After Calling Popular Actress 'Tractor-Sized' and a 'Female Hippo,' Film Critic Doesn't Back Down

Veteran film critic Rex Reed is sticking to his guns after a calling actress Melissa McCarthy a "female hippo" in a movie review, even as a new controversy brews over an Elle magazine cover on which the actress appears.

Image source: TheWrap

In Reed's scathing critique of McCarthy's "Identity Thief," he also calls the actress "tractor-sized" and says she's "devoted her short career to being obese and obnoxious with equal success."

And with the Elle cover controversy this month, in which McCarthy is depicted in a billowy coat that critics say is used to hide her weight, Reed was asked again about his take on the actress and her weight.

“All I can say is, I have absolutely nothing personal against Melissa McCarthy, but in my opinion her movies really stink,” Reed writes to TheWrap via email.

“I have lost entirely too many friends to obesity-related diseases to pretend Ms. McCarthy’s alarming obesity is anything to applaud,” he adds.

McCarthy went on record saying Reed’s words hurt but that she just got on with her life.

“I felt really bad for someone who is swimming in so much hate,” she told the New York Times over the summer, not naming Reed. "I just thought, that’s someone who’s in a really bad spot, and I am in such a happy spot. I laugh my head off every day with my husband and my kids who are mooning me and singing me songs.”

Here's the "Identity Thief" trailer via ScreenPlay:

(H/T: TheWrap)

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