#30: The Price of Fame: Hollywood’s Demanding Diets

Mae West may have quipped about choosing diamonds over diets, but weight was no laughing matter for most Hollywood starlets. Studios enforced strict body standards, often writing diet clauses into contracts to ensure actresses remained impossibly slender.

Marlene Dietrich, one of the era’s most glamorous icons, didn’t follow a nutritionist’s advice—her diet was dictated by studio executives. She survived on little more than broth, toast, and cottage cheese, sacrificing comfort for career longevity.