There, now. It's nice to be elegantly, comfortably old, perhaps. Don't you think?
UPDATE: By contrast, consider Sharon Stone, as she appears in "Basic Instinct 2." As Manohla Dargis puts it, "man, does she look weird here." She sure doesn't look like Sharon Stone anymore:
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26 comments:
Yeah... and I don't mind driving my slow Corvette around, Pamela Anderson has come to accept her small breasts,
and Jack Bauer doesn't mind pushing papers all day.
Ann,
Beauty is recognizing reality. Look at the picture of the flower below.
Sharon Stone doesn't look a day over 30 in that photo. All praise good plastic surgery, makeup and photo retouching!
Nicole Kidman
She was in Cold Mountain, right? She just did not look right in that movie. Looked far, far too old for the role she was playing. I can accept that in, opera or the stage, where the face is so tiny and there's so much else to create the impression, but a film uses close-ups, so having a face that looks ten years too old just snaps me out of the state of suspended disbelief.
AllenS: "Beauty is recognizing reality."
I like that a lot. It's also a reason not to take drugs to enhance perception and pleasure. The world that is is what is beautiful. If you don't see that already, at least don't do anything that will take you farther away from seeing it. Concentrate! See what is and learn to value that.
It would be very jarring to see a smooth Ali McGraw face on top of those gnarled hands.
I think she looks stunning.
md wrote: Don't you feel a bit sad when you see Terry Hatcher and, lately, Nicole Kidman, with their faces pulled so tight?
Actually, no, are you sure they've had work done? Sheesh, I don't think Nicole is even 40 yet. And, if it's true that 40 is the new 20 (or 50 the new 30) she doesn't have to worry about it for a while.
Oh., good heavens yes, Nicole has had work done. Botox at the very least, probably more.
I saw Sharon Stone on Larry King Live some months ago and posted (I apologize for linking to myself again, if you're disgusted just don't go there) that "She still looks great, of course. But she no longer looks like Sharon Stone. She's gotten that generic, expressionless, off-the-shelf faux-young look that tucked, tugged and tweaked faces get. . . . Who is this beautiful woman? No one in particular, any more."
That effect freaks me out. How someone can want so badly to look young that they're willing to look like someone completely different -- or nobody at all. It's like selling your soul to the devil. And your fingertips don't have fingerprints on them anymore.
That said -- it's not like I haven't considered it. Fortunately, I can't afford it. Not having the $20,000 or whatever to spare is like not having a gun in the house so my husband and I can't kill each other when we have a fight. But looking in the mirror, the "ravages of age" can be hard to stomach.
vw: ojbwjz (an Indian tribe in Wisconsin that intermarried with Poles?)
That picture looks like it was shot through 20 ga. sheet steel and blurred in PhotoShop to the point that Mother Theresa would look like Anna Nicole Smith or Francis the Talking Mule, depending on how you squint. Give me a break.
It would have been great if David Cronenberg got to direct Basic Instinct II.
Such hypocrisy. It's a dark night, you are alone, and approached by Ali, or Sharon. All these "beauty is reality people" would abandon reality teut de suite, leaving Ali alone with her wrinkled wisdom and face of a million horror stories.
There's a reason people in Hollywood go for all these changes; the public demands it, and has nearly no ability to pay attention to women after they hit a certain age. (Nor do producers/directors particularly thrill to doing films with actresses that don't inspire their "muse" (aka penis or "no no spot").
There are people who recognize reality, remain "natural" and for all that realism, still look like the dogs end dragged through civil war.
Beauty just is, or isn't.
You’re kidding, right? Ali McGraw is sixty-seven years old and in that picture she looks like she might be in her mid forties at most. I don't see a face like a road map, I see a few crows feet, otherwise her face is completely smooth. She has probably had more work than Sharon Stone.
Amba: "That effect freaks me out. How someone can want so badly to look young that they're willing to look like someone completely different -- or nobody at all."
"Number 12 Looks Just Like You."
Mitch: "That picture looks like it was shot through 20 ga. sheet steel and blurred in PhotoShop to the point that Mother Theresa would look like Anna Nicole Smith..."
I think you're trying to descibe the lack of wrinkles. Conceded. It doesn't explain why all the features look different, and she doesn't look like Sharon Stone anymore. It also doesn't count for Manohla Dargis's statement based on seeing the movie. And all the other pictures we've seen of Stone lately.
Road Map and looking fine.
This morning I watched a CBS 4am news clip of a group of 90 year old former Cotton Club dancers tapping dancing away. They may not have been 'elegantly' beautiful but they were beautiful and full of life.....
Althousefan,
The picture of the flower was beautiful reality. That's why I referenced it in my post. I knew this 18 year old lady in the 1970's. She was very attractive with this long curly black hair. Seen her a year ago, and she has some wrinkles on her face (no makeup) and her hair is all gray. She is still beautiful. She hasn't tried to hide the reality of aging. The problem I have with movie stars, is that they make a living pretending to be somebody they're not. When you see them on the screen, it isn't reality.
Finn:
There's a reason people in Hollywood go for all these changes; the public demands it, and has nearly no ability to pay attention to women after they hit a certain age . . .
Yeah but . . . do you find fake youth attractive? Doesn't it just look fake? You wouldn't want to look too closely. I once went on a camping trip with a bunch of socialites in their 30s and 40s, as a writing assignment. They'd almost all had breast implants or breast reduction. They looked good in clothes, but naked?? Fuhgeddaboudit.
The fact is these fixed-up women can look good for a while on camera, which is their living, so OK. But how do they look in real life? That's more pertinent to most of us who don't live or work on camera. Having cosmetic surgery may make you "feel better about yourself," but it doesn't fool anybody else. Dyed hair looks dyed. Cosmetic-surgeried women do not look YOUNG. Young women look young. You've got it for a while and then you lose it, and there ain't nothin' you can really do about it.
When I see the Oscars, I always think Judi Dench looks wonderful. She's not trying to be something she's not, and she looks like an actual, richly charactered human being, not a fantasy in a porn videogame. Pssst . . . sex isn't everything.
You've got it for a while and then you lose it, and there ain't nothin' you can really do about it.
You can bathe in the blood of virgins.
Why should we care about Sharon Stone's plastic surgury? It's not as if she made her rep on people looking at her...face.
Hey, plastic surgery can make anyone look like a 30 year old white woman. Just look at Michael Jackson.
LOL, Balfegor and Eli.
Christy: "We of the early-thinning-cortex..."
LOL.
I have a mad, makes-no-sense love for Sharon Stone, whacked out, lightly talented, nutburger that she is. I think she looks fine.
"The problem with beauty is that it's like being born rich and getting poorer."
--Joan Collins
Ron: she's probably had plastic surgery "down there," too. It's all the rage. Women want to look like Penthouse Pets.
yikes
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