There is an actress who used to be on a U.S soap opera. Her name is Susan Lucci. I used to watch soap operas when I was stuck at home with babies in diapers, and although I did not watch her show, she was very famous. These shows were a compulsive distraction for many housewives stuck at home and I am guessing they still are. The people were all beautiful and protected from aging, except for the token octogenarian with money and power who was either well loved or extremely feared. The women wore the height of fashion whether it was a tennis outfit or ball gown. The sets were usually rooms in luxurious mansions. The lives of the characters were always exciting and dramatic and unusually melodramatic in their multiple love affairs. Anyway Ms. Lucci was the evil seductress for decades. Her character was the one you loved to hate. She never aged and was always glamorous for her 31 years on the show becoming the highest paid soap opera star and finally winning an Emmy in 1999.
This week she was in a fashion show to promote heart health. She is 72 (her birthday only a few days from mine) and has had serious heart issues. Her close call has motivated her to be an advocate for living a lifestyle for heart health. She was layered in some off the shoulder red dress which hugged her 110 pound body frame with flowing layers of cloth turning her into a brunette Barbie. She still wears high heels and somehow her feet went out from under her and she hit the runway with her bottom. The photos of the incident are truly delightful as she looks as if someone had surprised her with a fun ride. She does not break her stride or sense of grace and got a standing ovation. She is 72 and looks 40 if you don't zoom in too closely and notice all the lifting. She seems like a truly nice and normal person even being married to her first husband for decades.
I just strikes me oddly how we are the same age, took totally different paths in our lives and she looks like she could be a daughter that I had early in my life. Better living through chemistry?
No wonder she fell with all that material around her feet. And those shoes! A true performer!
ReplyDeletei saw the picture and thought she doesn't have the same face. She did not look like her at 40. The price they pay is they lose their individuality. They do it to keep working, I guess but they end up with the best face money can buy-- not the one life gave them through their choices. Ironically society rewards them by saying how good they look. I don't think they do. When I was in my 40s, I thought maybe I'd do a face lift in my 50s or somewhere but I researched what they do in a face lift (yuck) and it's part of why they get changed. Of course, I also had to use prednisone and then made some choices on eating in my 60s that led to weight gain. Ironically, I also thought of beauty this morning as I looked in the mirrored closet and saw myself reflected in a very unattractive way as I dressed (definitely getting rid of those full length mirrors that force me to see myself every dang morning lol). I saw myself as ugly to me but I am this person with no faking it and I better appreciate it. I finally managed to see myself as a sweet little old lady, who looks her age. I am very glad i never let myself get cut across to hold onto a youth that I couldn't anyway. What I thought when I saw her fall and all the photos (as I had seen soaps for a few years before i gave them up) was how there are no real choices regarding getting old-- just getting plastic-y.
ReplyDeleteCosmetics or not, we do age differently. I, for one, look only ... oh, never mind.
ReplyDeleteI am 76 and look it. I remember my mother standing in front of the mirror and pulling back the skin on her face to see what she would look like with a facelift. She never had one, but the ravages of time sure made her consider it. I'm at the stage where wondering whether I should go back to using makeup again to make myself look better. The knife? No. But something needs to make me feel better when I look in the mirror.
ReplyDeleteI think it's sad that our American culture worships youthful beauty so much, does not allow women to age naturally or gracefully the way men are, that too many women will go under the knife repeatedly. sad for them that they feel that need to feel attractive or to have value. you'd certainly never know how old she is by her stretched face unless you look at her neck. that's usually the giveaway. her face does not match her neck. and I imagine she barely felt the landing on her bottom with all that fabric to cushion her fall.
ReplyDeleteBetter living through plastic surgery. I'd love to have a chin again. Note my friend Bobbie from 2 days ago. She told her plastic surgeon that she wanted to look in her 50's. She is just a couple of years younger than I. I think she looks grand.
ReplyDeleteLucci has looked fabulous forever on her own genes and I believe, taking good care of herself. Classy lady
ReplyDeleteSoap operas...Ironing clothes in front of the TV watching a soap opera felt to me as a womens' right of passage. Mother ironing, me learning how while watching the show, many times in horror. "The Secret Storm," gave me nightmares. I thought out there the sky somewhere there would be a horrific thunderstorm waiting to get me. So far, so good.
Everyone talks about how sad it is that women have to conform to these insane standards to be considered beautiful or worthwhile or whatever, yet it never changes and quite often the same people decrying it out of one side of their mouths are perpetuating it out of the other.
ReplyDeleteThere was one actress in Hollywood, i cannot remember her name, but she talked about how she played John Wayne’s daughter in one movie, then ten years later his wife in a second movie, then ten years later his mother in a third.
The most beautiful women i know are those who have aged gracefully and without resorting to surgery.
We call them the "Plastic People" they don't look like real people. In movies I like to see believable characters not artificial beautiful people.
ReplyDeleteWhen your career depends on your looks, you take care of yourself and invest your resources.
ReplyDeleteIt seems such a waste of money, false boobs, face lifts and that botox they inject in your forehead and then you join the other 6 billion inhabitants of this world ;)
ReplyDeleteI think the word "vanity" comes to mind. Or maybe we are just human. I heard once that our souls never age, and that is why we don't "feel" old. Now that I am 61, 72 doesn't look old to me...lol Andrea
ReplyDeleteI am about the age of that actress and can understand that looking youthful and beautiful are part and parcel of acting jobs. Plastic surgery doesn't appeal to me, it can be dangerous or botched, and no matter how young it can make people look, they are still the age they are. As someone said "I have earned these wrinkles".
ReplyDelete