Chinese Ugly Betty Backlash

BEIJING, September 19: The
first season of Ugly Wudi, a
Chinese treatment of the hit novela Betty la fea that is slated to debut on Hunan Television on
September 28, is being criticized for its lead actress being too good looking
for the role.

The show’s star made her
first press appearance yesterday, but many thought she was too pretty, even
behind her braces and frumpy clothes, to play the part. “Lin Wudi is much less
ugly than Betty,” China’s Information Times reports.

The actress, who is not
revealing her name, claimed the show would speak for every unattractive woman:
“It is to tell us you don’t need to worry, for [even] a girl that is ugly can
do it.” She assured reporters that she looked worse on screen: “I worried that
in the show I was too ugly for you to accept, so I made up a little,” she
explained.

But by early afternoon,
some 3,300 comments on the show had been posted by on the popular Baidu website
suggesting that the actress was too attractive.

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski