Kate Upton with her proud parents at the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition partyWhen my friend Jennifer Lewis posted on my FB page that there was a dustup over Kate Upton representing a move from Sports Illustrated to use curvier models, I brushed off the comment, beliving that SI is a guy’s magazine and it generally prefers curvier models.

Kate snapped by Sports Illustrated Assistant Editor MJ Day in Las Vegas.We featured Kate Upton’s 2011 Victoria’s Secret catalogue photos and noted that she wasn’t in the 2011 fashion show. So what?

Even I gulped when I saw the phone pics of some of Kate’s publicity stunts. With the social conservatives out in full force these days, VS must be extra careful of their affiliations. Pics like Kate’s left may go down with drunken guys at Hooters or even Yale, but they don’t get her credibility with organizations like Victoria’s Secret.

Nevertheless, Kate Upton has done a great job of building her career — and let’s not forget her credentials as an excellent, award-winning equestrian. Kate’s an all-American girl. Just like rebuilding General Motors, such a woman might become popular again. Don’t count her out

As a former VS executive and Fashion Director, I’m pretty calm about the Sports Illustrated Swimwear issue. It drives good traffic and readers stick around our websites, converting to committed direct supporters. I learned long ago that our women readers love the same images as guys do — and we try to filter out the ones they wouldn’t.

You’re Kidding Me | Kate Upton Is Fat?

Bottom line, I’ve been on cruise control over the Kate Upton images until learning that the fashion industry is all holier-than-thou about Kate Upton being fat. OK, could somebody get me about four Advil. Yes, writes The Gloss, ‘Kate Upton Gets Hated On For Being Awesome’ and also Stop Calling Kate Upton Fat (It Makes You Sound Stupid).

Reading along, I’ve changed my mind. Forget the Advil. Please bring me a Bombay Sapphire martini straight up. I don’t believe this crap. The Gloss does not exaggerate.

We could leave it there had Sophia Neophitou, who just signed on as a key person in choosing models and themes for the Victoria’s Secret fashion shows, now absolutely brutalized Kate Upton in the public press this week. The stylist is also the founder of 10 Magazine and a major contributor to fashion’s obsession with size 0 models.

After her comments to the New York Times Style section this week about Kate Upton, Columbus Victoria’s Secret executives must be choking.

We would never use Ms. Upton for a Victoria’s Secret show,” Ms. Neophitou said by telephone last week from London. And, while Ms. Upton has, in fact, modeled on occasion for the company’s catalog, her look, said Ms. Neophitou, is “too obvious” to be featured in what has become the most widely viewed runway show in the world.

“She’s like a Page 3 girl,” Ms. Neophitou said, referring to the scantily clad voluptuous women featured in The Sun, a London tabloid. “She’s like a footballer’s wife, with the too-blond hair and that kind of face that anyone with enough money can go out and buy.”

Simply stated, I am speechless.