I don't know what bothers me the most about this article...the speculation that a relatively normal weight young woman might have had weight loss surgery, or the fact that once again the media can't quite distinquish between bypass and the band:

------

Nicole Richie is denying speculation that she underwent gastric bypass surgery and then had the operation reversed.

Rumors began spreading this week after the New York Post ran a blind item claiming a "Hollywood starlet" had gastric bypass surgery – and then, after losing too much weight, went in to have the gastric band removed.

The Simple Life star's rep says that reports linking Richie to the blind item are "ridiculous."

"It is not Nicole," her publicist tells PEOPLE. "There are a ton of 'Hollywood starlets.'"

Richie's thinness has been the subject of much debate. She had dropped to around 90 lbs. – making her extremely thin, even at 5'2," PEOPLE reported recently. Last month she decided to undergo diagnostic treatment for her inability to put on weight.

Richie's father, the singer Lionel Richie, urged his daughter to seek help. "She's gonna be fine," he told PEOPLE recently. "She's worrying me to death, but she's gonna be okay."

As for Richie's reality series, The Simple Life, production on the new season was slated to begin last week but was put on hold while she underwent treatment for her condition. Now, however, the green light is on.

"Nicole has informed us she's ready to work, and we're looking at a calendar to see what works best for all," the show's spokesman told New York's Daily News for its Wednesday editions. <!------>

I think i would find out where this article came from and write to "inform" them that if they are going to be speculating about someone that they need to at least have their facts straight.

Im with you I dont know what is more disturbing

Mindy

I think she has an eating disorder.

i figured it was the hollywood-heroine diet. =)

YA THINK ? LOL She is SO THIN. She looks horrible.

Why the stars dont come out and say they have one i will never know. Do they think we are idiots.Just like Lara Flynn Boyle , and Calista Flockhart. Im sure they both have either had one or have one now . They are so sickly

Mindy

yes, too bad they couldn't get their facts right about the procedures.

But as to whether someone has WLS as a preventative measure opens a whole other line of thinking. I am not sure if it is much different from a "starlet" having WLS so she doesn't have to face any weight gain, than one of our low BMI folks having the band because the need to stop before they do get as big as I am, or bigger. I think that says something about our socity when someone who is tiny under goes something as drastic as WLS so they don't become a fat cow at size 6.

When my band slipped, I was at a BMI of 25.5 .. not ideal, but *very* close (even though I couldn't see that in the mirror).

I didn't think twice about being rebanded to keep from piling on weight (which, of course, I ended up doing between the time I slipped and the time I was rebanded).

I can definitely see why someone who struggles with self esteem/self image issues and is constantly being called fat in the media for the whole world to see (as Nicole was, back when she first started filming Simple Life) would choose to take preventitive measures to ensure they didn't become obese.

Is it the right thing to do? Who knows. Fact is though, we live in a world where being overweight is not socially acceptable, even though the majority of the US and Aus are technically overweight.

Didnt here boyfriend Djam or whatever he was called have a lapband and had lost a heap of weight? That's where that rumour probably started.

Who knows? She was never what I'd call fat but she was much plumper and she could have been a binge eater or really struggled away from the cameras to maintain the weight she was. But I'd doubt the truth of it to be honest, it's probably just more media garbage. So many untouched up photos of her and her teeny bit of saggy belly skin and poor bony body are in all the tabloids and there's certainly no scars.

I think she's unwell to be honest.

Didnt here boyfriend Djam or whatever he was called have a lapband and had lost a heap of weight? That's where that rumour probably started.

I believe I read it was the bypass he had, but who believes what they read these days? lol

Yea, I agree with you that she probably didn't have any surgery at all and is just unwell. Was just saying I could see why someone would do it as a preventitive measure.

Nicole Richie wants to make something clear: Her scrawny figure is all natural, and not the result of any medical intervention. The undersize tabloid staple is peeved that people believe she's the unnamed "young Hollywood starlet" from a recent New York Post blind item who underwent "secret bypass surgery," only to have it undone when she "lost too much weight."

"It just doesn't stop," Nicole fumed on her MySpace page on Tuesday. "So, I gain a little bit of weight, and I'm accused of having a gastric bypass surgery reversed? It's pathetic of Page Six to insinuate I have done this."

Continues the irate and (maybe, just maybe) infinitesimally meatier Richie, "Anyone that knows anything about this surgery would know that legally, you must be at least 100 pounds overweight to even have the surgery done, and [it] is a serious, life changing procedure—not one to throw around as a joke or a rumor."

It's not surprising that Nicole isn't laughing off the rumors. After all, she knows a thing or two about the surgery: Her former fiancé, Adam "DJ AM" Goldstein, dropped 155 pounds—almost twice her body weight—after undergoing the procedure in 2003.

The blind item, which claimed the mystery starlet's "recent four-day stint at a health clinic" was really to have the bypass removed, appeared three weeks after the eating disorder-denying Richie announced she was seeking diagnostic treatment to discover why she was failing to pack on the pounds.

The evidence, however, remains in Nicole's favor: Since she decided to get help, she hasn't gone four straight days without being snapped by the paparazzi.

"It is not Nicole," her rep insists to People, pooh-poohing the implication as "ridiculous." "There are a ton of 'Hollywood starlets.'" Rants Richie, who will soon begin work on the fifth season of "The Simple Life" with newly reinstated BFF Paris Hilton: "I've given a statement I am in the process of putting on weight, and that should be enough. It's a shame to hear that instead of hearing supportive words, someone needs to spin it into some negative, absurd way."

I don't believe for a second that she had the band or bypass. Personally, I feel we're all in the same boat. Those of us who are overweight and those who are underweight are all struggling with some form of eating disorder. She deserves support, not rumor and speculation.