President Bush is mumbling about World War III. 3,000 Wisconsin National Guard Soldiers have been alerted for service in Iraq. Republicans are leaning toward jovial Mike Huckabee, whose middle eastern solution is "just win it." And everyone's starting to get a glimmer of how deep the financial crisis goes into the banking industry.

So what's the big news story of the day? Some 291 articles' worth?

Jennifer Love Hewitt's butt.

I'm not going to show you the image. Apparently it's too horrifying for the American public. But I'll show you how she looked from the front the same day the butt picture was taken. 

For those who need a guide to the female body, let me elucidate. Those gentle protuberances  below her waist are called "curves." Hips. A tummy. (I can't figure out what to call that part that doesn't involve a childish euphemism, so I'm stuck.)

At 28, the actress has a body that displays a classic small waist to larger hip ratio that shows she has sufficient body fat to conceive and carry a child. That includes some cellulite, which most healthy 15 year old girls have as well. She's come forward to say "enough!" to the negative comments about women's body "imperfections."

Especially when the imperfections in question aren't imperfect. Whether she's a size 0, apparently the ideal; a size 2, as she says she is; or a size 6, she's normal. And like many of us, she's tired of being held to abnormal standards.

My guess is that most men reading this blog are not repulsed by Hewitt's body. Some may even thank me for using her image here, for purely educational purposes of course. After all, she's beautiful.

Some research suggests that social body-type preferences change as times change. In good times, the Marilyn Monroe/Jennifer Love Hewitt type that promises reproductive abundance is popular. But "when times are difficult, reproductive fitness may be less important and the ability to acquire resources and be productive may become more important," according to Pettijohn and Jungeberg's quite respectable Playboy Playmate Curves study.

And that means favoring women who look more like, well, men. Hollywood ups the ante by adding impossibly buoyant large breasts.