>Emme
IN THE QUIRKY WORLD OF TALK SHOWS, one thing is abundantly clear: size does matter. Just ask Rosie, Oprah, Ricki and, now, Emme, the large-size model turned host of E! Entertainment Television's new makeover show Fashion Emergency, which premiered Dec. 29 and airs Monday nights (9:30 p.m. ET). "Sixty percent of women in this country are size 12 or above," says Emme, 34 (rarely referred to by her last name, Aronson). "I think one reason they hired me is because my body is about accepting yourself right now instead of when it's 20 pounds lighter."
Enter Fashion Emergency, which answers more than 500 letters, e-mails and phone messages a week from Americans seeking costume aid. "We do makeovers on men, women, kids, snowbirds going to Florida and drag queens wanting to update their image," says Emme, who is married to Phillip Aronson, an advertising executive. On one show she and fashion experts Brenda Cooper, winner of a costume-design Emmy for The Nanny, and Leon Hall, a Fashion Association spokesman—helped a nun who had just left the order kick the habit. "She wore blue and white for 30 years and was sick of those colors," says Hall, who dressed her in radiant red.
Emme's own life is a testament to transformation. After a year's stint as an on-air reporter for an NBC affiliate station in Flagstaff, Ariz., she became a plus-size model in 1989 and quickly rose to the top of that field. Now back on the small screen, Emme says, "I'd love the opportunity to blossom in television," perhaps in a sitcom, she adds. The big screen beckons too. "But that takes time," she says. "Hollywood is known for size 4s, 6s and 8s, and I'm a healthy size 14."
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