Orange County Register

Photo: Jamie Lee Curtis last year, age 48.
Survey: Is it easier to age gracefully without plastic surgery or with it?

SEEKING TO AGE GRACEFULLY

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis is about to turn 50, and she resolves to do so with dignity.

In part, that means living in recovery from drug addiction that she fell into after plastic surgery several years ago, Curtis says. She also says that in Hollywood dignity can require easing away from publicity, although she often publicizes her efforts to age gracefully and drug-free. She told More magazine:

“I have watched, my whole life, people age and become buffoons,” she adds. “When you crest in your 30s or 40s and then you don’t pull out of the public eye, you become a caricature. You have to have grace, dignity, and gratitude, and walk away kind of slowly, like you’re walking away from a bear.” She mimics someone doing that: “I’m going to go now, bear. Don’t kill me, don’t rip my face off.”

Curtis first had plastic surgery about 15 years ago after a movie cameraman said she was getting bags under her eyes. After the surgery, she was prescribed pain killers and became dependent on them, she tells an interviewer.

“I attempted various types of plastic surgery, minutely but enough to stave off this encroaching middle-aged body. And every time I did, something went wrong. I felt misshapen, just not natural any more. It was a big stimulator of my drug abuse.’ She then reached a stage at which, she confesses, ‘I’d anaesthetise myself on a daily basis’. She says she kicked her habit nine years ago after becoming concerned about the toll her addiction was taking on her daughter.

Her surgical procedures included liposuction, which she also regrets. She says in another interview:

I remember going to the Emmys wearing a beautiful silver Pamela Dennis silk jersey dress. A few weeks later, one of the tabloids had a picture of me in it with a circle around my stomach. There was a little balloon that said something like, “Somebody better lay off the Cheetos.” I kind of panicked.

I tried a little liposuction to make it go away, and there were complications. I think I felt that I was very well known for my figure and needed to keep that up for my work. And I regret all of it. I felt fraudulent and very shameful.

Survey: Is it easier to age gracefully without plastic surgery or with it?

Photos: Left, Jamie Lee Curtis in 1985 at age 26. Right, in 2000 at age 41.

Related links:

• Buddhist sex kitten Mamie Van Doren vs. the signs of aging
• Plastic surgery opponent Cate Blanchett says wrinkles can be sexy
• Very vain’ writer Isabel Allende explains her plastic surgery
• Cosmetic doctors advise Sally Field how to fix her face
• Susan Sarandon might get a neck lift, but not Botox

For more on celebrities and cosmetic medicine, see the list of links on the right side of this blog.

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