How Fran Drescher Minds Her Body

Each week, journalist and content specialist Stephanie Stephens celebrates healthy living with a famous figure age 45+.

Bravo! When the curtain goes up on the Tony Award–winning musical production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella Feb. 4 through April 13, New York City audiences will see yet another enchantingly entertaining side of Fran Drescher, cast as Cinderella’s stepmother, Madame. Cinderella is played by “Call Me Maybe” singer-songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen.

Drescher, who is just so “Fran” to her fans, was also just so fine as the lovable and patient Miss Fine on CBS’s hit series The Nanny, which she also created and executive produced for six years. She co-created and starred in Happily Divorced for TV Land, which ended last year.

Her books, Enter Whining and Cancer Schmancer were New York Times bestsellers. She also wrote a children’s book, Being Wendy. A 13-year uterine cancer survivor who’s now 57, she founded the nonprofit Cancer Schmancer Movement to shift America’s focus toward prevention and early detection, and its offshoot, Trash Cancer, an outreach to educate us about carcinogens in our food, personal care and cleaning products. Her Fran Vans Program provides free mammograms to women in financial need.

I’m so impressed with her energy and commitment. Drescher has accrued a slew of awards for her health activism and defense of civil liberties—she walks her talk, and is known as a proactive and effective lobbyist on Capitol Hill.

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