As she walks into the ballroom of an airport hotel, 20 women offer a collective(1) swoon(2). Then come reactions one would expect were reserved just for Oprah: the screeches(3), the tears, the fluttering hand over the heart. One woman is hyperventilating(4), breathlessly squealing(5): "Ommigod! It's Mo'Nique! It's Mo'Nique!"

Looking like a plus-sized black Barbie in a green polka-dot(6) sundress, her hair in a playful flip, the 39-year-old actress-comedian is quickly engulfed(7) by her "fat girls." She embraces them, trying not to muss(8) her makeup with her own tears.

"I always think I'm going to do fine when I get to this point, but I know your tears," she tells them, each a finalist in the third year of her big-girl beauty competition, "Mo'Nique's F.A.T. Chance" — as in "Fabulous And Thick."

With cameras rolling, Mo'Nique moves around the room proclaiming each woman "Miss F.A.T.". The first one-hour show, "Mo'Nique's F.A.T. Chance: The Road to Paris," aired Saturday and features these and 2,000 other women who answered open casting calls(9) in Los Angeles, Chicago and Dallas.

Of them, five were chosen to strut their stuff(10) in glamorous gowns on a runway at the Le Grand Hotel in Paris. The two-hour show, "Mo'Nique's F.A.T. Chance: Paris," ends with the $50,000 grand prize winner and the crowning of a new Miss F.A.T.

"We wanted to go beyond the beauty pageant," Mo'Nique says, kicking off her high-heeled sandals(11) during a taping break(12). "We also wanted to create runway fashion shows, to give fat girls the option of saying, `Yeah, we've got this, too!' It's about taking the show to the next level."

It's also about continuing to break stereotypes worldwide. "When we first went (to Paris), some of the places we went to had the same feeling as in America — like, `What? Fat women? No thank you.' But then there were people that totally got it."

"What was so wonderful for me was that I was IN that group of women," says Mo'Nique, who lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Sidney Hicks, and their 21-month old twin boys. She has two teenage sons from a previous marriage.

"I'm the same woman that dreams of going to the fashion capital of the world and being a supermodel. I had the same dreams they had as a little girl."

But size isn't the only thing that matters.

"Mo'Nique's whole philosophy of life, and the philosophy of the show, is to love yourself, to be the best you can be," says longtime friend and executive producer Don Weiner.

當她步入機場酒店的舞廳，20位女子欣喜若狂。然后出現了只有見到Oprah才會有的反應：尖叫、哭泣、胸前顫動的雙手。其中一個女子喘不上氣來地尖叫：“哦！我的天！Mo'Nique！是Mo'Nique”。

這位39歲的喜劇演員身穿一襲綠色的圓點花陽裙，頭發調皮地翹著，看上去如同大碼的黑膚芭比娃娃，很快被她的“胖女孩們”團團圍住。她與她們相擁，淚水差點沖壞了臉上的妝。

在第三屆胖女孩選美大賽“Mo'Nique F.A.T.環肥小姐”上，她對每一位決賽選手說：“一直以為當我來到這里能夠控制好自己的情緒，但是我了解你們的眼淚。” F.A.T.的意思是“Fabulous And Thick”。

隨著攝像機的轉動，Mo'Nique在舞廳中翩翩走動，為大家介紹每一位“環肥小姐”。周六。“Mo'Nique's環肥小姐：通往巴黎之路”第一小時節目播出，為大家展示了兩千多位來自洛杉磯、芝加哥和達拉斯的小姐的海選。

其中五名脫穎而出，可以穿上迷人的禮服裙在巴黎大飯店展示風采。此節目最終頒發5萬美元大獎并評選出一名新的環肥小姐。

換攝影帶休息的時候，Mo'Nique脫掉高跟涼鞋說：“我們希望能夠超越選美比賽的概念，把它辦成時裝秀的舞臺，讓胖女孩也可以這樣說：‘是的，我們也能參加時裝秀！’這樣節目就上升了一個層次。”

這也正逐漸打破全世界的固有觀念。“初到巴黎，一些地方的人和美國人的反應一樣—‘什么？胖女人？不，謝謝你！’但是后來已經有人能夠完全接受了。”

Mo'Nique目前和丈夫Sidney Hicks、21個月的雙胞胎男孩以及和前夫的兩個十來歲的兒子住在洛杉磯。她說：“當我和她們聚集到一起，感覺非常好。”

“我和其他女孩擁有同樣的夢想，渴望來到世界時尚之都，成為超級模特。當我還小的時候就同大家一樣地夢想著。”

但是體形并非唯一的決定因素。

Mo'Nique的老朋友、監制Don Weiner說：“Mo'Nique的人生哲學、節目哲學就是愛自己，盡力做到最好。”