[Mr Burroughs]

Wow, thanks for posting that. Sharapova is amusingly shallow in that interview (how many times does she shill for that watch company?), but the scenes of her looming over the hosts and the growth question are great. I think she did grow another half-inch or inch after this interview … since the start of this year she's joked about being a full 6'2''.

How did they stage the chairs to make the host look her in the eye, anyway?

[Mr Burroughs]

Aw, it's just not the same since she lost the bulk she'd put on in issue #8 of the old series.

I'm getting teary just thinking about it.

[Mr Burroughs]

Unfortunately, Brown was kicked off the show last week. So this topic's dead.

The good news: Losing out on American Idol freed Brown to take a scholarship at Boston College. So, look for a 6 foot basketball phenom (more, if she has the Maria Sharapova growth serum) from the Bay State in the Fall.

[Mr Burroughs]

Delmo – The Thunderbook was a one-shot, released in 2000, featuring three stories by different writer/artist teams about different Wildstorm characters. Hughes' story "Wham!" was his last published take on Fairchild, thus far.

Zimbra1 – You're right, Hughes is absolutely the best artist to ever take on Fairchild. He has a genuine love for the character, which I share. Remember, Fairchild was a petite, nerdish girl (5'3'', I think) who got a massive growth spurt when her powers manifested. Other writers/artists allowed her to become comfortable with her new body, flaunting it and so forth. Hughes always wrote and drew Fairchild as if she was aware of that, and uncomfortable with all the new attention she got from men.

Hughes wrote, but didn't illustrate, the "Superman/Gen 13" crossover that's available in TPB. He handed it off to Lee Bermejo, who in my opinion is the second-best Fairchild artist. I can't find a great pic of his art, but here was one cover.

You can't see it there, but Bermejo drew Fairchild with really solid muscles. The third best artist for Fairchild is arguably Art Adams. He tackled her in the "Gen 13/Monkeyman and O'Brien" crossover, which is still the greatest concentration of superhero femuscle in one place, ever. But he wrote almost no dialogue for Fairchild and obviously lavished more detail on Ann O'Brien, who got more and more muscular until he stopped writing stories with the character.

I gotta confess, the crappy treatment of the Fairchild character is a sore spot for me. Gen 13 was a smash hit when the miniseries came out, and the original series started off strong, but they lost momentum thanks to issue delays and the boondoggle animated movie (which is really not good, I've seen it). It jumped the shark after Brandon Choi stopped writing it and the reins were handed to John Arcudi and artist Gary Frank. Arcudi wrote a bunch of long, uninteresting arcs, and Frank played down the sexiness that made the series popular. They were replaced around issue 42, and then around issue 56 Adam Warren come on as writer and artist and made probably the best issues of the entire series. When the plug got pulled, Warren killed Fairchild and the rest of the team off. However, Chris Claremont resurrected her (and not the rest of the team) for his ill-fated new Gen 13 series. I believe Fairchild is still alive in Wildstorm continuity, but it's a lame fate for a character that was once in the top 5 or 10 of female comics characters, in terms of popularity.

Obviously, I could talk about this all night …

[Mr Burroughs]

Here are screencaps from the Regis and Kelly appearances.

From 2004:

It's like she dropped into Wonderland and chugged Alice's first bottle.

[Mr Burroughs]

Oh, man, I just found the motherlode. YouTube has a video of Sharapova on Regis and Kelly from 2/15. Whoever cut the video just used the parts that emphasize her size. I'll post the link, but here's a play-by-play.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7VRX_tmdczw

Regis introduces Sharapova, who walks onto the set TOWERING over both Regis and Kelly. She has to bend about 30 degrees to greet them, then they all find their seats. Regis says, "I think Maria has grown a couple more inches since we had her!" Then she mentions she's almost 19, and the clip picks up later in the interview.

Regis opens up Sharapova's centerfold in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. They banter for a bit, then Regis says "It takes about eight pages to cover Maria's body." Kelly says "Can I ask you? What is your inseam?" Maria: "My inseam? Oh, I don't know." Regis mugs and asks why Kelly wants to know, and Kelly has Maria stand up next to her and points out that her (Kelly's) waist only comes up to Maria's crotch. Kelly Ripa is 5'4'', so do your own Incredible Growing Sharapova calculations.

YouTube also has a video of Sharapova's first appearence on the show in the summer of 2004, after Wimbledon, when she was around 5'11'' or 6''. You don't get to see her stand up next to the hosts, but you can tell she was smaller. In that interview, when she's sitting down, her eyes are level to Regis's forehead and her feet are dangling at the same level as the two hosts'. Now she's gotten so big that when she sits down, her dangling feet are out of the shot. After the break, the camera pulls back a little to get her huge body in the frame.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ScKZNSJ5NH4

[Mr Burroughs]

I got a kick out of this article on Sharapova's last growth spurt, from August of last year.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050810/asp/sports/story_5096603.asp

From Melbourne to Paris to Wimbledon, there was a recurring thought this year whenever Maria Sharapova walked into an interview room or strode onto a tennis court.

Had Sharapova gotten taller or was everyone else just shrinking?

The mystery was solved on Monday. Listed at 6 feet in the WTA Tour media guide, Sharapova said she was 6-2, having grown a few more centimetres, which may have contributed to her back problems in 2005.

Here's an interview from the same period.

http://www.mariaworld.net/int31805.htm

Q. You said you've gained a few pounds, but you also still seem to be getting taller. Do you feel yourself getting taller?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: Yeah, I actually do. I feel like I've grown a little bit. But, you know, what can you do?

Q. Does it affect anything on the court?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: On the court, no, not really. I think once you start growing, it's very important. Like I said, I had my back ?? my background was because of the growing and my shoulder. You just have to make sure those parts of your body are strong, your joints are strong.

Q. Your parents aren't particularly tall. Do you have any idea where you get your height from?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: I have no idea. I've been asking. I haven't got a straight answer yet (smiling).

Q. No tall family relative?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: No, not that they've told me. I don't know who to talk to.

Q. Are you ready to go to 6'2"?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: No, I'm not going to admit it, even if I am.

There's actually a wealth of these articles out there, although I can't find a more recent one. Here's an old favorite from when Sharapova was 17.

http://www.tennisreporters.net/news_070304.html

Much of the reason why Sharapova rose slower than Hingis had to do with her growth spurt over the past two years, when she complained that she grew so tall so fast that she hadn't gotten used to pulling her large feet and tall frame around. In February after Anastasia Myskina had schooled her in the fourth round of the Australian Open, she talked about how weak she was physically. But she said she was willing to hit the weights and do as much off-court training as necessary to be able to last at the Slams.

"My body is still trying to get used to being my body," she told tennisreporters.net at the time. "At the beginning of last year I felt terrible because I had my growth spurt. I couldn't feel my body at all. Now I feel better moving, but I still have a lot of improvement to make. Physically, I'm still only at 20 percent of what I'm capable of. I'm getting stronger, but in the gym, I still can't even put up two plates!"

[Mr Burroughs]

Oh, I'm not sure that many voters actually resent her. If the chatter at Television Without Pity's Idol forum is any indication, there was a little initial bias against this "overachieving rich girl" that's simmered down after she performed so well. Her height might even work to her advantage – she's <i>so</i> tall that it's almost an underdog characteristic, a kind of gawkiness.

Still, start watching her segments of the show sooner rather than later. It's hard to predict the votes of Idol watchers.

[Mr Burroughs]

Oh, thanks to YouTube.com, we have a video of some of the workout footage and Seacrest mugging I just talked about.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=HZKV9w3lbVE

I actually lowballed Seacrest's height before – his eyes just come up to her chin.

[Mr Burroughs]

I'm not sure where to find clips. The original board we're discussing had talk of an interview on Jimmy Kimmel where he discussed. There's sadly no audio clip of the Time magazine interview where she complained about surging from 6' to 6'2''.

http://www.celebheights.com/s/Maria-Sharapova-780.html

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