Actresses - Forty and Fabulous club.( article )
Rick in Oz
886244880.html
queens act their age
May 2, 2005
The Sun-Herald
Suddenly it's become cool for women to grow older, Kevin Airs writes.
They're older, they're bolder and they're very, very sexy. Welcome to the
brave new world of Forty and Fabulous - the revolution has begun and it's
being televised every Monday night.
Channel Seven's Desperate Housewives has broken down the gates of the
Beverly Hills Home For (Alleged) Old Hollywood Hags and shown its inmates to
be just as sexy as young starlets. The show is rewriting the rule book on
how Hollywood sees women of a certain age and turned ageing stars like Teri
Hatcher, once thought to be box office poison, into born-again sex symbols.
Of course, the marketeers already have a quirky name for this glamorous
subgroup: DISCO women. They're Discerning, Increasing years, Stylish and
Comfortably Off. Who wouldn't want to be in their gang?
"It's not just about the bright young things any more," says model agency
boss Peter Chadwick. "It's all about the Fab Forties now. These women are in
the prime of life and there's room for both.
"[Desperate Housewives] is changing everyone's perceptions of what to expect
from a 40-year-old woman."
Next month marks the latest addition to the DISCO dance floor, Liz Hurley.
Sit down now. Breathe deeply. That's it. Liz. Hurley. 40. If it's hard for
you to believe, think how it must feel for her.
"I'm having a bit of a midlife crisis," she admitted recently. The very
personification of modern-day glamour is growing old - but in a glamorous
Gucci-and-Versace kind of way, natch dahling.
Hurley has no plans to hide herself away, nor cover up those curves that
made her famous in that dress 10 years ago. She's now designing swimwear -
and modelling it, of course.
Even just a couple of years ago, the idea of a quadragenarian in a bikini
would have horrified Hollywood.
Yet despite a combined age of almost two centuries, Desperate Housewives'
Hatcher and co-stars Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross, Nicolette Sheridan and
Eva Longoria just did a raunchy swimsuit cover for Vanity Fair magazine.
"These women would be beautiful at any age," says Australian casting
consultant Ann Fay. "It's fantastic. But women these days are looking much
better for their age than they ever used to.
"It really annoys me when people say it's all over once you hit 40. Go to
the gym and eat well and you can carry on forever. Forty is just a number."
As the Che Guevara of this revolution, Hatcher is the hottest thing in
Hollywood, but she candidly admits she's no spring chicken any more. There's
no wrinkle rancour though.
When she recently found what turned out to be a harmless cyst under her eye,
she proudly reveals: "I was asking my doctor how I got it and finally he
just said, 'Teri, it's just a barnacle of age'."
Hatcher wears her years like a badge of honour and challenges viewers to
find fault. She regularly lays herself bare for scrutiny in the show with
nothing but skimpy lingerie or a handful of leaves to hide the signs of
ageing.
"It's brave of her to do those scenes, but she looks a million bucks and she
knows it," adds Fay. "She's very confident about her body, and with good
reason."
Elle Macpherson and Madonna, founding members of the DISCO club, blazed the
trail for others with their willingness to show off the flesh other women
their age try to disguise. Even at 42, The Body Corporate recently admitted
she would still happily get her gear off to pimp her lingerie line - and
there's not a single bloke who wouldn't be grateful for that.
"She still looks amazing," admits Chadwick, her former agency boss. "She's
incredible and really she's the poster girl for the 40-plus generation. I am
sure the industry attitude to women of that age is going to change. These
women have a certain maturity that makes them very sexy indeed. Desperate
Housewives has come along at a good time when there are a lot of women in
that age group. They are very attractive, well-groomed and stylish, and I am
sure they would love to see women like themselves on the catwalks and on
screen."
And there's an impressive queue of celebrities waiting to join the
figureheads of the Forty and Fabulous club.
The line-up of A-list 40th birthday parties this year is staggering. (The TV
in 1964 must have been rubbish. Or was it a really cold winter?)
Linda Evangelista, Diane Lane, Brooke Shields, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin
Davis and Famke Janssen are among the year's many other Big Four-Oh birthday
girls.
Sandra Bullock, who turned 40 last year, proved she is a bigger crowd puller
now than ever with the success of Miss Congeniality 2, Evangelista still
headlines fashion shows and even Brooke Shields is doing huge business
starring in the stage version of Chicago.
Lane just scored her biggest box office hits yet, Janssen starred in the
blockbuster chiller Hide And Seek and Davis has five projects under way
including a major new TV series. Meanwhile, Sarah Jessica Parker is still
talking to herself in a really annoying way.
In previous years, they would have given it all up a long time ago. Before
Desperate Housewives, there were only desperate actresses wasting away on
Hollywood's scrap heap.
"There was a very definite cut-off to an actress's career," says Fay. "You
could have men in their 50s or 60s, but their romantic lead would be in her
20s."
Once an actress hit 35, they were pulled from view and destined to a future
of cartoon movie voiceovers. After the plastic surgery scars faded, they
might hope to land a role as a loveable granny.
Even in the 1990s, sex siren Sharon Stone's career ground to a halt when she
hit her late 30s. Despite critical acclaim for Casino, she never landed
another lead role in a major movie. But Stone was just one of the many
casualties who crashed into Hollywood's actress age barrier. History is
littered with them.
Now Desperate Housewives has caused a sensation and the future for actresses
apparently reaching their end of days has been transformed.
"You can see it's changing already," adds Chadwick. "Look at Revlon -
they've just signed up Susan Sarandon to front their latest ad campaign and
she's 58."
It's all just a reflection of society, though, it seems. If you thought
Desperate Housewives was just another TV show, you were wrong. It's a
sociological sensation, apparently.
"The 21st century is going to be a revolution in dealing with ageing in our
lives and society," explains Professor Vincent Minichiello of Armidale's
University of New England. "It's not surprising that Hollywood has latched
onto the idea. There's a huge and growing market out there that simply isn't
interested in 18- or 19-year-olds.
"We have to reclassify all our ideas about age. Life expectancy has
increased dramatically and if you're 60 with another 30 years of life ahead
of you, then you're not old.
"What might have recently been regarded as middle-aged is now not. Forty
really is the new 30. Huge advances in technology, cosmetics and health mean
we can stay looking and feeling younger for much longer. We are in the
middle of something that is completely reshaping our society."
For some, though, the change has come too late and the ageing process has
been harsh. Debbie Harry, 60 this year, was already secretly near her
show-biz death age by the time Blondie hit the big time in 1979.
When she tried to stage a comeback a few years later, the one-time sex
symbol was savaged for being fat, old and sweaty.
It drove her to desperation at the time but now Harry is more philosophical.
"Some people are really concerned with getting old, and other people are
really concerned with getting on with living. What do you think is most
important?" she said recently.
"Growing old sucks. But you can either let yourself get miserable about it
or you can find something that makes you feel good. When you see somebody in
the street that's older and got that spirit, I think it's a turn-on, right?"
Finally, Hollywood agrees.
Richard Steven Hack
news:Ms8de.782$sd7....@nnrp1.ozemail.com.au:
> http://www.smh.com.au/news/People/DISCO-queens-act-their-
age/2005/05/01
> /1114 886244880.html
>
> queens act their age
> May 2, 2005
> The Sun-Herald
>
> Next month marks the latest addition to the DISCO dance floor, Liz
> Hurley. Sit down now. Breathe deeply. That's it. Liz. Hurley. 40. If
> Hurley has no plans to hide herself away, nor cover up those curves
> that made her famous in that dress 10 years ago. She's now designing
> swimwear - and modelling it, of course.
Good! Still the hottest babe in England!
> As the Che Guevara of this revolution, Hatcher is the hottest thing in
> Hollywood,
Horseshit. Diane Lane and Sela Ward beat her by a country mile.
> Elle Macpherson
Don't forget Rachel Hunter.
> Linda Evangelista, Diane Lane, Brooke Shields, Sarah Jessica Parker,
> Kristin Davis and Famke Janssen are among the year's many other Big
> Four-Oh birthday girls.
I'd do any of 'em - or preferably ALL of 'em! Well, depending on
personality - and my guess is Diane Lane has the best personality of the
lot.
> "We have to reclassify all our ideas about age. Life expectancy has
> increased dramatically and if you're 60 with another 30 years of life
> ahead of you, then you're not old.
If Aubrey de Gray is correct, by 2030, someone who is fifty now will
have another fifty years of life remaining when they are eighty. And by
the time that fifty is up, nanotech will ensure indefinite lifespan.
--
Richard Steven Hack
richards...@SPAMHELLNOsbcglobal.net
C. B.
For those of us who are in our forties and still trying to find
fertile women to have children and marry, they are about as useless as
tits on a bull!
Messing with them is like what happened to the California Med-Fly
They brought in tens of thousands of sterile med flies and let them
mate with healthy one.
In a matter of months, the med fly problem was over. they all died.
It's better to plant your seed in a prostitute than on the hill side
with the ants.
Give me a 18 to 30 anytime.
I no dats right!
On Mon, 2 May 2005 03:36:34 +1000, "Rick in Oz" <ozbadcat@h*tmail.com>
wrote:
Just one of those things that make you go hummmm.
Who deserves to be impeached and imprisoned the most?
A president receiving face from an adult willing female?
Or a president who lies to over four billion people
worldwide and then orders the attack and destruction
of hundreds of thousands of innocents, 1,600 American
GI'S killed and over 25,000 permanently disfigured?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nature_knows_no_color_lines
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Beautiful_Young_Females/