When the film Precious took home the lion's share of trophies at Friday's NAACP Awards in Los Angeles, the cast and crew were in a celebratory mood — even when director Lee Daniels made an excruciating boo-boo regarding celebrated star Gabourey Sidibe's weight.
"No one in Hollywood told me they wanted to see a movie about a 350 pound black girl who had HIV," Daniels said at the podium. Immediately realizing his gaffe, Daniels noted, "She's not 350 pounds, Gabby…but the book says…before you were hired."
A mortified-looking Sidibe, 26, was filmed shaking her head in the audience as Daniels sputtered and tried to bounce back from his faux pas.
But when the entire cast went up to accept the best film award, Daniels once again corrected his mistake. Sidibe laughed and said "OK. I wanted that in there. Thank you," patting him on the shoulder.
Sidibe won the night's best actress award — and she laughed as presenter Chris Rock squeezed her bottom.
"It's an honor to be nominated, but it's awesome to win," she said tearfully at the podium.
The actress admitted recently on The Oprah Winfrey Show that she "had to work at" accepting her body image. "My first diet started when I was six years old," she said. "I've never been a small girl. One day I had to sit down with myself and decide that I loved myself no matter what my body looked like and what other people thought about my body."