Having a plump, curvaceous behind has become an asset in Hollywood.  Women are paying a lot of money to look like Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian by enhancing their behinds.

It's become the latest craze in cosmetic surgery.  Plastic surgeons say the only way safe way to do it is through surgical implants, or by transferring fat from another part of one's body done by board certified doctors.  

But, Lisa Guerrero and the INSIDE EDITION I-Squad found a shady, underground world of unqualified people who allegedly injected their customers with strange cocktails.  

Many women were promised beautiful behinds, but were left disfigured and scarred.  In some cases, they died as a result of these toxic injections.

In one case, a woman in Florida, allegedly injected herself and her patients with things like cement and Fix-A-Flat - sold for tire repairs.A far cry from the celebrity sex-appeal so many were hoping for.

Gabi Castillo always envied Jennifer Lopez's sexy moves.  She wasn't satisfied with her own curves, so she paid $6,000 to get a more voluptuous backside.   

"I felt I would look sexy if I had a big butt," Gabi told INSIDE EDITION.  

Not long after the procedure, a lump appeared on her behind.  It grew into a life-threatening infection that was eating away at her skin and muscle.  

"I remember the horror of not knowing if I was going to live," she said.  

Doctors told Gabi, she'd been injected with an unknown, contaminated substance.

She had to undergo 28 surgeries, which removed the infection, and most of her behind. Today, she's left with permanent scars and has to wear prosthetic pads just to feel normal.

Miami plastic surgeon Constantino Mendieta told INSIDE EDITION, "Without knowing it, these patients are rolling the dice. They're actually playing Russian roulette with their health."

The Screen Actors Guild awards revealed a slimmer Alec Baldwin, who won the award for the Best Actor in a comedy series at the event on Sunday evening.

The Irish American actor from Long Island, New York won the prize for his Jack Donaghy character on NBC's hit series “30 Rock”.

The film and television actor has dropped 30 pounds, according to Entertainment Tonight.

Baldwin's motive was his health: The fast-talking star of the film "The Departed" was diagnosed as being pre-diabetic back in May of 2011.

Dr. Carson Liu, a frequent Monsters and Critics' contributor and expert on diabetes, weight loss and weight management, is board-certified specialist in bariatric surgery, (MD, FACS, FASMBSA). He spoke to us on the phone this morning and shared his perspective on Baldwin's commitment to health:

"The diagnosis of pre diabetes is a wake-up call for most people to lose weight," says Dr. Liu. "Early stages of pre diabetes or diabetes is completely reversible with diet and exercise!"

Dr. Liu adds, "Most people with adult onset diabetes who understand the consequences will know of a relative with diabetes, and its devastating consequences. Alec Baldwin is [reportedly] a vegetarian and he will have to increase his protein intake, decrease the carbohydrates and exercise. Sounds simple and it's not rocket science."

More about Dr. Liu

Original Article

MIAMI, Fla. (NBC) -- On busy South Dixie Highway near Coconut Grove, Florida it's hard to miss the signs for the Miami Thong Lift.

Jenny Fitz came from Bolivia to have it done last year.

"I love it. Tremendous change.Yeah because I had that square look," Fitz said.

She joked that she used to look like SpongeBob Squarepants.

Plastic surgeon Constantino Mendieta says he invented the Miami Thong Lift around ten years ago.

"It's just now entering into vogue. As a matter of fact, I'm going to Paris to lecture this week. I've been invited to Turkey, and we're going to Belgium," said Mendieta.

Food Network star Paula Deen made a deal with devil in Georgia it seems, as the butter loving Southern fried food queen is suffering from Type 2 diabetes and has hid the diagnosisfor years.

Deen, the sunny smiles cooking host of the Food Network's "Paula's Best Dishes," became a nemesis of Travel Channel's "No Reservations" chef and writer Anthony Bourdain and a major booster of all things battered, breaded, stuffed and fried, selling many cookbooks with her signature deep fat style.

Deen, 64, confirmed today on NBC's Today Show that she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes three years ago and she is now launching a new campaign, "Diabetes in a New Light." The campaign is in partnership with diabetes drug maker Novo Nordisk.

"I made the choice at the time to keep it close to me, to keep it close to my chest," she told USA Today. "I felt like I had nothing to offer anybody other than the announcement. I wasn't armed with enough knowledge. I knew when it was time, it would be in God's time."

Deen uses a daily injectable drug that is meant to maintain blood sugar levels. She will appear in an advertisement for the drug later this month, USA Today reported.

Bourdain had commentary regarding the diabetes news. "When your signature dish is hamburger in between a doughnut, and you've been cheerfully selling this stuff knowing all along that you've got Type 2 Diabetes... It's in bad taste if nothing else," he told Eater.

Diabetes is a growing problem, with over 25 million Americans coping with the chronic disease in which blood-sugar levels are abnormally high in the body.

Type 2 diabetics are usually overweight or obese at the time of diagnosis.

According to the American Diabetes Association, the number of new diabetes cases is expected to double by 2050.

Diabetes from obesity and inactivity and is causing health insurance costs to increase dramatically, according to the American Diabetes Association.

"I wasn't trying to lose weight," Deen told USA Today. "I don't even own a scale. I go strictly by the way I feel and the way my clothes feel." When she's out and about, people often say to her, "Gosh you're not nearly as fat in person."

"I don't care what the haters and naysayers say," Deen told the newspaper. "If they make jokes about me, I'll laugh because they'll probably be funny."

Los Angeles-based Bariatric surgeon Dr. Carson D. Liu, MD, FACS, FASMBS had some words of advice and shared his take on the Deen diabetes story:

When the news came out late last year that some desperate girls in Miami allowed a transsexual Frankenstein man with grotesquely gargantuan ass and titties to inject their butts with cement and Fix-A-Flat tire sealant in hopes of ballooning their asses to J. Lo proportions, we knew this whole bootylicious thing was starting to get out of control. Surprisingly, that case is just one of many instances last year where people hired quacks to augment their asses—a 20-year-old student in Philly even died from underground silicone butt injections last February.

This seedy scene of backyard assplasty belies a broader trend of women going to extreme measures to improve the shape and girth of their behinds. The sane way to do this, beyond squats and eating lots of bonbons, is to go to a plastic surgeon. There are two general methods that real doctors use to augment your bum—implants and fat transfers. Implants in the butt generally follow the same concept as implants in the breast, and have been slowly rising in popularity in the US over the last few years. However, fat transfers, also known as the Brazilian Butt Lift, are where all the action is. This procedure involves liposuctioning fat from unwanted places, prepping it, and pumping it back into select areas of the butt to create a delicious flesh-apple. It's hard to get specific statistics on fat grafting, however, because most surgery societies tally fat transfers under liposuction.

Dr. Constantino Mendieta is the biggest advocate for butt augmentation in the world. Unsurprisingly, his practice is in Miami and overrun with sexy nurses with surgically sculpted asses. Butt-hungry patients fly in from all over the globe to have his steady hand in their behind, and with good reason—he literally wrote the book on butts. It's called The Art of Gluteal Sculpting. The original idea was to interview another talented surgeon, but when Constantino heard through the grapevine that VICE was writing about butt augmentation he called us up to set the record straight.

South Florida doctors are using a growing array of procedures — from fat injections to stem cells — to help rejuvenate your face.

It is no secret that beautiful people are revered. It may not be considered politically correct, but it is factual!

We are all painfully aware that each A-list celebrity can be described as beautiful, or drop-dead gorgeous.

A recent study proves that human beings are hard wired to actually prefer beautiful people. Couple that with the legion of books which all hail the science of beauty, including "Survival of the Prettiest" by Nancy Etcoff. This lead us to conclude that beauty is not quite as "skin deep" as stipulated by the popular expression.

A recent study conducted by ABC's 20/20 shows that human beings react more warmly to a person in distress if they are beautiful.

Which begs the question, are people really that shallow?

The answer to this is based in scientific fact, and lends some much needed insight as human beings are reacting to their own genetic instinct when they appreciate and are drawn to beautiful people.

But when you combine the symptoms of "coveting beauty" to what can best be described as a rocky economy, you get an outcome that few could have predicted:  A spike in what many are labeling "survivalist" plastic surgery.

Of course, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” so what is beautiful to one might not be beautiful to another.

Beverly Hills board certified plastic surgeon Dr. Nicholas Nikolov notes how "ego driven plastic surgery" has taken a back seat to "survivalist" surgery.