Jessica Alba wears a girdle and other tidbits

Sometimes, I truly, deeply feel sorry for Hollywood actresses. Take, for example, Jessica Alba, who, in the March issue of ELLE magazine, talks about trying to get back into shape unhumanly fast after giving birth to her daughter, Honor. In the story, Alba describes workouts so horrible and strenuous, they made her cry.

Another trial she endured for beauty's sake? “I wore a girdle," she says. "Eight weeks after my girlfriend had her baby, you could see her six-pack. She told me to put an elastic band around my waist—any kind of band or girdle works. She was like, 'I slept in it.' I didn’t recover as fast as she did. I [still] don’t have a six-pack.”

All of this torture wasn't even for a film role—it was so the 27-year-old could star in Campari's new ad campaign (and so, if you remember, the company could airbrush her perfectly gorgeous body anyway).

Further in the ELLE story, Alba talks about what it feels like to give birth ("Contractions aren’t that bad. If you’ve ever had bad cramps? That’s what they’re like. But that moment when they put the baby on your chest—that’s deep. It’s a deep experience.”), her new separation anxiety ("I never cried before. Just being a mother is making me a big, weepy mess.”), and, of course, fashion (“I’ve always loved beautiful clothes, but I’m not very hip to the coolest, newest, most fashionable thing."). She seems considerably vulnerable and, honestly, lovable.