Michaels fit for new challenges

NEW YORK — On a Tuesday night in April, Jillian Michaels, the fitness guru,
Christian Louboutin Platforms sat down on a table at the Borders store in Columbus Circle and kicked off shiny beige Christian Louboutin pumps, revealing a blue pedicure. She was faced by a snaking line of hundreds, mostly women and teen girls (and a few potbellied men) clutching her sixth book, Unlimited: How to Build an Exceptional Life. The devotees, some of whom waited four hours to get their copies signed, approached Michaels tentatively, as if she might give them the kind of dressing-down she’s perfected as a confrontational trainer on NBC’s The Biggest Loser.
A few did get a tongue-lashing. "Do I smell cigarette smoke on you?" Michaels asked Lori Gorman, who had taken a bus in from Attleboro, Mass.
"No," Gorman lied. Michaels narrowed her eyes. "Yeah," Gorman, 47, admitted.
"Quit!" Michaels barked, also using an expletive, Christian Louboutin Wedges examples of which are littered throughout Unlimited.
But more often, Michaels was disarmingly chummy. She raised an arm to signal that fans could come in for a hug. Most did and lingered, whispering over her shoulder their tales of woe and transformation. Baby bump on display, Amy Lanzilotta, 31, from New York, told Michaels she plans to name her daughter Jillian because she was inspired by her "emotional strength."
Some making the pilgrimage, newly slender, were carrying Before-Jillian pictures in which they were unrecognizable. Cynthia Eyler, 40, who home-schools three of her four children in Westchester, Pa., used to tell them, "Don’t catch on fire, because Mom doesn’t run!"
After tracking her calories and workouts at the weight-loss site jillianmichaels.com, after her first 5K race and after 93 pounds had been shed, Eyler showed her idol a photo of the old her. "I want to thank you for changing my life," she said nervously.
Michaels’ life is changing, too. Last month, she left The Biggest Loser to pursue her dream of becoming a household name in health and wellness instead of just "America’s toughest trainer."
It didn’t take long for another network to make its move. This fall, Michaels will become the fifth host, and the only nonphysician,Christian Louboutin Boots on the CBS daytime show The Doctors. She will also be a special correspondent on CBS’ Dr. Phil, where one assignment will be to help teenage runaways face their demons.
The groundwork for the star trainer’s departure from The Biggest Loser was laid in part by her business partner Giancarlo Chersich, a former licensing agent who founded Empowered Media, a company to develop her brand, with her in 2008. Chersich said she had to agree to a few conditions, namely no sex tapes or DWI charges. "I don’t like drama."
The two have built a formidable fan base by emphasizing her softer, empathetic side. Michaels’ free Losing It With Jillian newsletter unflaggingly prods her 2.2 million subscribers not to sell themselves short, and it gives them diet tips and summarizes medical studies. On Facebook, she’ll scold her roughly 915,000 friends if she thinks they are disrespectful, as on May 9 after they criticized an old picture of a slender Rosie O’Donnell in a spiked revealing getup that Michaels had posted.
They also scold her, as when she implored fans to "grill instead of fry!" on Memorial Day but failed to praise troops.
Jillian Inc. has had considerable success and some glaring failures. Michaels, 37, has written six books (four made the New York Times bestseller list); has a performance and lifestyle clothing line with K-Swiss (a second batch is due in October); and has a dozen workout DVDs, including 30 Day Shred, the bestselling fitness DVD title of the last decade, according to Nielsen VideoScan.
In the last three years, NordicTrack has introduced at-home incline trainers that can access nearly 600 workouts during which Michaels encourages lonely users.
However, in the rush to meet the deadline, The Master Your Metabolism Cookbook (Crown Archetype, 2010) by Michaels was published without pictures. And NBC’s Losing It With Jillian dispatched her to "reboot" the lives of unhealthy families, but was not renewed after eight episodes. "The show didn’t work," she said.