Does This Make Me Look Operated?

What do Sharon Osbourne (56), Vanessa Williams (45), Jennie Garth (36), Daisy Fuentes (42), Brooke Shields (43), Simon Crowell (49), David Hasselhof (56), Linda Evangelista (43), Janice Dickinson (53), Lisa Rinna (45), Lori Loughlin (44), and Courtney Cox (44) all have in common?

Fewer wrinkles!

It's not a coincidence that there has been a slew of Botox "confessions" from Hollywood celebrities in the last few months. It coincides with Allergan's (the manufacturer of Botox® Cosmetic aka Botulinum Toxin Type A) marketing push launched in 2007 and formatted as a hybrid public service/infomercial/giveaway featuring well-known personalities.
Olympians Mark Spitz (58) and Nadia Comaneci (47) both gave lecture tours on “Your Personal Best” this fall. Virginia Madsen (44) hawked Botox with her mother in "Freedom of Expression."

By her own admission, Madsen got the job by a slip of the tongue in an interview shortly after the surprise success of her Oscar-nominated film role in Sideways (2004).

But it is really just stating the obvious: Aging Hollywood faces have help from knives and needles.

Short of the kind of admissions currently being featured in magazines, how do you know who's telling the whole truth?

It's all in the ears.

Rhytidectomies do the heavy lifting and offer the most clues. In a traditional facelift, an incision is made in front of the ear extending up into the hairline and down around the bottom of the ear and then up behind it, usually ending in the hairline. (For an excellent pictorial tutorial of the actual surgery, go here.)

Shall we play I Spy? I spy with my little eye....operated auricles.

A pixied earlobe is the distorted result when the reattached lobule is pulled down and forward onto the cheek. A fine example is Micky Rourke's (56) left ear; both are shown. A competent facial plastic surgeon will preserve the shape of the lobe you with which you were born. Otherwise, a big earring is the answer.

Poor scar placement and poor incision planning can be covered up with hairstyling– less so if you are David Gest (55). Over time, John Cleese's (69) aging facelift has relaxed into something appearing fairly natural, but his misplaced post-auricular scar in probably still very visible. (Check out the big kiss scene in Fierce Creatures, 1997).

The pre- and post-auricular skin of the ear is specialized: it is thin and nonhair-bearing. In some (especially men) the facial skin does not match identically with the ear skin. Removing this patch of pliable, hairless skin can have unnatural results....like shaving your ear.

Perhaps more subtle is temporal hair loss or the sacrifice of the tuft of hair at the upper junction of the ear and face. As with Sophia Loren's (74) right ear, it can give a man or woman the appearance of wearing a wig.

The incision can go behind the tragus, that little cartilaginous bump in front of the ear hole, or in front of it. Female stars like Joan Rivers (75) usually opted for behind, in order to camouflage the scar. Poorly handled, the natural definition/indentation in that area is lost, blunting of the facial-ear junction.

Sometimes the tragus itself is distorted and pulled forward by the tension of the lift and/or the thickness of the redraped skin (this settles out over time as it has for Madonna, 50).

And whose operated ears do I Spy here?




After a traditional facelift, some of these stars may appear wonderful in photos, but as soon as they try to move their faces they look a bit Frankenface. The old-school operated look is something smooth and taut, but not young. The new look is all about volume, not subtraction. Volume is the very essence of facial youth and next-generation surgery is all about adding it.



New Feature FM107.1 on Demand - audio archive
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Did you miss hearing Anne flesh it all out with Kevyn Burger on-air? Use this link to find the FM107.1 audio archive of Knifestyles broadcasts by date (second hour). Step one: select the date shown on the blog posting; step two: click on Kevyn Burger; step three: click on second hour. Enjoy!

I Spy answers:

Frightful Facelifts

And now as promised, an early Halloween special! Let's start with the frankly frightful – results that make children cry and dogs bark.

Jocelyn Wildenstein (62) is pretty scary with shocking surgically-enhanced features (reportedly inspired by a love of exotic wild cats). The ex-wife of a billionaire art dealer, she has undergone about seven surgical sessions including not only a facelift, but drastic eye reconstruction surgery and custom SUV-sized implants to her lips, cheeks, chin, and brow as well. Here she is in her latest incarnation.

Who else might we see trick-or-treating?

You can count on Joan Rivers (75) to show up. Her face has been around the block several times. Her last facelift is perhaps the most deforming; check out her Loose Women appearance on YouTube. The cheek and lip implants have left her face stiff and her speech a bit slurred.

She's got company. Several aging stars have opted for the Madame puppet look: too tight, too thin, all cheeks and chin.

Dolly Parton (62) sleeps in her makeup when staying metropolitan high-rise hotels – just in case of emergency evacuation. Her wig is at the ready on the lamp shade.

Faye Dunaway (67), once among the most beautiful in Hollywood, also has an affinity with Madame after a recent touch-up to her cheeks.

There are those celebrity women whose decorative efforts merely accentuate the horrific. Jackie Stallone (71) needn't say "boo!" Her makeup does it for her.

Thinking about a Halloween video? Forget Nightmare on Elm Street. Rent The Boynton Beach Club and be ready to swear off geriatric sex after viewing Loretta Swit (70) and Dyan Cannon (71) animate their masks.

But women don't have the worst of it. Off-camera, tell-tale facelift results can't be camouflaged as readily with hair and makeup if you're a guy.

But men – they're just so uninhibited!

Pre-auricular incisions like Michael Douglas's (63) are placed in front of the tragus to avoid repositioning beard inside and behind the ears.

It's very tricky to preserve the characteristically male pre-auricular bare skin and sideburn; obliterate both and you get David Gest's (55) look. He's shaving right into his ears! His tragus is pulled foward by placing the incision behind it and the scar resurfaces in what's left of his sideburn.

But my favorite male mask belongs to Burt Reynolds (72). Even his toupee can't hide his pixied earlobes and the pulled, unnatural vectors.

Another popular male choice is to dress up as an alien. How else do you explain Mickey Rourke's (56) chosen look? Or his fellow extraterrestrial, Scott Thompson (43), aka Carrot Top?

The Brits love Tarts and Vicars fancy dress parties and changing sex is a popular theme on this side of the pond as well! I think we'll be sticking with just the costume part of it for our own Halloween this year....




New Feature FM107.1 on Demand - audio archive
http://www.fm1071.com/ondemand/

Did you miss hearing Anne flesh it all out with Kevyn Burger on-air? Use this link to find the FM107.1 audio archive of Knifestyles broadcasts by date (second hour). Step one: select the date shown on the blog posting; step two: click on Kevyn Burger; step three: click on second hour. Enjoy!