Cosmetic surgery freaks out L.A. Times readers too, critic finds

When I wrote the article that ran in Sunday's Calendar section ("On TV: Botox. Face-lifts. Reconstructive Surgery.") about how cosmetic surgery and other procedures are conspiring to make more and more actors look weird, I was more than a little nervous. That people would think I was crazy or mean or petty in my complaints that it's hard to focus on a television show when you're wondering whether this actor or that actor was in some terrible fire you didn't hear about.

As it turns out, I am far from alone. E-mails have been pouring in from frustrated television viewers grateful for the chance to talk about this "elephant in the living room." Listing men and women, actors after actor, newscaster after newscaster as offenders, many viewers say they are so disgusted or demoralized, or both, that they have stopped watching some of their favorite shows.

The television industry shouldn't just dismiss this as minor kvetching. Because the people who have been writing to me say they also consider the apparent assumption that the audience is either too dumb to notice or too jaded to care to be insulting and part of a widening gap between those who make television and those who watch it.

In other words, the issue is far from cosmetic any more, and should, perhaps, give entertainers pause. Just because you can make your nose smaller or your cheeks fuller or your eyes tighter doesn't necessarily mean that you should.

For my part, I am grateful for the reassurance we writer types so desperately need. It's nice to know that I'm not crazy, not just an envious, querulous, aging mother of three who would probably go ahead and have lipo except I'm pretty sure they don't make lipo machines big enough. Some of these people really do look weird. And not just to me.

(For those who argued that one of the women I listed as looking very much like herself after years in the biz has, in fact, been public about her cosmetic surgery -- and you know who you are -- please let me know where she has been public. Not just evidence from sketchy blogs. Because I couldn't find it, and if it's true, we definitely need to get the name of her very excellent surgeon out there. Fast.)

-- Mary McNamara

Comments

[Carol M]

A problem with Botox is that it looks like a miracle drug when you look at yourself in the mirror. When you look in the mirror, though, you are mostly expressionless, so a smooth forehead and eyes really are striking. But when you interact with those in your life, or when an actor is performing, it's the fleeting emotions across the face that make others connect with you. And those emotions are expressed by quick skin movements around the eyes and mouth.
I remember watching Renee Zellweger being interviewed at an awards show on the red carpet a year or two ago. Only her lower face was moving. She's an undeniably talented actress, but her success does not lie in beauty. Not that she's unattractive, but she hasn't built a career on being a bombshell with talent. It's been about talent, period. WIthout facial expression, where is that talent expressed?
Hopefully, if Hollywood becomes more honest about this issue, we'll reach a point of balance where good looks can be accepted with a little humanity. Obviously, Hollywood will always strive for idealized beauty. But hopefully, that ideal can exist with a few laugh lines.

[deering]

Nobody can convince me Nicolette Sheridan hasn't had something done. Her mouth seems at strange odds with her face, and at times her face looks as if it was pinched, but the skin didn't spring back. And has Christina Ricci had work done? Because ,honest to God, I did not recognize her at all in the SPEED RACER trailer--I thought she was a new actress I'd missed.

[deering]

@Frank...

It's not the actresses that should get the public shaming--it's the writer/directors, producers, casting directors, and studio executives who these women rely on for work. Too many of them are the ones who think the only women-that-count look like 13-year-olds--and they get away with it because their attitudes are seldom exposed publically. If the media consistently held these guys' feet to the fire on why their projects and best lead roles only feature young women, at least some changes would be made.

[deering]

And I'd love to see Nikki Finke or some blogger send someone undercover in the industry for a year to secretly suss out what attitudes those-that-hire _really_ have about women in general. Bet the resulting article would be more interesting (not to mention scary) than a year's worth of Hollywood product. :)

[Patrick]

I don't understand the compaints. Sure Priscilla Presley has overdone the injections, as have Cher and Olivia Newton-John, making them puffy and moon-faced, but many of the women mentioned look really good, particularly for their age. Barbara Walters? The woman looks wonderful! Dolly Parton looks bad because she's adding to much filler to her lips and not enough to her face. The anorexic look favored by Posh, Renee (what must her mother think?), Debra Messing and, in particular, Kyra Knightley, is what disturbs me. These women would look so much better gaining ten to fifteen pounds.

[Patrick]

More thoughts: a few weeks ago I attended a performance at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion. Julie Andrews was sitting in front of me, one seat to my right, four feet away at the most. As she turned to talk to friends and family, I noticed that with only the slightest amount of makeup, she looked flawless. No lines or wrinkles to be seen, and perfectly natural looking as well. Had I not known she was in her early to mid-seventies, I would have thought she was in her late forties or early fifties, a woman who had taken good care of herself, with perhaps a bit of surgery, but nothing that had distorted her features, or taken away from her natural beauty. Never would I have come close to guessing her true age. She also seemed transcendently nice, a truly good person, so perhaps God has rewarded her with eternal youth. But as a great teacher and friend once said: when I see perfection, I suspect art.

[Kay]

I don't think any of these women intended to look 'done' or 'plastic'. They probably had an idea in their heads of how the surgery would turn out but unfortunately didn't turn out like they expected. Or it could be when they first had the procedures they looked fine, but with the natural ageing process it created a wierd look where you had these perfectly plumped up tight areas along with sagging hollow areas which gives an unnatural and odd look.

This is coming from someone who knows a lot about cosmetic surgery as I have worked in the industry and also had some myself.

[carlylejt]

while i agree with you 100% - plastic surgery makes people look plastic, and hence hurts their ability to "look human" ad convey important emotions - i have a hard time berating these women for not "aging gracefully" as some of the above posters would suggest.

if someone told me that i couldn't keep my job, forward my career, compete in the workplace or feed my family because i wasn't young enough and didn't look it, i can't honestly say i wouldn't go under the knife - would you?

i don't think that given the choice anyone would want to rearrange their face to the extent some of these women are doing it just for kicks - but at the end of the day, this is a business - and although purely entertainment to us, to them it is their livelyhood.

[Ted]

Dr. Richard Ellenbogen of Beverly Hills has been "fixing" botched plastic surgery for years. He's the doc the actors in-the-know go to, the one's who know how to get it done without it being obvious.

[carpal tunnel surgery]

Wow, I never knew that Cosmetic surgery. That's pretty interesting...

[carpal tunnel syndrome]

Good post, but have you thought about Cosmetic surgerybefore?