Attack of the clones: there's an end in sight

Hollywood to Actors - No Surgery Please - NY Times

Here's some good news: Hollywood seems to (finally!) be tiring of plastic people. At least a little bit.

America's body image issue definitely has its cultural base. As a friend of mine pointed out, our up-tight attitudes about nudity (a result, I think, of our Puritan roots) prevent us throughout childhood and adolescence from seeing bodies other than our own and those in the media. And since media bodies are often fake and airbrushed, our perception of beauty is distorted. In Turkey, she said, women, young and old, sit around naked in bathhouses together, so girls see what real bodies look like and thus have greater confidence in themselves.

I think Botox is poison for actors. How can someone with a job so heavily reliant on facial expressions want to plasticize their skin? They obviously feel pressure to do so, but still, for the sake of the craft, should abstain.

As 30 Rock's Liz Lemon said to panicking actress Jenna, "You can be like Madonna and cling to youth with your Gollum arms, or you can be like Meryl Streep and embrace your age with elegance." Aptly put.