Battle of the skinny stars at Oscars 2025 as Hollywood’s Ozempic obsession sparks return of size zero trend

While the Oscars highlighted outstanding achievements in filmmaking this past year, the red carpet sparked discussion about Hollywood’s increasingly slender aesthetic.

The Dolby Theatre saw a parade of slimmed-down A-list stars, fueling concerns that Ozempic is driving a return to the size zero trend.

Jimmy Kimmel’s Oscars monologue in 2023 mocked the Ozempic craze, as he quipped, ‘When I look around this room, I can’t help but wonder, is Ozempic right for me?’ — a barbed commentary on Hollywood’s growing obsession.

And while some stars like Oprah, 71, have since publicly acknowledged using a semaglutide to curb their appetite, others have let their noticeable transformations lead to fan speculation. 

Among the slender stars gracing the 97th Academy Awards red carpet was Ariana Grande, 31, who’s nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Wicked, and Demi Moore, 62, who’s up for the Best Actress gong for her role in The Substance.

Julianne Hough, 36, Georgina Chapman, 48, Mindy Kaling, 45, and Whoopi Goldberg, 69, also showed off their slimmed down figures during Hollywood’s biggest night.  

Moore, whose horror film explores an actress’s drastic attempts to stay young, showcased her svelte physique in a busty sparkling silver gown.

The mom-of-three adhered to a strict diet and exercise plan, including biking and dance cardio, for the film.

During filming, Moore contracted shingles, which she attributed to a 20-pound weight loss. 

Meanwhile Grande slipped into a light pink Schiaparelli gown with a structured and shimmery, cascading tulle.

Fans of the star recently shared their concern over her appearance on X, with one even begging for the singer’s loved ones to intervene.

They wrote: ‘For real tho. Is Ariana Grande ok? She so thin and talks so slow now. Im actually worried.’

‘Someone’s got to intervene with Ariana because something is NOT right with her. She’s too skinny and looks like she’s faking a smile it’s sooo depressing being a fan’.

‘I hope Ariana Is healthy. I hope , she gains some weight. Healthy weight. Women should love their body without dieting crazy. One day, I hope to see that women are seen beautiful at a healthy weight. Not being Rail thin’.

The Grammy Award winning singer was subject to relentless discussion about her appearance during the promo tour for box office hit, Wicked, in which she starred as Glinda.

Health professionals have long warned that having a visible sternum and gaunt cheeks as an adult may be a sign of health conditions including malnourishment — sparking speculation that she may be suffering health troubles.

The size zero trend previously gained significant prominence in the early 2000s.

Extremely thin models and celebrities were highly visible in fashion and media at the time, with designers and fashion brands often favoring slender figures.

Georgina, 48, slipped her lithe figure into a sleeveless black gown that highlighted her trim arms. 

Julianne, 36, looked trimmer than ever in a nude tulle gown on the red carpet.

Ariana’s co-star Cynthia Erivo, 38, also showcased a noticeably slimmer physique on Sunday, wearing a sleeveless white gown that drew attention to her arms. 

Meanwhile Emilia Perez star Selena Gomez, 32, opted for an Old Hollywood glamour look in a Ralph Lauren gown that showed off her svelte physique. 

However, Selena has been candid that her lupus medication is responsible for her weight fluctuations.

Mindy Kaling has spent the past few years undergoing an astonishing weight loss transformation and now looks a far cry from her early days of fame on The Office.

In 2023, she appeared at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party looking so slimmed down that she set off Ozempic rumors – which she has not publicly addressed.

Whoopi, 69, who revealed she used weight loss medication Mounjaro after hitting 300 Lbs, wowed in a metallic gown.

Oscar winner Kathy Bates has revealed that the drug aided her 100-pound weight loss.

Over the past seven years, the star dropped a total of 80lbs after focusing on a healthier lifestyle, and lost an additional 20lbs after using Ozempic. 

During an interview with People in October, she expressed: ‘There’s been a lot of talk that I just was able to do this because of Ozempic.’

‘But I have to impress upon people out there that this was hard work for me, especially during the pandemic. It’s very hard to say you’ve had enough.’

She was inspired to put her health first after being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes back in 2017. ‘I ate because I was afraid, and I ate because it was a FU to my self-esteem.’

‘[Diabetes] runs in my family, and I’d seen what my father had gone through. He had had a leg amputation. One of my sisters is dealing with it very seriously, and it terrified me. It scared me straight.’

Bates made changes to her diet and admitted to the outlet that she ‘used to eat terribly.’

Brooke Shields and Georgina also recently drew attention with their slim figures while appearing at the SAG Awards last week. 

Meanwhile media mogul Oprah previously revealed that taking weight-loss drugs, like Ozempic and Wegovy, helped her realize the truth about ‘thin people.’

In 2023, Oprah finally admitted to using an undisclosed GLP-1 — a type 2 diabetes medication that can also aid in weight loss — to shed nearly 50 pounds after decades of yo-yo dieting.

The admission came as a shock to fans as Oprah had previously denied using meds to slim down and even went as far as to slam the method as an ‘easy way out.’

But having nearly reached her goal weight of 160 pounds, Winfrey recently shared about her experience taking a GLP-1 and what it has taught her about ‘thin people.’

‘One of the things that I realized the very first time I took a GLP-1 was that all these years I thought that thin people had more willpower,’ Winfrey confessed on her podcast. ‘They ate better foods. They were able to stick to it longer. They never had a potato chip.’

But once she started on a GLP-1, Winfrey realized that what she initially perceived as ‘willpower’ was actually an absence of intrusive hunger thoughts — often referred to as ‘food noise.’

Ozempic, Wegovy and other GLP-1 medications can help eradicate food noise — which often leads to overeating and weight gain — by reducing cravings and slowing down digestion.

‘And then I realized the very first time I took the GLP-1 that, they’re not even thinking about it,’ the billionaire said.

‘They’re eating when they’re hungry and they’re stopping when they’re full.’

Winfrey explained that that way of eating ‘doesn’t work’ if you struggle with obesity, which is a disease.

The 97th Academy Awards are honoring the best films of 2024, with the star-studded ceremony being held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Conan O’Brien, 61, is making his debut as Oscars host, after joking: ‘I only agreed to host so that I could get invited.’

This year’s ceremony has an unusually unsettled field in many of the most high-profile categories, including best picture and most of the acting categories.

Emilia Pérez leads the nominations this year with 13, including for best picture, actress (for Karla Sofía Gascón), supporting actress (for Zoe Saldaña), director (for Jacques Audiard), adapted screenplay and original song.

Gascón stars as the title character, a former Mexican drug lord who comes out as a transgender woman and fakes her own death in order to reinvent herself as a pro-social force, while Saldaña plays an ethically challenged lawyer who helps set up her new identity.

The Brutalist landed in second place with 10 nominations, including for best picture, director (for Brady Corbet), actor (for Adrien Brody), supporting actor (for Guy Pearce), supporting actress (for Felicity Jones), and original screenplay.

Brody stars as a Jewish Hungarian architect who immigrates to the US after surviving the Holocaust. The epic historical drama follows his character László Tóth’s attempts to realize his creative vision even as it conflicts with the petty desires of his wealthy benefactor (Pearce).

Wicked tied it for 10 nominations, including for best picture, actress (for Cynthia Erivo), and supporting actress (for Ariana Grande).

The blockbuster musical is an adaptation of only the first half of the musical of the same name, a reimagined prequel to The Wizard Of Oz starring Erivo as Elphaba, future Wicked Witch of the West, and Grande as Galinda Upland, who becomes Glinda the Good 

Other best pictures nominees include Anora, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, I’m Still Here, Nickel Boys and The Substance. 

The closely watched race for best actor in a leading role got a major shakeup just a week before the Oscars at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, when Timothée Chalamet scored a shock win for his Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown. 

Prior to that win, Brody was seemingly the favorite after winning best actor awards at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, the BAFTAs, the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Movie Awards.

Ralph Fiennes has also doggedly stayed in the running for his role as a British Cardinal struggling to keep a secretive papal election from dissolving into competition and intrigue. 

The critically acclaimed film has scored multiple actor wins at smaller ceremonies and festivals for Fiennes, as well as multiple awards for the entire acting ensemble, which Fiennes has accepted on more than one occasion. 

Those three co-frontrunners are competing against Colman Domingo for Sing Sing and Sebastian Stan for his performance as a young Donald Trump in The Apprentice.

The best actress category also has no clear frontrunner. Demi Moore has been lauded for her comeback performance in the satirical body-horror film The Substance, which earned her best actress honors from the Critics Choice Awards and the Golden Globes, as well as several critics’ organizations. 

But her win a week before the Oscars at the SAG Awards suggests she may be in a prime spot to snatch the Oscar after being nominated for the first time. 

Anora star Mikey Madison, who plays an adult dancer who impetuously marries the son of a Russian Oligarch, was widely acclaimed and was honored by several critics’ organizations early in the season. 

Her chances increased significantly after she won the BAFTA for best lead actress, which she followed up with an Independent Spirit Award win in the gender-neutral lead performance category. 

Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón was once a favorite for the award, but she was widely criticized after racist and Islamophobic tweets — some quite recent — that had somehow gone unremarked upon were translated into English and reported on.

Since then, Gascón has sat out awards ceremonies after her posts came to light. After multiple half-hearted apologies, Netflix reportedly opted to stop paying for Gascón’s travel and accommodations for awards shows, though a source told People that she still plans to attend the Oscars.

Before the controversy, her nomination was seen as historic, as she is the first openly transgender woman to be nominated in the best actress category. 

The other nominees are Wicked star Cynthia Erivo, who has failed to capture any major awards, and the Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres, who stars in the historical drama I’m Still Here. She had her own controversy after a clip of her appearing in blackface in a comedy sketch from a Brazilian TV series 17 years ago resurfaced in January.

In the supporting actress category, the nominees including Monica Barbaro for A Complete Unknown, Ariana Grande for Wicked, Felicity Jones for The Brutalist, Isabella Rossellini for Conclave and Zoe Saldaña for Emilia Pérez 

Saldaña appears to be the current favorite after a string of wins at the Golden Globes, BAFTA Awards, SAG Awards and Critics Choice Awards.

But some of those early awards had voting periods that cut off prior to the controversy around Gascón surfacing, which could potentially harm her chances from voters who were turned off of Emilia Pérez altogether.

The supporting actor category seems the easiest to predict, Kieran Culkin’s string of wins for A Real Pain making him the favorite. 

The other nominees include Yura Borisov for Anora, Edward Norton for A Complete Unknown, Guy Pearce for The Brutalist and Jeremy Strong for The Apprentice. 

Among the best picture nominees, Emilia Pérez once seemed like the most likely winner, but Gascon’s offensive posts have threatened its chances.

The Palme d’Or–winning Anora got a late boost with wins for best picture at the Directors Guild of America Awards and the Producers Guild of America Awards, which are considered two of the best predictors of Oscars success by awards-season prognosticators, and its win at the Independent Spirit Awards didn’t hurt.

The best director category seems likely to be a three-man race between Anora’s Sean Baker, The Brutalist director Brady Corbet and Emilia Pérez’s Jacques Audiard. 

This year’s original song category features two cutes from Emilia Pérez, El Mal and Mi Camino, the new Elton John song Never Too Late, from the documentary of the same name about him, Like a Bird from Sing Sing, and the latest Diane Warren effort The Journey.

The Academy Awards begin at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT and can be watched on ABC and, for the first time, on a streaming service, Hulu.

Subscribers to premium services including Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, AT&T TV and FuboTV can also also catch the ceremony live.