If you do, tune in to her new t.v. show. It is on Monday nights and is called Harry's Law. I just watched the first episode that I had taped and liked it. It is almost refreshing to see an older, overweight woman staring in a show. If there is such a thing, she is a typical Kathy Bates character - outspoken, etc. She is a pattent attorney who got burned out, quit the firm and opened a small law office in a bad part of town.
LOVE Kathy Bates, and I was so surprised to see an Actress for Movies do a TV show, especially K.B. As to the older, overweight woman, I don't think she was the first by any means. In a similar TV Show called "The Practice", do you remember Camryn Manheim as Ellenor Frutt? Quite a bit taller than K.B., but none the less, a "big-boned" lady who was a dynamic performer. TV has come a long way since they let Lucille Ball be the first pregnant woman on TV. (Someone's gonna nail me on that factoid, I'm sure, but that's what I have heard anyway).
But yeah, to reiterate, watch "HARRY'S LAW", great show. Though in the first episode, I was surprised that a network would allow the few "Choice Words" she used in the show. Took me by surprise.