I haven't seen "Hairspray", not the original film, not the screenplay, nor this movie version. But I have seen the trailers, and the makeup people should be deeply ashamed! John Travolta's face looks like he had an anaphylactic reaction, took way too much cortisone, and then used too much botox in a desperate attempt to make things look better. "Fat" makeup doesn't have to look so unsettlingly unrealistic. The makeup people should have turned to Matt Lucas of "Little Britain" for advice--HE gets "fat lady" facial makeup and prostheses RIGHT.

Casting John Travolta to play a fat woman is just as bad as casting Paris Hilton to play an old man! Couldn't they have found a fat actress somewhere to cast in this role? Even get a 'newbie' middle aged fat woman without acting experience to play that part would work better than Travolta in a fat suit. John Travolta was great in Grease. They should cast him in more roles that he looks the part instead of making him fake looking like in Hairspray.

ljrmiller,

If you had seen the original movie or the Broadway production, you would know that in both productions, Tracy's mother was played by a drag queen -- the one and only Divine in the original movie and Harvey Feirstein (sp?) on Broadway.

So casting Travolta is Hollywood's way of making the story more mainstream. I haven't seen the movie yet, but I understand Travolta is still a great dancer, and does a good job of playing Edith/Edna (can't remember the mother's name), not in a campy way as the other two had done, but in a genuinely sympthetic way as a fat woman coming into her own -- just like her daughter.

MaryAnn
(from Baltimore)

One clever aspect of Travolta's casting in "Hairspray" is that he has been a bit heavy in recent years...so here he goes and plays a "fat part" and takes us far beyond his current girth. It's a bit of ju-jitsu: "Look how fat Travolta's playing this broad!"

Travolta's girth is OK by me, btw. I think Travolta's middle-aged spread has been rather key to his comeback since "Pulp Fiction" -- 13 years ago! The svelte teen dance icon (remember his oiled-abs in "Staying Alive"?) came back as a middle-aged character guy with a gut and charm. A few of us could.. ahem...relate.