We get it. Red carpet events are always going to be superficial – they’re all about the clothes, the jewellery, the hair, the shoes – and time-pressed celeb reporters are always going to ask questions accordingly.
But at the American Music Awards on Monday, actress Nina Dobrev was asked something so shockingly shallow and irrelevant we had to re-wind just to make sure we heard it correctly.
While hoisting a copy Men’s Health featuring the cossie-clad The Vampire Diaries star on the cover, E!News host Jason Kennedy posed the following question: “What are you eating these days?”
Yep.
Nina Dobrev on the AMA red carpet. Image: Getty.
Just in case that wasn't cringe-worthy enough, he pressed on: "Are you working out twice a day? We want to know how you pull that look off. How do you get that body?"
Clearly caught a little off-guard, the 27-year-old laughed awkwardly before responding (with an impressive amount of restraint) that she's been lifting weights and developed strength she's never had before.
Thankfully, Kennedy took the hint and steered the questions back to her career.
The forehead-slapping moment comes despite a push by US women's advocacy group The Representation Project to #askhermore.
Launched in 2014, the campaign encouraged media to shift focus from women's bodies to their bodies of work and was championed by A-list stars including Reese Witherspoon, Shonda Rhimes and Connie Britton.
Top Comments
Hmm. I agree the red carpet questions to women are usually silly. But if you don't want comments/questions about your physique - then don't pose half naked on Men's Health?
Couldn't agree more!
...Or wear what you want and expect other people to treat you like you have a brain? Or is that too much to expect? A simple "you look great" would have sufficed. Telling people they should expect to be treated only as a body and not a human being, based solely on the fact that they posed for a magazine cover is similar to saying 'they deserved to be raped, look what they were wearing'.