things now. I think that comes with age,” she said at the time, adding: “We get stuck in these conversations about looks and hair colour and our roots. It’s interesting and funny for five minutes, but it’s not that interesting.”
During the interview, Ryan acknowledged that there’s “a lot of hatred in the world today” and that it’s “so easy to judge,” before condemning “haters”.
“Imagine being a hater, how stupid! My women friends are not sitting around talking about… well, sometimes there are conversations like that, but the people I value talk about kids growing up, what kind of world they are going into, what we are eating, what we are breathing,” she said, according to People.
The defence of Ryan comes after Ariana Grande recently issued a statement in response to comments about her appearance, in which she told fans “there are many different ways to look healthy and beautiful” and asked that we become “less comfortable commenting on people’s bodies”.
“I think we could be, I think we should be, gentler and less comfortable commenting on people’s bodies, no matter what,” Grande said at the start of the video. “If you think you’re saying something good or well-intentioned, whatever it is - healthy, unhealthy, big, small, this, that, sexy, not sexy - we just shouldn’t. We should really work towards not doing that as much.”
Lizzo also recently urged fans to stop commenting on her body, with the singer telling The Cut: “Body normativity is just not remarking on people’s bodies. It’s about body neutrality and normalising the differences people have.”
The Independent has contacted representatives for Ryan and the DailyMail for comment.
