Faces that launch Oscars cost millions
Billie
By Sarah Tippit
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In Hollywood, the faces that make a fortune in the
movies also cost a fortune to maintain, especially during Oscars when the stars
get their skin and bodies ready for close encounters with an adoring public.
The millions watching the 73rd annual Academy Awards on Sunday -- which is
often referred to as the Super Bowl for women -- will likely sit in front of
their television sets ogling and/or savaging the stars, commenting on their
weight gains or losses, their cleavage or lack thereof and their outfits,
wrinkles and on-stage antics.
"People will pick them apart no matter what," said Valerie Sarnelle, a makeup
artist to the stars who owns a Beverly Hills makeup boutique frequented by
Hollywood's elite. "The pressure (is) tremendous. The point is that nobody
wants old. You just have to hit it big when you're young ... so that by the
time you are 50 you can just walk away and say 'thank you.'"
The stars, of course, know this, which is why facelifts, nose jobs, chin, lip
and breast augmentation, liposuction and even cleavage enhancement are now part
of a star's job description, often on orders from an agent or studio mogul.
"Anyone older than a Mouseketeer in this business has had some sort of cosmetic
surgery," said Richard Fleming, a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon with a movie
star client roster.
Yet the stars never talk about their operations because they want people to
think they were born perfect. "The stars will talk about their alcoholism,
their drug issues, but rarely do they ever admit to cosmetic surgery," Fleming
said.
During Oscar season, a variety of treatments are more or less the norm, said
Fleming, whose phone rings off the hook the minute the Oscar nominations are
announced in mid- February. "It's my busiest season. I'm like an accountant
during tax season," Fleming said, adding that it often takes weeks to get a
star's face and body ready for the cameras on the Red Carpet.
"There are so many things for them to arrange ... and they want to put their
best presentation forward as they are interviewed and arrive at the show and
during the show when they are on camera. Therefore they are very concerned.
They often go through a whole ritual," Fleming said.
But this is not the time for a nose job or full-fledged face lift. It's a time
for procedures to freshen the face and body that require less than six weeks of
healing time.
Stars in their early 20s plan facial collagen injections or "fat augmentation,"
a procedure involving the removal of body fat from the hips via liposuction and
injected into the face to "correct irregular contours," or simply make cheeks
and lips plump and healthy looking.
Collagen injections are often done in dim lighting so that surgeons can see
facial shadows as they work, Sarnelle said. "I know. I've done this," she said.
Meanwhile, Fleming noted: "The younger women, they'll come in, sit across the
table from me and say, 'I have grooves from the corners of my nose to my mouth
and on film it's very visible.' and you sit across the table and think, 'nah,'
and they'll say, 'Go look at my last film' where they were unable to control
the lighting and you look and it does not look good. For those kinds of grooves
we do fat injections."
In addition to working with personal trainers, older stars (meaning those over
age 30), often seek liposuction for sleeker hips and tummies.
"If somebody wants to wear a (sheer) Geena Davis type of dress I'll do
liposuction on a patient. They'll be sore for 48 hours and black and blue for a
week or two depending. They may even have a little bruising at the time of the
show but they can cover that with makeup. In any case they can wear a dress
which will reflect a better shape," Fleming said.
Some stars choose remedies for fine facial lines such as chemical peels, laser
resurfacing of the skin, or the anti-acne medication accutane, which shrinks
the oil glands even on good skin and gives the face a "poreless" look, he said.
The prices of these treatments start at $200 and loom upwards.
One new procedure that proved popular is a $3,000 clevoplasty, in which a
doctor removes fat from a woman's hips and injects it between her breasts to
create plumper cleavage in the event she wears a gown with a plunging neckline.
The procedure does not increase a woman's cup size and can be used in lieu of
breast implants, Fleming said.
In the days leading up to the Oscars, the stars undergo massages,
vitamin-and-oxygen- infused facials, manicures, pedicures, and botox -- or
chicken botulinum toxin. It is injected in small amounts ("no more than you'd
fine in a bowl of chicken soup," Sarnelle said) into facial lines. Within 72
hours the toxin relaxes the facial muscles so that laugh and frown lines
temporarily disappear. The treatments cost about $350 each and take years off
the face but only last three months.
Some actresses shy away from botox, however, because it renders their faces
immobile and rather expressionless and they fear directors won't hire them for
films, Sarnelle said.
Besides undergoing surgical procedures and working out, stars generally spend
the days before the Oscars holed up in their million dollar homes perusing
gratis designer gowns and diamonds, anonymously reserving four or five of their
favourite makeup artists for the big day, and receiving gift baskets from
hundreds of manufacturers who hope a star will wear their product on the Red
Carpet, Sarnelle said.
"STUPIDITY IS NOT A HANDICAP. Park elsewhere!"
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