Rachael Ray Defends Her Sexy FHM Photo Shoot

In an interview with ABC's Nightline airing tonight, 'Celebrichef' Rachael Ray defends some PR moves that she has made in the past, including a sexy layout with men's magazine FHM.  It was 2003, she was 35, and her career was just beginning to skyrocket.  From the interview and quoted by US Magazine: 

"And I thought about [FHM] for a while, and I said, 'You know what? This magazine has as young as 17-, 18-year-olds in hottie bikinis, and these are all actresses, models, pin-up girls. I don't belong to any even remote club of theirs...

I thought, 'If I'm gutsy enough to do this, this is a good thing for everybody. This is the everywoman, here she is,'" she adds. "And I did it, and it was the most scared I've ever been, and I wouldn't change a thing. I'd do it again tomorrow."

Ray's Empire now consists of the TV shows "The Rachael Ray Show," "Tasty Travels,” “$40 A Day,” “Inside Dish,” and “30 Minute Meals," (with which she won a Day Time Emmy for).  There is the magazine, Every Day With Rachael Ray, that was launched in 2005.

I also counted more than 20 books on Amazon that list her as the author including the 365: No Repeats - A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners - where a family followed the recipes in the book, in order, from cover to cover and wrote about them.  Hilarious.

She has a line of products including everything from a 10-Piece Hard-Anodized Cookware Set to a Lazy Spoon and Ladle Set named after her - to Nutrish, her own dog food label.  What is next?  Public office?

Well good on ya, Rache.  I'm a fan.  Some people complain about her being overexposed but the fact remains, too much of anything will cause a belly ache.