My husband was one who had a fit about the way she looked, but I notice that everyone compares the way she looks now against the way she looked in her youth. They don't look of the way she would look now if had done nothing. Some people age gracefully and some don't regardless of their plastic surgery history.

I don't watch the Oscars; and trashing someone like this is one of the many reasons why.

On the one hand, these folks do put themselves out there for others to admire or whatever. And if they can't stand the whatever, then they are in the wrong business.

On the other hand I do think many folks in movies, modeling, etc., are terribly insecure to the point that I pity them. I can't imagine doing plastic surgery that ends up making myself look the way some of them do. Isn't that uncomfortable to have your face all swollen and the skin so tight?

She actually started down the plastic surgery road several years ago. Up until a few years ago, she still looked pretty good. But pictures of her from about a year ago have the plumped up cheeks and chin and it looks a little odd, but she must like it because she's not hiding in a house with the drapes drawn so no one sees her.

Sometimes social media sucks! It's made Mr. Blackwell's Best/Worst Dressed obsolete, because everyone is a damn critic, and sits at home and tweets this crap. But damn, she's 81! She's still getting out and about. Honestly, who cares how she looks? It only matters how she feels about how she looks. I'm pretty sure some of the people who are criticizing her appearance, are those people in glass houses we used to hear about.

Just read a story that Kim Novak has been treated for breast cancer and recently was in a serious horse-riding accident. Mean people suck!

She was delightful in Bell Book & Candle (1958); a dated but fun romantic comedy with quirky cast.

Old people are invisible in our society. We should all go out of our way to interact with them.

I've seen women who aren't even 40 yet do similiar things to their faces. My assumption is that it's on purpose- that the look they're going for is artificial.

But yeah, people are mean- especially anonymous people sitting at home with their computers. And, the nastier they are, the more attention they get. It would be very, very difficult to be an aging beauty in the public eye- especially one whose self-worth was based primarily on her appearance(and what others think of her appearance).

"Old people are invisible in our society. We should all go out of our way to interact with them."

Posted by: Peter M at March 5, 2014 6:42 AM

Yes! I hope the front wave of baby boomers will lead the way.

(Almost) no one with terrible plastic surgery set out to look that way. For many people it's an act of desperation.

I posted several comments about this same subject after the Academy Awards. What Ellen said about Liza Minnelli was cruel. I found it nasty. I happen to appreciate self effacing humor more than making a joke at someone else's expense, but I digress.

We live a society that constantly talks about self esteem, the self esteem that many a young woman seems to lack and yet, what use is it - because as soon as you develop it, there will be someone ready to smash you down. It always surprises me that there are those in Hollywood that don't understand why an actor may choose to become a recluse. They do that, I'm sure, in many cases so you can't destroy them because of their age and the fact that no one wants them any longer, because they are old.

Ageism in the country SUCKS, especially in this town, damned if you do and damned if you don't. I am talking about plastic surgery or enhancement of any kind. But let's make note of all the fashionable bulimics - Ellen should make note of her wife, if she is needs fodder for a joke, talk about bulimic/anorexic.

But ultimately, all those who make the nasty comments about those who have gotten old, will get old and some will age not so gracefully, because they have started to rot from the inside a long time before that. Just deserts, I would say.

I can agree that people don't set outto look bad, but sometimes it happens anyway.

I went in to get the luggage remived from under my eyes. It was partly genetic, but at 45 and am exhausting job, they were quite prominent. I didn't plan am getting anything lifted. The plastic surgeon said that I needed a whole eye lift and said that my upper eyelids were starting laying on my lashes and were adding fatigue because it's harder to hold my eyes open and would soon interfere with my vision. I scoffed and left, but went back 5 years later to a different plastic surgeon who had done the eyes of an acquaintance.

He too recommended a full eye lift. I had it done. Now I have visible scarring and oddly shaped, wonky eyes. Repairs are more expensive the second time around and more difficult. My husband is scared that any attempts to fix things will simply make things worse.

I know that some people have this done and have beautiful results. My mother had hers done and told my to get mine done do that I didn't look older than her.

My poor son inherited my eye bags. When he was a baby, I told my mother that he inherited my eye bags and she told me that she was told that I had her bags when I was a baby. My son thinks my surgery was silly, so perhaps he will embrace our family legacy.

One thing I will NOT do is plastic surgery. I've EARNED my wrinkles, bags, gray hair and everything else. I've been down some serious roads, most of which were NOT paved. I'll be damned if I'm going to erase that based on someone else's perception of me. Screw 'em!

From a 1984 syndicated Ellen Goodman column (it was about the new cult of midlife beauty and how most women can't be expected to live up to it - with NO mention of plastic surgery, mind you):

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19841012&id=BwFOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-YsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6696,1797644

"...When I was a kid, the only older women who won prizes for their physical preserves were Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. Even they were looked upon with suspicion, as if there were pictures of Dorian Gray hung up somewhere in their closets. Most of us assumed that at some point past 30, you just quit. It was a vaguely unsettling but also reassuring idea....."

".....Those of us who failed to look like Brooke Shields at 17 can now fail to look like Victoria Principal at 33 and Linda Evans at 41 and like Sophia Loren at 50."