Kirstie Alley: No 'Fat Advocate'

Kirstie Alley's new sitcom, "Fat Acress," is sparking controversy. Some observers say it's demeaning to fat people.

But Alley, whose weight control battles have been the stuff of tabloid heaven, tells The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm she's struggling to come to terms with her weight, herself.

Alley is well-known for saying heavy people should learn to like themselves, and she's not backing down.

"What I want women to do, really, is to just laugh at themselves for how we have been so manipulated... I think women have been so invalidated for so long, that we now take it as the way life is, and now we are the invalidators of ourselves.

"I want women to step back. When I say, 'I don't want to be the demigod of fat people,' I just mean I'm not a fat advocate. But what I am is a human being advocate. People should feel the way they wanna feel, they should look the way they wanna look. If somebody wants to have 50 extra pounds on them and they are healthy, then have 50 extra pounds on you. You have the right to do that.

"I'm not so sure that when I weigh 135, I'm going to feel like I'm all that and beautiful and sexy, either. I'm working on that. I would like to have the time in my life when I have a nice year period where I'm walking like, 'Oh, my God. I'm sexy, I'm beautiful. I'm that and everything!' I want that."

Alley claims she really does like herself, but continues, "I've noticed, it's sort of what you aspire to. I've seen women who have a lot of weight on them, and they really are comfortable with their bodies and, you know, they're dancing, and they're all that, and they're sexy and, you know, I don't feel that way. So that's what makes it funny to me. When I see another woman doing it and she's really into it, you know, I think, 'Wow! She's hot!' For me inside, I think, 'Wow, she's fat!' "

Alley added, "This is how stupid I am: Until I saw 'Fat Actress,' I had a little bit of something in me that said when this airs, people are going to go, you know, she wasn't really so fat after all, and what was the big deal? But when I saw it I went -- yeah! You're fat! It was a little of an awakening for me, too. In a good way."

Alley has put her feelings into a book, "How To Lose Your Ass and Regain Your Life: Reluctant Confessions of a Big-Butted Star." It's a diary of her experiences before and after her weight gain.

"Fat Actress" appears on Showtime, which is owned by Viacom, as is CBSNews.com.