In the February issue of Vogue, cover girl Kate Bosworth chats about her bony-backed, way-too-skinny days, but stops before calling it anorexia. It's true, she says, that at one point she dropped up to a dozen pounds, but that was because she was stressed out over an illness in the family. "Whenever anything happens that's very painful or stressful, we all lose weight—my mother, my aunt, my grandmother." Agents of skinny Vogue calls Bosworth "an intelligent and sensitive young woman [who was] suddenly caught in the outlandish narratives of anorexia and the perils of having a body in Hollywood." Whatever that means.

Jessica Alba and Lindsay Lohan have both copped to eating disorders, but other suspects refuse to come clean. "Grief" and "stress" are de rigueur excuses for many, with nary a mention of the influence of friends Ana and 'Limia. Only the truly disoriented have ever mumbled the classic "not loaded on a lethal mix of Vicodin, coke, and Grey Goose; just exhausted."

What, then, are the some of our girls' favorite, dare we say, thin excuses?

Angelina Jolie
Thin excuses: Grief over mother's death, breastfeeding, chasing around her multiculti brood.
Low-calorie quote: "I've always been lean and this year I lost my mom and I've gone through a lot ... I have four kids and I finished breastfeeding—it's been hard to get my nutrition back on track."

Calista Flockhart
Thin excuses: Work schedule, losing just a few pounds on a tiny frame really shows, I just didn't know what was happening.
Low-calorie quote: "During [Ally McBeal], when we were filming and working so hard, I became stressed and did not eat as much as I should. ... I think, on a frame like mine, if I lose a few pounds, it makes a big difference. There was no anorexia or bulimia or any other such thing. I hated every bit of attention on my weight and size. Even now, I can't put into words what exactly happened."

Hillary Duff
Thin excuses: A newfound passion for Pilates, cutting out carbs, exercise.
Low-calorie quote: "My sister (introduced) me to Pilates, and I just got obsessed with it. I do it three or four times a week when I'm not traveling."

Nearly a year later, Duff came clean in the pages of Us Weekly, admitting she'd had an eating disorder.

Keira Knightley
Thin excuses: Fear, knowledge.
Low-calorie quote: "I'm quite sure I don't have [anorexia]. ... I've got a lot of experience with anorexia—my grandmother and great-grandmother suffered from it, and I had a lot of friends at school who suffered from it ... I know it's not something to be taken lightly and I don't."

Knightley went so far as to sue the Daily Mail for suggesting she had an eating disorder last January. Whatever, girl looked pretty hungry on the cover of W last month.