As 2009 draws to an end, the “In Your Face” blog looks back at its most popular blog posts and slide shows. Here’s No. 9, the slide show portraying stars’ nose jobs, many of them well done, many of them disputed, but one that ruined the star’s career.
See ‘CELEBRITY NOSE JOBS’ slide show
This slide show is a companion to the post, “Warning to future stars: Get nose job early or never.”
Photo: Above, Meryl Streep, 60, last month. (Getty Images photo).
Slide show: “Meryl’s marvelous mid-life.”
POWER WITHOUT WISDOM
Modern cosmetic medicine has reached a point where patients often don’t know what to do with the power it gives them.
It’s the power to ruin a face or to fix it, but patients get little help other than their gut feelings about which is which.
The story of plastic surgery abstainer Meryl Streep helped bring that problem into focus during a recent online chat I had with Dr. Christopher Zachary, chairman of the UCI Department of Dermatology.
How would Meryl Streep look with a perky upturned nose?
She says that early in her career she wondered “if I should get my nose done, just a little. Just to turn it up. I remember sleeping on my face in the pillow … for maybe a year” to try to change the shape of her nose.
That technique doesn’t work, of course.
But looking back on Streep as a young actress, it seems that she was on the brink of making a really bad decision. She could have created a now-unrecognizable person with an upturned nose.
If she had gone ahead with that operation, would she be a two-time Oscar-winning actress today? Can you imagine a pug-nosed Meryl Streep in her recent role as Julia Child or in her upcoming movie “It’s Complicated”?(pictured at right)
In the online chat, I told Zachary, “She’s an example of a difficulty that I have in coming to terms with cosmetic medicine. It gives patients a wide range of discretion in deciding how they’d like to look, but doesn’t give patients a basis for making that decision.”
“I entirely agree,” he replied.
I added, “My sense is that most plastic surgeons would be perfectly content with giving a young Meryl Streep an upturned nose. Ugh. The only thing that saved her from that bad decision was a hard-to-define feeling of unease that she had about changing her face.”
GUT FEELINGS
Yet many cosmetic doctors reassure patients that they don’t need to feel ill at ease. That leaves patients with even less to go on than just a gut feeling when making such an important decision about their body.
About the only limitation is that good doctors will steer patients away from making the most horrible choices, such as those that Michael Jackson made.
I don’t have an alternative suggestion, but the situation bothers me.
Zachary had no solution either. In fact, he pointed out a deeper predicament: If gut feelings aren’t enough, “then you have to question anybody having plastic surgery.”
He questioned my search for reasonable grounds for plastic surgery beyond gut feelings.
“Is it reasonable to have breast enlargement?” he asked. “Is it reasonable to have your teeth straightened? Of course, in the UK none of us have our teeth straightened. Does that make us more socially responsible or more balanced psychologically?”
He added, “Are you OK with having a short haircut vs. long hair? Do we not have control over our appearance?”
I said, “We do control our appearance, and modern medicine has given us more control than we know what to do with.”
“Agreed!” Zachary replied.
“Something other than reason is involved,” I said. “Feelings, self-image, etc. I’m looking for a dividing line that’s based on something more than gut feelings.”
We didn’t find it.
RECOMMENDATIONS
But Zachary did have reasoned explanations of face treatments he would recommend to Streep if she were his patient and had a gut feeling that she wanted a change.
“She has lost some elasticity in her face,” he said. “In order to tighten the face without doing a facelift there are several devices that can be useful.”
He cited the possibility of Thermage radio-frequency skin treatments and injections of Botox or the similar medication Dysport.
“Between her eyes, in the so-called glabella region, she has very strong muscles,” Zachary added. “These give rise to the ‘Number 11′ sign between the eyes. Now the problem with this is that, whether she wishes to or not, she is going to have a somewhat angry expression.”
He would recommend injections of a small amount of Botox or Dysport to ease that expression, but that’s not a procedure Streep has embraced in the past.
Streep has avoided Botox, saying, “If you do that, then you can’t play so many different great parts, and also parts of your face don’t move. For an actor, that’s not the greatest thing. It’s like an interruption in the energy.”
Zachary said, “I understand this and of course actors want absolute control of their expressions. So, while respecting this, I would also suggest that for some actors who have over-expressive muscles, Botox or Dysport might help them instead of hinder them.”
An edited transcript of the portion of the “In Your Face CHAT” about Meryl Streep and patients’ decisions about cosmetic medicine is below.
Posts about Meryl Streep:
Recent celebrity posts:
Recent slide shows:
Photos: Above, Lynne Curtin before (left) and after (right) her facelift in July. (Photos courtesy of Dr. Milind Ambe) Below right, Lynne Curtin’s recent photo promoting her Demi Things line. (Photo courtesy of Facebook). Next, another pair of Lynne’s before and after photos (Photos courtesy of Bravo) Bottom, Dr. Milind Ambe examines Raquel Curtin’s nose during a preliminary exam. (Photo courtesy of Bravo)
Slide show: UPDATED “Plastic surgery tour of Real Housewives.”
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
Fans of “Real Housewives of Orange County” might miss out on some intriguing events tonight.
Incidents described below were filmed for possible use in tonight’s show on Bravo, but some of them likely ended up on the cutting room floor.
Here’s what to watch for, according to plastic surgeon Dr. Milind Ambe. He sees all the medical treatments as they’re filmed, but doesn’t see the final cut until the public does.
Is tonight’s episode titled “Fiesta de la Facelift”?
That’s the word in Newport Beach, and it sounds apt.
In July, Lynne Curtin had an endoscopic brow lift and a lower face and neck lift.
Ambe performed her surgery in the morning, then did the nose job for her daughter Raquel in the early afternoon.
They had decided to have their operations on the same day so they could recover together as a form of mother-daughter bonding, Ambe said.
Lynne had turned to Ambe because of changes in her face that were typical for a woman in her early 50s.
“Her eyes didn’t look as bright. Her jowls and neck had excess skin. She had a feeling that things had fallen south,” he said.
Lynne’s operation involved two incisions in the scalp that allowed Ambe to lift the eyebrows, plus cuts inside the ear and behind the ear to remove excess skin and lift the skin of the jowls and neck.
“It rolled the clock back 12 to 15 years,” he said.
What does a woman look like the day after a facelift?
The day after the surgery, Lynne and her husband returned to Ambe’s office in Newport Beach to have her bandages removed.
“Lynne was reluctant to be on camera the next day. She thought would look like a train wreck,” Ambe said.
At that point, Bravo canceled the planned shoot because Lynne didn’t want to be filmed so early.
“I convinced Lynne and her husband that she wouldn’t look bad,” so the filming went ahead on schedule, he said.
Look to see whether you agree with his assessment:
“Patients can look very good very early. She didn’t have one perceptible bruise.”
People think three to five weeks must elapse before a facelift patient can go out socially, he said. “That notion should be dispelled. I say seven to 10 days.”
“It’s technique-dependent. You need to take time [during an operation] to avoid bruising and swelling, use an experienced board-certified anesthesiologist, and control blood pressure,” Ambe said.
Among board-certified plastic surgeons in Newport Beach, the cost of such operations ranges from $13,000 to $19,000, he said.
What did Raquel really want?
Raquel wanted more than just a nose job. Is that discussion included in the show? It’s juicy.
Skin-care products?
Ambe and his wife, Heidi, have developed a line of skin-care products that go by the name Ambe Private Client Formula.
“Tamra Barney has been using it for some time,” he said.
It might come up in tonight’s show.
What does a girl look like a week after a nose job?
A week after her surgery, Raquel went to Ambe’s office with her mom and dad to have the splint removed from her nose.
A nose-job patient needs the splint for a week to contain the swelling, Ambe said.
How about flying to Florida a week after surgery?
“On Day 9 after the surgery, I let Lynne go to Florida on a trip with the other Housewives,” Ambe said. “I was very reluctant to let her go 2,500 miles away on Day 9 post-op. Before I okayed it, I gave specific instructions of what she could and couldn’t do.”
To avoid problems with healing or unexpected bruising, Lynne wasn’t allow to take part in activities that would jostle her face or raise her blood pressure or heart rate, Ambe said.
More about tonight’s episode:
Recent “Real Housewives” posts:
Recent celebrity posts:
Recent slide shows:
Photo: Ali Lohan this year at age 15. (Getty Images photo)
Slide show: Katie Holmes, Tom Cruise and seven other Hollywood stars (not including Ali Lohan) who had their noses fixed, according to plastic surgeons and celebrity watchers.
PRICE OF FAME
For career reasons, would-be celebrities often decide to have nose jobs at a young age — before they have attracted fans who would be upset by any change in their appearance.
For medical reasons, that’s not a good idea.
“It’s important for young men and women to mature physically as well as emotionally before any nasal surgery is performed. If surgery is performed at too young of an age, undesired effects may be seen as a result of continual growth of the nasal bones and cartilage,” plastic surgeon Dr. Nicholas Nikolov of Beverly Hills told last week’s online “In Your Face CHAT.”
I replied, “That’s tough advice for young hopefuls who want to get plastic surgery early, before they gain fans who’ll be upset by any changes.”
“Yes, it is the price of fame,” Nikolov said. ” If surgery is performed before full development, revision surgery may likely be necessary at a later time.”
The discussion of nose jobs began with a look at photos of young celebrity Ali Lohan, 15, the sister of actress Lindsay Lohan. She reportedly had a nose job at age 13. (See photos below.)
Celebrities who desire a differently shaped nose often keep the work secret, which they can do either by having the operation performed early in their careers or by making sure that it produces only subtle changes in their appearance.
Tyra Banks, Jennifer Lopez and Salma Hayek are in the first category, along with Ali Lohan. They apparently had their nose jobs at a young age.
The stars themselves mostly keep mum. To see for yourself and to read what doctors and celebrity watchers have to say about stars’ nose jobs, check out these two slide shows:
Problems stemming from a nose operation that’s done too young can lead to breathing difficulties after the age of 17 for girls and 18 for boys, Nikolov said.
I asked, “How often do you see that problem in your practice? Do you do follow-up surgery to fix problems that others caused with premature nose jobs?”
Nikolov replied, “Fortunately, most well trained and board certified plastic surgeons are responsible and that is an uncommon problem.”
“The majority of revision surgery is following operations performed by unqualified surgeons,” he said.
Ali Lohan at age 13 in 2007, before and after her reported nose job. (Photos courtesy of Celebitchy.com)
Related links:
Slide shows about nose jobs:
Recent slide shows:
Plastic surgeon Dr. Michael Persky of Encino, a member of the O.C. Register’s panel of cosmetic medicine experts, will discuss celebrity nose jobs and answer readers’ questions about plastic surgery in today’s online “In Your Face CHAT.”
The event is scheduled for noon to 1 p.m. CLICK HERE to drop in on the chat during those hours or to arrange for a reminder ahead of time.
The first topic of discussion will be nose jobs, both for celebrities and regular folks. Persky will also discuss non-surgical face lifts.
Advance questions will be accepted by email and Twitter through mid-morning on Wednesday:
Or simply join us online and ask your questions live, starting at noon Pacific time Wednesday.
Because each “In Your Face CHAT” will be on the Internet, visitors can participate from anywhere - at 3 p.m. Eastern time or 8 p.m. London time, for example.
Related links:
Slide shows:
‘Heidi Montag from flat chest to Playboy’ slide show
Photos: Above, Heidi Montag in 2007, shortly after getting the implants that she now wants to swap for larger ones. Below, Heidi Montag in 2006, shortly before getting her breast implants.(AP photos)
BIGGER AND BIGGER
Actress Heidi Montag, 22, star of the reality TV show “The Hills,” says she plans to get more plastic surgery, including larger breast implants.
“I plan to get a few more upgrades … I’m sure as I get older I’ll need some touch-ups,” she told People magazine. “I want to go bigger on my boobs for [husband and co-star Spencer Pratt].”
Why would she do that? Pratt said he has no complaints about Montag’s current figure.
Can you say “overcompensation”? She hasn’t gotten over her teen-age feelings of inadequacy.
After a nose job and breast augmentation in early 2007, “Revenge Plastic Surgery” was the title of a US magazine article in which she described her decision to go under the knife. There she said:
“I’ve always been very insecure about my body. My whole life, I looked at my chest and was like, ‘OK, they’re going to grow. This is my year!’ And it never happened. I was less than an A-cup. I wore pushup bras, which cut into my skin.
If I was with a guy and there was a girl next to me with big boobs, I would be like, ‘Oh, my God, he’s looking at her!’ On the beach, if I was standing next to a girl with big boobs, I’d be like, ‘I hate her!’
“I hated my nose too. I have my dad’s nose, which is huge. It took up so much of my face, when I looked down, I could see my nose. I couldn’t get away from it!
“People would say, ‘You have such a big nose!’ And they’d make fun of me for being so flat, and say mean boy things, like, ‘If you nailed two nails in a board, they would be bigger than you are.’ I was tormented. And when I was older, I’d want to be intimate, but I’d feel insecure. My boyfriends always had bigger chests than I did!”
Plastic surgeon and blogger Dr. Tony Youn adds, “Her breasts fit her frame nicely. It’d be a shame if she has larger implants put in, as then she would become disproportionate.”
Commercial factors may also be at play. She might think she’ll be more appealing to skin magazines and to viewers of “The Hills,” who already love to hate her character.
Montag, who appeared in several episodes of “Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County,” posed for Playboy’s September issue. She also said she perused the magazine in 2007 to decide what size of breasts she wanted during the previous implant operation.
Although she’s dissatisfied with her body, she claims that she isn’t bothered by public disapproval of her and her character in “The Hills.”
She told People:
“If they aren’t hating on you, then you’re not doing anything right. If women aren’t jealous of you, talking about you and cutting you down, then you’re a nerd, and I would never want to be that.”
Related links:
‘LAUREN CONRAD, OC TO STAR’ slide show
‘WHAT DID ASHLEE DO?’ slide show
‘JESSICA SIMPSON’S BEAUTY’ slide show
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