The previous post by the ever-insightful MND touches on the status crime that is ravaging this great country of ours. I am speaking, of course, of the felony being committed on a daily basis, right here beneath our very noses--people are getting old! This toxic tidal wave has even soaked the very foundation of our culture--our celebrity elite--weakening us all in the process.
What can you do, in this, our moment of challenge? Man the parapets of public opinion! Support intrepid souls like Demi "Less-Is-Never" Moore, who dare to ask the necessary questions--"How am I supposed to look?!?!?"
Those words will live for an eternity, right next to "Give me liberty or give me death!"* (and by "death" I mean some form of life in which I look really young for my age, despite that I have passed into the Great Beyond), or "We have nothing to fear but fear itself. Unless, of course, you count the fear of getting old, which we really don't have to fear. So long as our insurance covers elective plastic surgery and the like."
These maxims are our compasses, our North Star. And Ms. Moore, by flinging herself into the conflagration that is Ageism, has turned her seemingly vacuous existence into a cause celebre. She has dived on the socio-cultural grenade, she has fallen on the existential sword staring us all directly in the face, all by giving voice to the only real question of the ages: "How am I supposed to look?"
For once, dear Demi, you look just fine. In fact, you have never sounded better.
@TheSometimesWhy: "...and by "death" I mean some form of life in which I look really young for my age, despite that I have passed into the Great Beyond."
I know you jest, but this is exactly the gist of it... everyone is so obsessed with looking younger than their age (or at least, God forbid, not older than it) that the issue of quality of life - the inner sustenance, what I call our contributions and fulfillment - is almost universally ignored.
This whacked-out state of cultural unconsciousness will most likely eventually yield future elder generations of self-loathing, miserable lost relics who have nothing to live for or appreciate, because their youth is long past. How sad.
@Lysergic Asset: Dear LA, it should be mentioned that immediately after posting this comment, I was rushed to the hospital where I had an emergency tonguectomy. It's a procedure implemented when one's tongue becomes firmly lodged in one's cheek, as opposed to a gluto-craniaectomy, a procedure where one's head is extricated from deep within the recesses of his own ass.
I'm 49. I think you're misunderstanding Moore's response, which is natural, because you don't have her perspective. Saying "I'm 47, how am I supposed to look?" is saying, "I'm fine with my age and how I look, but you seem to have an expectation that I should look some other way. Why?" It's not letting it get to her, it's asking a question I'm glad she asked. Unfortunately, it seems nearly impossible to get people to question the assumption that everyone must want to be 22.
@MissNormaDesmond: If Ms. Moore is fine with the way she looks at her age, why did she + her almighty publicist squadron allow W magazine to airbrush her into an anatomically implausible 15-year-old on this month's cover of W mag?
Had she the moral courage of her purported convictions, she'd have twittered something along the lines, "OMG, you guys: They gave me collarbones you can slice bread on and weirdly shrunk my left hip so it appears equal in width to my waist. LOL!"
Gee, I do wonder why anyone would have unrealistic expectations about how she really looks..
And PS: The publicists for celebs of her magnitude get to sign off on the retouched pics before they go to print.
@bitch_pleaze: What I'm personally dying to know is what Bruce Willis is like in bed. Frisky? Tender? A ravenous beast of unbridled, Reagan-quoting passion? Combo of all three? Also, does he sing in the shower? Pointedly, does he sing the hits from his global-hit record The Return of Bruno? I adore Bruce Willis and I'm very frustrated that he hasn't yet taken to Twitter. Demi, I beseech you: Spill the beans. GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT!
Ms. Desmond please also ask Demi to ask Bruce what Cybill Shepperd was really like during the the "Moonlighting" days. Did David ever get it on with Maddy in real life?
@snugbug: Ms. Moore has been at this for a lot longer than you'd think. I know editors who worked on The Scarlet Letter who were badgered into digitally trimming Demi's 32-year-old hips. The sad truth is, there is, and was, nothing wrong with her physical appearance but clearly she's always had issues with it.
@SnarkTard: I sorta sympathize with her in theory. Acteurs of both genders tend to be insecure entities by default, always seeking outside validation--and the glossy media is sort of preying on that.
I will say though that there are ways to buckle against it--I mean, no one rags on Jodie Foster's visage, even though she's significantly much more of a working, middle-aged actress than Ms. Moore. Unfair comparison, I guess--Jodie Foster is a Yale grad who speaks three languages fluently and has been directing and producing movies on her own since the early '90s, plus managed to keep her private life entirely out of sight.
@snugbug: It's all about choice, isn't it? Jodie Foster seems like she could not conceivably care any less about what anyone unknown to her thinks of any aspect of her being, while Demi is deliberately broadcasting intimate nuances of her existence to millions of strangers.
@snugbug: Oh dude. I wouldn't even know where to begin with the way celebrities of all letter levels are insecure. I come from an entertainment biz family and worked in it for a few years. Demi Moore is just the cusp of insecurity and demanding digital enhancement. You should hear what Blake Lively's demands are! Girl REFUSES to be seen by anyone without full makeup. Anywhere. Girl goes to Duane Reade painted up like a trollop. Also her people squash paparazzi photos of her that get out without her make up on. She's totally controlling. It's a Hollywood thing. A lot of people in the biz are crazy insecure about their looks. Demi Moore is definitely one of them. So is Hugh Jackman who had a not so secret eye lift last winter. I think it starts when publicists, producers and directors want a certain type so actors conform to it.
@fatmonalisa: I do get this, that's probably why I would freak the hell out in show biz. It's amazing to me how different I can look in different photos, and something is always lost in the translation; I suppose that is true with everyone. I can't imagine having a career in that racket.
Foster: Sorry that you're freezing! I love your gossip roundups. I used to rarely read these, but I'm hooked on your rarefied style.
You guys should come down to the Puerto Vallarta area. I went to an amazing wedding on the beach last evening, and everyone was barefoot. Idyllic doesn't even begin to describe it. All the East Coasters were dreading their return flights home.
Then again, our summers are hot and sweltering, like all the circles of Hell combined, so Mother Nature shits on us, too.
@Banjo-Sea Kitten: What exactly is "all that work"? Getting a boob job isn't what kept her slim, which is what most people have truck with. Both she and Courtney Cox seem to be victims of the "how dare this bitch stay skinny!" brigade.
@marciax3: there was a rumor that Demi had lots of work done several years ago, which she has denied. (I
deleted that from my comment.)
Courteney Cox is starting to look just plain weird, however.
I hold no grudges against those who stay fit and healthy. I do it myself. Yet if I were famous and my face and body scrutinized this way, I'd be tempted to go under the knife, yep.
@Banjo-Sea Kitten: After being considered "the wildest, most uninhibited, sexxxual person", it must be a huge letdown for some random Twitterer (Tweeter, Twit, or whatever the fuck they're called) to tear her down like that.
@Lysergic Asset: She's a surviva'. She's got the whole package: good marriage to a successful young dude, good relationship with her ex, nice kids and a career and she can't really act in my opinion! Got get 'em, Demi.
@Banjo-Sea Kitten: As a 45 yr old (babe ;-), I like what she said too. The sooner these young (my assumption) twits realize that age creeps up on you as you go, the better. It's not like you wake up one day, and look old (although sometimes it can feel that way ;-).
@Lysergic Asset: wouldn't you love to see that? I'm old and I embrace it, now put me in your damn movie! The trend seems scarily the other way right now.
@Banjo-Sea Kitten: Please never talk about somebody being the wildest, most uninhibited, sexxxual person on earth again. It's giving me flashbacks to my dad saying that about my mom. Fuckin' hippie parents...
@MyNameIsChris: Sweetie, all of our parents did it. My parents were drunk, uncool ski bums and 75% of their kids were accidents! I'm. OK. with. all. of. this. now.
@Banjo-Sea Kitten: The trick is really, truly, honest to God not giving a shit about anything but your own contributions and fulfillment. Of course, this is easier to do when you're not living in the public eye.
Hollywood will never change... I love old movies (I'm a TCM junkie) and the age gaps between men and women were significantly greater way back when... and it was never remotely an issue. (Kind of like if almost every movie these days had romantic leads like Entrapment.)
@Banjo-Sea Kitten: According to my dad who funds movies, it's kind of an insider-y well known thing that Demi had work done in the late 90's but it was hardly what one would call "work" it was more of a nip and some serious laser treatments.
Next big plastic surgery trend: Armpit filler. And total full body skin replacement. After that, decanting previously made clones. Because those things are all that's left, really. xoxo
What's also weird is that as Demi's gotten older, she's begun sprouting a large bearded man from her left hip and a piece of astroturf from her vagina.
Maybe I'm the only person that thinks this but despite Jolie's in your face sex appeal and Pitt's sexy boy reputation and abs, I find it hard to imagine that sex between them is sexy in any way. I think they each lack a sort of earthiness that comes with good sexiness and that beard does not increase the earthiness factor in any way.
I haven't lived in the states in a while, but is $13 an hour actually considered 'good money' in NYC these days? If so, does everyone still live with their parents and eat intermittently?
@Lysergic Asset: According to the Living Wage Calculator, $13 an hour would count as a 'living wage' though it depends on exactly where in NYC one lives.
Living Wage Calculator here: [snipurl.com]
@Lysergic Asset: $13 an hour is an awful wage. I was making $15 an hour under the table doing construction 20 years ago.
She doesn't live in NYC; I believe her moniker is "The Princess of Poughkeepsie."
I think Brangelina (which to me sounds like some bran-based Tang) would be treated like the word "couple" in the AP Stylebook, which, I'm pretty sure means it's singular when referring to them as one unit (The Brangelina has to deal with that beard during sex) and when "couple" is used in the sense of two individuals together, it's plural (Brangelina aren't married, they're just living in beard-y sin).
Hugh Grant has never been married. I know, because I send mail proposing to him frequently and he always turns me down.
Brad Pitt always grows that billy-goat beard when he's souring on his woman. He did the same thing in the last year or two of his marriage to Jennifer Aniston. I wonder if it's in order to turn them off him physically? That's probably the last thing to go given he's not much of a catch intellectually.
@Trixie from Toronto: This is true; the article just lists those people as Trope's clients, but it doesn't mean she served in a divorce-lawyer capacity for them, which she obviously couldn't have.
05:13 PM
1. I'm keeping "essay" up there as an embarrassing testament to my gringo "ess-pan-yole" skillz.
2. Demi was dignifying some asshole on Twitter. Nobody would've noticed had she not. Eegh! Sister's better than that, nahmean?
02:41 PM
What can you do, in this, our moment of challenge? Man the parapets of public opinion! Support intrepid souls like Demi "Less-Is-Never" Moore, who dare to ask the necessary questions--"How am I supposed to look?!?!?"
Those words will live for an eternity, right next to "Give me liberty or give me death!"* (and by "death" I mean some form of life in which I look really young for my age, despite that I have passed into the Great Beyond), or "We have nothing to fear but fear itself. Unless, of course, you count the fear of getting old, which we really don't have to fear. So long as our insurance covers elective plastic surgery and the like."
These maxims are our compasses, our North Star. And Ms. Moore, by flinging herself into the conflagration that is Ageism, has turned her seemingly vacuous existence into a cause celebre. She has dived on the socio-cultural grenade, she has fallen on the existential sword staring us all directly in the face, all by giving voice to the only real question of the ages: "How am I supposed to look?"
For once, dear Demi, you look just fine. In fact, you have never sounded better.
04:19 PM
I know you jest, but this is exactly the gist of it... everyone is so obsessed with looking younger than their age (or at least, God forbid, not older than it) that the issue of quality of life - the inner sustenance, what I call our contributions and fulfillment - is almost universally ignored.
This whacked-out state of cultural unconsciousness will most likely eventually yield future elder generations of self-loathing, miserable lost relics who have nothing to live for or appreciate, because their youth is long past. How sad.
04:30 PM
Thank god for modern medicine.
04:35 PM
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02:41 PM
03:24 PM
Had she the moral courage of her purported convictions, she'd have twittered something along the lines, "OMG, you guys: They gave me collarbones you can slice bread on and weirdly shrunk my left hip so it appears equal in width to my waist. LOL!"
Gee, I do wonder why anyone would have unrealistic expectations about how she really looks..
And PS: The publicists for celebs of her magnitude get to sign off on the retouched pics before they go to print.
03:26 PM
Would you mind asking her the following questions when you speak with her next:
1) When will she and Emilio be making Wisdom II?
2) Was St. Elmo's Fire the pinnacle or the nadir of her career?
3) Does her plastic surgeon have payment plans? My 57 yr old Grandmother is interested getting a "Demi" (e.g. a full body lift).
03:35 PM
03:39 PM
Ms. Desmond please also ask Demi to ask Bruce what Cybill Shepperd was really like during the the "Moonlighting" days. Did David ever get it on with Maddy in real life?
03:40 PM
03:56 PM
I will say though that there are ways to buckle against it--I mean, no one rags on Jodie Foster's visage, even though she's significantly much more of a working, middle-aged actress than Ms. Moore. Unfair comparison, I guess--Jodie Foster is a Yale grad who speaks three languages fluently and has been directing and producing movies on her own since the early '90s, plus managed to keep her private life entirely out of sight.
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Unfortunately, she looks haggard for a 22-year old starlet, as that is the age women are supposed to resemble in Hollywood.
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12:52 PM
You guys should come down to the Puerto Vallarta area. I went to an amazing wedding on the beach last evening, and everyone was barefoot. Idyllic doesn't even begin to describe it. All the East Coasters were dreading their return flights home.
Then again, our summers are hot and sweltering, like all the circles of Hell combined, so Mother Nature shits on us, too.
01:07 PM
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12:31 PM
said.
Gossip: a friend of mine from L.A. used to work for her, years ago, and said she was the wildest, most uninhibited, sexxxual person she'd ever known.
12:42 PM
12:51 PM
deleted that from my comment.)
Courteney Cox is starting to look just plain weird, however.
I hold no grudges against those who stay fit and healthy. I do it myself. Yet if I were famous and my face and body scrutinized this way, I'd be tempted to go under the knife, yep.
12:56 PM
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Although: come to think of it, Helen Mirren's still kickin' it... oh, wait, she can act.
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01:22 PM
Hollywood will never change... I love old movies (I'm a TCM junkie) and the age gaps between men and women were significantly greater way back when... and it was never remotely an issue. (Kind of like if almost every movie these days had romantic leads like Entrapment.)
02:06 PM
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03:28 PM
How's your dad?
12:15 PM
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12/18/09
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12/18/09
Living Wage Calculator here: [snipurl.com]
12/18/09
She doesn't live in NYC; I believe her moniker is "The Princess of Poughkeepsie."
12/18/09
12/18/09
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12/18/09
Why not just have sex with the shoe, Jimmy Choo, Jimmy Choo?
12/18/09
Word nerd out!
12/18/09
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12/18/09
Brad Pitt always grows that billy-goat beard when he's souring on his woman. He did the same thing in the last year or two of his marriage to Jennifer Aniston. I wonder if it's in order to turn them off him physically? That's probably the last thing to go given he's not much of a catch intellectually.
12/18/09
12/18/09
12/18/09