Photographed for FHM by www.cahanphotography.com
Posted on 03/02/2009 3:19:55 PM PST by AreaMan
Rachael Ray Doesn't Regret Racy Photo Shoot
Monday March 2, 2009
Rachael Ray's mother was furious when she stripped down for a racy 2003 FHM photo shoot, but the 40-year-old talk show host has no regrets.
"I think I was 35 at the time," she tells ABC's Nightline in an interview airing Monday. "And I thought about it for a while, and I said, 'You know what? This magazine has as young as 17-, 18-year-olds in hottie bikinis, and these are all actresses, models, pin-up girls. I don't belong to any even remote club of theirs.'"
Can you believe these celebs are in their 40s?
"And I thought, 'If I'm gutsy enough to do this, this is a good thing for everybody. This is the everywoman, here she is,'" she adds. "And I did it, and it was the most scared I've ever been, and I wouldn't change a thing. I'd do it again tomorrow."
See photos of celebs who have posed topless
Ray also raised some eyebrows for her endorsement deal with Dunkin' Donuts.
Chef Anthony Bourdain famously said the TV spots were "evil" and "like peddling crack to kids."
"I absolutely love Tony Bourdain," Ray says. "I have an enormous amount of respect for him. It's a free country."
She admits the endorsement "wasn't the greatest thing for my PR," but says she respects the company's attempt to make donuts healthier by removing trans fats.
"They came to me and they said, 'We want to make healthier food for America. You drink a lot of coffee. You grew up on Dunkin' Donuts. Have a cup of Dunkin' Donuts on us,'" she says. "They gave their support and their money to [Ray's children's charity] Yum-o. They've been very supportive of me. I don't regret a thing. Not for a minute."
See photos of celebs pigging out
"I'm an all-things-in-moderation kind of person," she continues. "I do eat a warm donut occasionally. I especially enjoy a cider donut when I'm apple picking. I don't think there's anything wrong with that."
Ray says she doesn't mind public criticism.
"If you spend so much time thinking about the people who dislike what it is you're doing, you're doing a disservice to the people that employ you," she says. "I'm not employed by those people. I work for the people that want the type of food I write [about], the type of food we share with people."
Ray also says anyone could have done what she's done.
"I absolutely 100 percent believe that," she says. "I'm a waitress from upstate New York. Anyone that likes chatting, that likes to cook, certainly. Could have happened to anybody."
See today's top celeb news photos
Ray reportedly earns up to $18 million a year and says "it makes me a little sick."
"It makes my stomach flip. I'm not comfortable with it ... because I don't like to think of my life as that far away from me," she says. "People that make that kind of money -- it's just too foreign of an idea."
Says Ray, "I'm not a chef. I haven't created any new technique in the kitchen. I'm not a rocket scientist. I think I'm good at writing accessible, fun, and affordable meals for the average American family. That's what I think I'm good at."
Ray also raised some eyebrows for her endorsement deal with Dunkin' Donuts.
Chef Anthony Bourdain famously said the TV spots were "evil" and "like peddling crack to kids."
If anyone knows about crack it would be Chef Bourdain.
I like watching Bourdain but please...don't like Dunkin Doughnuts...don't eat one.
What she should regret is bloating up so nobody would offer to take that kind of picture to her now. And Bourdain hates everything about Ray, he might have actually liked Dunkin Donuts until she did those ads.
I like Bourdain’s show too but he’s rather pretentious. The show I like most is the bald guy who eats weird stuff.
“I like watching Bourdain but please...don’t like Dunkin Doughnuts...don’t eat one. “
I agree that if anyone knows about crack its him, and with the stuff he’s eaten there is no room for criticism of donuts.
I thought he just really, really liked powdered sugar ... for his cooking!
anyone who eats hog anii has nobuisness lecturing anyone
about donuts.
I concur.
Innocent!
It was way back when I was young. I think I was only 35 at the time.
morality and family values are dead dead dead. our country is doomed
The relative “greatness” of Bourdain is that he is fully aware that his current gig demands his self-caricature, and he more or less cheerfully does that. It is the captured moments of when he is being sincere and genuine that are what really makes his show the best of its genre.
All day or night its all Bourdain or its Man vs. Food or its Bizzare Foods.
Maybe something bizzare would to actually do shows about travel. Like Samantha Browns shows.
I used to like Rachel Ray but her in your face personality ALL the time has got tiring. She used to seem like somebody from the neighborhood. Now she seems like Oprah light (or is that Oprah white).
Now Giada is easy on the eyes.
Paula would be fun to meet. Guy Fieri would be fun to meet also. His show actually makes me want to check these places out.
We are heading for a hard landing on the rocks and soon.
Other than that, she's ok, I guess.
I just can’t stand Giada.....She talks to her audience as though we are retards...”Now you take your spoon and scoop up a piece, and put it in your mouth....Isn’t that pretty....That’s so pretty....And thyme is this lemony oh so fresh herb and it’s so pretty”.....and she’s bossy....”Ok now everyone can start eating...OK guys pick up your forks and dig in”.....She’s a nuisance to me...I like enjoy Bourdain and Ina and Iron Chef.
I was never a huge fan of Samantha Brown, but at least it had something to do about traveling somewhere, and seeing something worth seeing, somewhere else.
Alton Brown is just plain annoying.
the Travel Channel also has the treasure show. The woman on that is pretty hot. Especially digging in West Texas for opal.
I like Alton Brown on that show and his own.
Actually used his tip of soaking a turkey in brine. Turned out GREAT.
I agree Giada can be annoying, but I said she was easy on the eyes. I do though get annoyed that she has to CONSTANTLY use her twins to sell everything she does. I am a guy, and can't complain too much about the view. But I hate the fact that that is exactly what they are doing. Using her boobs to sell the show. Hooters tv.
Yea I guess it’s a “guy” thing, but as far as cooking and teaching....no way!!! I know...MEOW.
I’m half Portuguese. We never listen. Send Rach to my place.
Giada violates the precept, Never trust a skinny Italian [woman] cook. Same rule applies to grandmothers [does the phrase Nancy Pelosi ring a bell].
Maybe its the fact she actually gets her hands dirty.
She seems like the type you could take camping, and she wouldn't complain about smelling like smoke, or who's idea of camping isn't checking into the nearest Marriot.
Good one!!!
Exactly she seems to enjoy the job. Not just doing it for the bucks.
She’s a hottie, no doubt.
Considering at 40 something she put alot, and I mean alot of twenty year olds to shame.
I spent time in that neck of the woods, the Albany-Schenectady-Troy area in the 70’s, and there are some serious heartbreaks there.
Trouble with them Italian gals is getting them to shut up...
That girl is having fun!!
I can’t watch Ina’s show. I think it’s all the close ups on everything and the hyperbolic microphone they use whenever she’s chopping or whisking or folding (folding is the worst “SLOP, SLOP, SLOP”).
And just in general, why do they have to show each and every detail. If the recipe calls for eight eggs, I don’t need to see you crack each and every egg. Crack one into a bowl with seven other eggs—I’ll take your word for it.
Hmmm, old Nancy looked like she’d gained some weight from her tax-payer paid Italian trip. Maybe her Jack-In-The-Box jumps worked some weight off her during the O’s joint session speech I kept watching, hoping she’d slip and fall. Her green outfit did nothing for her and reminded me of Gumby, lol! (Yes, hubbie and I actually watched most of it, yelling at the tv the whole time. We should’ve gone out that night.)
Thats whats really attractive about her.
That's known as Food Porn and it is a regrettable development.
I like the shows that just demonstrate and teach and you something besides just pretty pictures of the food.
Racy photos of Rachael Ray belong in a kinky category of their own. Not many women her age have the body of a 12 year old.
Twelve year old girl, that is.
A well-fed twelve year old girl.
I don’t know for some reason that never annoyned me as much as her “flaming” Hampton friends....but hey, her recipes are great.
I don’t regret her having those shots taken. Nope. It’s all good with me.
mama mia
Hello! Healthy isn’t she?
I agree, she does make some amazing food.
Foodies should leave food porn to the porn professionals.
I like the shows that just demonstrate and teach and you something besides just pretty pictures of the food.
I like Alton Brown and Bobby Flay a lot because they do that. However, I was disappointed with Alton's show on baby back ribs because he omitted the crucial step of removing the membrane from the ribs.
Andrew Zimmern makes his funny comments off the cuff while he is eating the horrible foods. Bourdain doesn’t have the talent so he has a writer come up with something pithy then overdubs it later. Plus I heard Bourdain in an interview back during the last presidency and he was just another Bush-hating robot.
Rachel was never that thin. That picture is a computer image designed to make her look sexy.
MEOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
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