Susan Sarandon dishes on botox

Actress Susan Sarandon has been speaking to PEOPLE magazine about botox:

..while she's "not against" plastic surgery, the Oscar-winner said she is opposed to the fear of aging that drives people to take extreme measures, like "exaggerated lip plumping."

"You can see I haven't had Botox [or] these things would be gone," she said, pointing to her frown lines. "I can't afford to have my face not moving."

In the end, Sarandon thinks her more natural look could be the secret to professional staying power.

In a few years, "I'll have an advantage of being the only one who looks 60," she said with a laugh. "Everyone else looks so much younger. [I'll] probably get all those parts!"

She has an interesting point about getting work. In England, our actresses may have the odd nip and tuck (Julie Christie and Vanessa Redgrave both admit to having had "work" done) but at least they still look like themselves. Maybe it's just a cultural difference, but we're used to our actresses gaining lines on their faces as they get older and it'd be hard to imagine Judi Dench or Helen Mirren with smooth botoxed faces. I just don't think that we'd accept it!

However, American actresses seem hell-bent on getting every last expression line botoxed off their faces, leaving them with a weird waxy smooth mask in some cases - I'm looking at you Faye Dunaway! What I don't like is how it's happening with younger actresses too. I was watching a DVD of Dallas the other day and what struck me was how the actresses in that show were able to actually move their faces. They could frown and their eyes crinkled up when they smiled. In other words, they had expressive faces.

Ok, so that was back in the seventies, but today you hardly ever see an actress frown or raise her eyebrows - they simply can't do it! I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm not totally against getting a little "freshen up" when required, but I like to see expressive faces that can move but these days it's gotten to the point where it's pretty much unacceptable for an actress to have a single wrinkle on their faces so they've ended up freezing the damn things!

Madonna via photoshop for "Vanity Fair"

Forty-nine year old covergirl Madonna talks about her school years in the 'Green' issue of Vanity Fair magazine:

“I was one of those people that people were mean to. I wasn’t a hippie or a stoner, so I ended up being the weirdo. I was interested in classic ballet and music, and the kids were quite mean if you were different...

“When that happened, instead of being a doormat, I decided to emphasise my differences. I didn’t shave my legs. I had hair growing under my arms. I refused to wear make-up or fit the ideal of what a conventionally pretty girl would look like. So of course I was tortured even more.”

Now, that's the Madonna I'd like to see. She sounds like a lot more fun than the current dull incarnation. Madonna just seemed so different from everyone else when she exploded onto the music scene back in the early eighties (though Cyndi Lauper probably wouldn't agree with that!) and we loved her for doing things her own way and generally not giving a shit about what anyone said about how she looked or behaved.

These days, she just looks like any number of middle aged women desperately trying to cling on to their youth. I'd just like her to go back to what she did in her youth and emphasis her differences instead of following the herd to the Botox clinic.

This here's Miss Bonnie Parker. I'm Clyde Barrow. We rob banks.

“Hey boy, what you doin' with my Mama's car? Wait there!” Isn't that just best opening line? You've got Faye Dunaway as Bonnie Parker, laying around naked in her bedroom going stir crazy, then looking out the window and seeing a possible way out of her personal hell in the form of a young hot Clyde Parker played by Warren Beatty. I'd recorded Bonnie and Clyde on my DVR a few days ago but didn't get around to watching it until this afternoon. My oh my, it's every bit as good as I remember. I must've first seen this on the telly when I was a kid. I have no idea quite why my parents allowed me to watch such a violent film, but I guess they knew it was a good one, you know, artistic and all.

Warren Beatty is so hot as Clyde and he's even hotter since he plays him as impotent. After a failed fumble with Bonnie she amusingly clucks: "Your advertising's just dandy... folks would never guess you don't have a thing to sell!" Poor Bonnie, she never does manage to get her rocks off during the film. The rest of the cast comprises of Gene Hackman (over bloody acting badly as he tended to in his early days), Estelle Parsons (so annoying you just keep rooting for the police to shoot her down!) and there's even a brief scene with the imcomparable Gene Wilder.

But the best thing about the film is Faye Dunaway. She towers over everyone in the film, even over all these great actors and easily dominates every scene she's in. She glowers at everyone with her trademark brittle and edgy persona. One thing occured to me though - what the heck has Faye Dunaway done to her face? I mean, when you watch her in this film she looks the way you remember her. But when you look at her now, she's not just older, it's a completely different face! She just doesn't resemble the woman she used to be. Don't get me wrong, she looks terrific and all, but it's as if some crazy woman kidnapped Dunaway back in the early eighties and took over.

Nicole Kidman keeping her brain young with her Nintendo DS

Nintendo have decided to use Nicole Kidman in their ad campaign this summer:"Known for her starring roles in films as varied as The Hours and Moulin Rouge, Oscar winning actress Nicole Kidman will demonstrate it’s her brain as much as her beauty that matters when she appears in the pan–European campaign for Nintendo’s Brain Training series. Nicole will be seen across print and television in Europe keeping her brain in shape as part of a 60 day brain exercise programme for More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima: How Old Is Your Brain? which launches across Europe on the Nintendo DS on 29th June.

Ms. Kidman comments: "I love the concept that Nintendo is reaching out to new audiences with their self improvement products like Brain Training. Most importantly, I’ve quickly found that training my brain is a great way to keep my mind feeling young." In the adverts, fans will see Nicole as they’ve never seen her before. We see Nicole in a home setting, relaxing and training her brain. She is seen speaking into the Nintendo DS to complete the exercises and memorising numbers.

Nintendo feel that working with the award winning actress as the personality of this campaign reflects a long-term pioneering philosophy from Nintendo. The aim of this philosophy is to broaden the gaming audience with software that isn’t just fun but also enriches your life, whether training your brain or practicing language skills. The software is relevant and accessible for everyone from the age of 9 to 99. More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima: How Old Is Your Brain? is the latest in a series of titles from Nintendo DS called Touch! Generations. Touch! Generations is a unique range of software designed to be enjoyed by everybody, even if they’ve never played a game before. These titles, like that played by Nicole Kidman, are disrupting the video games world and changing the perceptions of millions worldwide who previously thought gaming was just for 16-24 year old males.

Well, I guess she's an appropriate choice. She's clearly been spending time (and money) getting her face looking young so it's about time she spent some time on her brain. Well, her face doesn't have any wrinkles (or expression left) but I don't know if she really looks young. Nicole Kidman has ended up having this weird puffiness in her face, contrasting with a shiny forehead that's as tight as a drum. She denies she's had anything done of course, it's all down to healthy eating and exercise. Ahem.

Dame Helen Mirren

Helen Mirren won the Academy Award for Best Actress! She said in her brief speech: "All kids love to get gold stars and this is the best gold star I’ve had in my whole life. I want to share my gold star with all my fellow nominees." Yeah right, sure she wants to share.. She wants to share the news that she's better than the rest of 'em!

I love her, a great actess who isn't afraid of ageing and it was cool to see her allegedy unworked face, wrinkles and all, in contrast with all those US actresses with their frozen, sweaty, expressionless faces. I dunno though, her eyes do suddenly look a little different, a bit "pulled", but her faces sure does have plenty of "character lines". Maybe she'll inspire some other good actresses to lay off the botox and brow lifts.. I'm looking at you Nicole Kidman!