Gabourey's mum weighs in

Gabourey Sidibe

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Gabourey Sidibe's mum has ploughed into the debate over her Oscar-nominated daughter's size, giving director Howard Stern a smackdown for his astonishing rant.

Stern called Sidibe, "the most enormous fat black chick I've ever seen", said she was the size of a planet, and that she'd never get another job in Hollywood.

Sidibe has already proved the radio shock-jock wrong by landing a role in a movie appropriately entitledYelling at the Sky.

And her mum, Alice Tan Ridley, has spoken out, saying Stern should "Get a life!... He can see, you can see, I can see Gabby is a big girl. She's a big woman, so what's wrong with that? He might not hire her, but someone else will."

Weight-loss companies and the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA) have been bickering over 26 year-old's Sidibe's size. But she told Oprah: "My first diet started when I was six-years-old. I've never been a small girl.

"One day I had to sit down with myself and decide that I loved myself no matter what my body looked like and what other people thought about my body."

- © Fairfax NZ News