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"  Gabourey Sidibe is sitting in the back room of the Spotted Pig in New York&amp;#039;s West Village, having a beer. She has just spent a luxurious half hour with her brand-new boyfriend (&amp;quot;He&amp;#039;s a regular guy working a regular job, and I&amp;#039;m scared to take him anywhere&amp;quot;), so she has pep in her sneakered step. She&amp;#039;s wearing a sideways Yankees cap, dark jeans, and a striped top from Torrid, her favorite chain store. &amp;quot;You haven&amp;#039;t been there?&amp;quot; She giggles, eyes crinkling. &amp;quot;Darling, it&amp;#039;s like a torrid affair.&amp;quot;  These days, good karma is circling Sidibe like bluebirds in a Disney cartoon. She is an Oscar front-runner following her transformational performance as an abused teen in &amp;#039;80s Harlem in director Lee Daniels&amp;#039;s Precious. Her character, Claireece Precious Jones, pregnant with her father&amp;#039;s child, disappears into a fantasy world that removes her, however briefly, from a horrendous cycle of abuse by both parents. But a two-hour-long assault this film is not because it is leavened by Sidibe&amp;#039;s innate charisma and flashes of wry humor. It&amp;#039;s a performance of elegance in an environment devoid of it. The night before, resplendent in a purple Tadashi Shoji gown, Sidibe was Bazaar&amp;#039;s guest to the Museum of Modern Art&amp;#039;s benefit honoring Tim Burton. Johnny Depp was in the room (during his People&amp;#039;s Sexiest Man Alive week too), but guests threw themselves at Sidibe like she was Rob Pattinson. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;ve all been to a place where we&amp;#039;ve felt ignored and unsupported, so it just affirms the meaning of the film&amp;#039;s story to me,&amp;quot; she says of the adoring throngs. &amp;quot;Ashley Olsen hugged me for a long time \u2014 like rubbing my back and everything \u2014 and said, &amp;#039;I am so proud of you.&amp;#039; How cute is that?&amp;quot; After all the hugs, it took half an hour to get Sidibe out the door. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s harder to get through places,&amp;quot; she observes, fondly recalling those anonymous days at Torrid. &amp;quot;It really is.&amp;quot; What&amp;#039;s unique about Sidibe, why people won&amp;#039;t let her leave a room, is that she&amp;#039;s like no one who&amp;#039;s made it in Hollywood in a very long time. She plays the heroine in a story that makes There Will Be Blood look like a Judd Apatow movie. She&amp;#039;s overweight (her size pronounced, though, in Precious due to pregnancy padding). She&amp;#039;s had no formal acting training and auditioned for Precious only because a friend encouraged her. She is a star now not because she knew the right people or wore the right dresses; she made it because she acted her heart out. &amp;quot;Roger Ebert!&amp;quot; Sidibe is saying, crinkling again. &amp;quot;His review was basically a love letter. Growing up, I used to watch Roger Ebert. And I was like, &amp;#039;Who said it was good? Ebert said it!&amp;#039;?&amp;quot; She gets frustrated, though, when she reads another kind of synopsis of Precious: &amp;quot;&amp;#039;Gabby Sidibe is an overweight black girl who is illiterate and pregnant by her father,&amp;#039;&amp;quot; she parrots. &amp;quot;Look, I am black. I&amp;#039;m also overweight, but that&amp;#039;s not the point of the story. The point is the abuse and her bravery. This stuff happens to skinny people, to white people, to so many different people that they&amp;#039;ve missed the point if they say it&amp;#039;s about a fat girl.&amp;quot; Born in Brooklyn and raised in Harlem, Sidibe, 26, is the younger of two siblings raised by her mother, Alice Tan Ridley, a subway R&amp;amp;amp;B singer. (&amp;quot;My dad&amp;#039;s around, but my parents have been divorced for a long time.&amp;quot;) She was a psychology major at Mercy College in 2007 (&amp;quot;I wanted to be a comedian, but I peaked before I was nine&amp;quot;) when her friend Henry pushed her to do the Precious audition. &amp;quot;Lee Daniels saw my tape, and then he had a meeting with me. After talking to me, he didn&amp;#039;t even have me audition again,&amp;quot; she remembers. Fast-forward to last year&amp;#039;s Sundance Film Festival, standing ovations, Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry signing on as executive producers, and &amp;quot;finally!&amp;quot; the film&amp;#039;s release in November. &amp;quot;She literally just walked off the street into an open casting call, and the rest is history,&amp;quot; says Winfrey. &amp;quot;She&amp;#039;s a superb actress, because Precious&amp;#039;s story is nothing like her story.&amp;quot; Winfrey continues, &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s like she&amp;#039;s from another planet, because she&amp;#039;s so evolved, so confident, so secure about who she is. Every time we&amp;#039;ve been at a premiere, I ask her, &amp;#039;Is this like the fantasy world in the movie?&amp;#039; When you see her as Precious, you&amp;#039;re convinced she is that character, but really, she&amp;#039;s the character who has fantasies of walking down the red carpet.&amp;quot;  Sidibe is enjoying this moment, and Boyfriend X helps with any performance anxiety. &amp;quot;When I went on Conan, I texted him and he said, &amp;#039;You&amp;#039;ve got it. Don&amp;#039;t slip on any banana peels and you&amp;#039;ll be fine.&amp;#039; &amp;quot; She&amp;#039;s even \u2014 relatively \u2014 sanguine when British tabloid reporters show up on her mother&amp;#039;s doorstep. (&amp;quot;My mom&amp;#039;s a nice lady, but she&amp;#039;s an entertainer herself, and she loves to answer questions. But I just \u2014 I can&amp;#039;t have her do it.&amp;quot;) And sometimes X will text her and say, &amp;quot;Everybody at work is talking about you.&amp;quot; She&amp;#039;s excited about other big stars now in her orbit and isn&amp;#039;t too cool to admit it. &amp;quot;I love Iman. She hugged me and was like, &amp;#039;I love you,&amp;#039; and I was like, &amp;#039;I love you!&amp;#039; Like, I was wearing her makeup.&amp;quot; She&amp;#039;s had a crush on Justin Timberlake since he was in &amp;#039;N Sync. &amp;quot;Man! Justin Timberlake is always good. God, there are so many hot dudes in Hollywood right now. I&amp;#039;m such a fanny, fanny girl. Bradley Cooper. How hot is he?&amp;quot;  In her own way, Sidibe is becoming a pinup too. She adores photo shoots. &amp;quot;I feel like a model. It justifies everyone in my life who told me I wouldn&amp;#039;t be anything until I lost weight. It justifies that little girl who cried because she didn&amp;#039;t think she could be in front of the camera. And it&amp;#039;s for other girls who feel like they can&amp;#039;t do this or that and feel like they&amp;#039;re not pretty and not worthy of having their photo taken.&amp;quot;  Sidibe was not born this evolved, however. &amp;quot;It came late, too late in my life,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;Something like 21. I just know that I was tired. I was tired of thinking less of myself because others did.&amp;quot; Daniels, with whom Sidibe has an admirably frank relationship, told the New York Times, &amp;quot;[Gabby] may be in a state of denial or on a higher plane than the rest of us, but either way, she breaks your heart in the movie.&amp;quot; She sits back. &amp;quot;I was like, &amp;#039;What the hell? I&amp;#039;m in denial?&amp;#039; No, I know what I look like. I&amp;#039;m very much aware.&amp;quot;  She adds, &amp;quot;People always ask me, &amp;#039;You have so much confidence. Where did that come from?&amp;#039; It came from me. One day I decided that I was beautiful, and so I carried out my life as if I was a beautiful girl. I wear colors that I really like, I wear makeup that makes me feel pretty, and it really helps. It doesn&amp;#039;t have anything to do with how the world perceives you. What matters is what you see. Your body is your temple, it&amp;#039;s your home, and,&amp;quot; she chuckles, &amp;quot;you must decorate it.&amp;quot; Sidibe&amp;#039;s favorite decoration to date is the red David Meister dress she wore to the L.A. premiere of Precious. &amp;quot;It was so va va voom, my boobs looked so good in it. I had diamonds on too. Diamonds really do it.&amp;quot; While her size makes off-the-runway looks an impossibility, she&amp;#039;s not that bothered. &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t really care because it gives me more freedom. I don&amp;#039;t just flip through a magazine and say, &amp;#039;I want this,&amp;#039; because I can&amp;#039;t, really.&amp;quot; She&amp;#039;s bemused by Kate Moss&amp;#039;s recent recitation of the diet dictum &amp;quot;Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Well, I wouldn&amp;#039;t know,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve never been skinny. I&amp;#039;ve heard it before. It&amp;#039;s just one of those things that people say that doesn&amp;#039;t really mean anything in my life. She didn&amp;#039;t make it up.&amp;quot;  Sidibe feels pretty good, actually, and is working on feeling better. Today she is joining a gym, noting with some humor that her primary source of energy as she&amp;#039;s been hurtling around the country of late has been &amp;quot;Red Bull, which I&amp;#039;m sure isn&amp;#039;t the greatest thing.&amp;quot; About a year ago, she used to &amp;quot;swim 100 laps a day.&amp;quot; How did she look then? Bigger shoulders, stronger? &amp;quot;Nah,&amp;quot; she laughs, &amp;quot;just like this.&amp;quot; You won&amp;#039;t see Sidibe in a yoga studio anytime soon, though. &amp;quot;I hate yoga so much. Like, if yoga was a person, I&amp;#039;d stab them.&amp;quot; At the end of the day, &amp;quot;it doesn&amp;#039;t make any sense to kill yourself, because who are you trying to be beautiful for? It&amp;#039;s a mind game, not a body game.&amp;quot; When you&amp;#039;re rich, photographed, and famous (well, two of the three), other doors will open. She fantasizes about cashing in, doing ads in Japan like George Clooney. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve thought about it,&amp;quot; she says with a wink. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;d probably advertise cherry soda. Cherry soda ... um, muffins ... something sexy ... I know, cherry-muffin soda!&amp;quot; Speaking of global recognition, she&amp;#039;s heard Precious may have been screened in the White House. &amp;quot;I heard a rumor that President Obama knew who I was. You know, because Oprah is all up in his shizz, so I think that he might be aware of me.&amp;quot; She laughs. &amp;quot;But then again, he&amp;#039;s also aware of the whole world. He&amp;#039;s probably a little brain busy.&amp;quot; And so, of course, is Sidibe. She recently completed a role in the pilot for the upcoming Showtime series The C Word, but there&amp;#039;s always time to get esoteric. If she met herself at a party, &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;d think I was pretty. Is that weird? I might be really interested in me. I&amp;#039;d probably watch myself the whole night, then I&amp;#039;d come over and say, &amp;#039;You&amp;#039;re a really good dancer.&amp;#039; We&amp;#039;d talk for a while and then,&amp;quot; she says, starting to giggle at the silliness of it, &amp;quot;we&amp;#039;d go home separately to avoid the paparazzi.&amp;quot;  When Sidibe appeared on Ellen in October, armed with a dance she had been practicing for weeks, Ellen DeGeneres implored her to &amp;quot;stay exactly who you are.&amp;quot; She lights up at the memory. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m just happy to show up. So, I don&amp;#039;t have any plans of changing because I really, really like myself. It took a lot of work to get here. It&amp;#039;s reaffirming for people to meet me and ask me not to change.&amp;quot; She smiles, slyly deflating her you-go-girl balloon. &amp;quot;And now we cry.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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