Former Frasier Star Jane Leeves, 52, has a new interview on The Daily Mail. I’m not sure what she’s promoting, but Levees currently co-stars on “Hot in Cleveland” and she’s British, so The Mail seems have an interest in her as one of their own. Leeves, who lives in LA, goes off on the topic of excessive plastic surgery. She says she sees it all around her and that her kids call the very distinctive plastic-surgery look “fish face.” She also vows that she’ll never get plastic surgery and calls out specific actresses, by name, for getting too much work done. Here’s some of her interview with The Daily Mail:
‘I don’t want to have some hideous surgery that’s not even going to guarantee me any work and could make me unemployable.’
‘People know how old I am, so it’s OK if I look my age.’
‘We all know who has and who hasn’t. There are some who look better than others, but you can tell at 50 paces,’
On Meg Ryan’s plastic surgery
‘I don’t blame people for going under the knife. If someone is known as a beauty and a sex symbol, they are under a lot of pressure to keep looking good. But it rarely turns out well. Plastic surgery can age people terribly – it always makes you look older in the end and can ruin careers.‘Meg Ryan destroyed her career with plastic surgery.’
On Melanie Griffith’s lips
‘They never look right on somebody who’s not born that way. It always looks weird.
‘I don’t think she needed to have that done because she was a very attractive woman.’‘It looks as if they’ve all been in a fire at a certain point, it really does,’ she sighs. ‘It’s a slippery slope. Once you start, it seems you just can’t stop. There’s always one more thing you can do.
‘When people I know have had something done, the next year it’s, “Well, while I’m at it I might as well do this.” At some point they seem to lose perspective on what they look like.’
On women who age naturally
‘I love looking at a naturally ageing woman,’ she says. ‘Look at Helen Mirren, she looks great, and men find her sexy.‘I think maybe Susan Sarandon had a little something done just recently, I don’t know, but she is ageing nicely.
‘Meryl Streep is ageing beautifully. I can’t imagine Meryl getting Botox. But again, they’re not known for just being a pretty face, they’re known for having substance.’
I agree that it’s distracting to see actresses on screen who have had obvious work done. Sometimes the work is so bad it makes me think their character is evil. This happened when Mary Louise Parker got some kind of bad lip injections in season 7 (I think) of “Weeds,” I had a hard time watching her after that. There was a character on Sons of Anarchy’s fourth season, Agent June Stahl, whose awful lip job added to how much I hated her character. And of course there’s Jessica Lange on “American Horror Story.
Someone once asked me if Meryl Streep had any work done so I poured over photos of her and I did find some photos of her from 2005 vs. 2008 (when I was asked) in which it looked like the lines in her face were diminished. I would bet she had laser resurfacing or some kind of chemical peel, something minimal that freshens her look without making her look “done.” Maybe she just gets awesome facials. As Leeves said, when women are too pulled it’s hard to take them seriously on screen.
Up to now I’ve never heard a celebrity call out so many other celebrities, by name, for bad plastic surgery. I wonder if Levees was drinking during this interview and if that’s why she had such a loose tongue. I mean I don’t disagree with her about plastic surgery, but she was especially harsh and maybe this interview is taken out of context.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
harsh but fair.
Everything she said was true. There are so many other things you can do to help the aging process. I’ve seen great results from just laser treatments and Botox. (not on myself just my clients) Yes, Meryl has had work done but she has a great doctor and doesn’t have unrealistic views on aging. Its one thing to want to look 5 years younger and another to want to look 10-15 years younger. And I’ve seen the results of bad plastic surgery. Example:
1. When you get lipo it forces your body to distribute fat in other places. Like if you get your legs done and you don’t maintain a healthy diet you’ll get a fat tummy, back an arms.
2. Tummy tucks leave HUGE scars that can be covered with your underwear and make your belly button look bizarre.
3. Don’t ever get cheek or chin implant with a facelift. You will not look like you anymore.
4. Facelifts make your ears droop. ESPECIALLY after the second one. (Find a pic of Goldie Hawn with her hair up…wacky ears!)
5. Fake boobs are heavy as shit if you get them too big. If you’re a small frame don’t get D’s. Not only will they look fake but your back will kill you!
6. Don’t over-do the Botox and fillers. I repeat, DON’T OVER-DO THE BOTOX AND FILLERS!
I’m 30. I use wrinkle creams, moisturize constantly and get microdermabrasion and facials. No Botox yet. Wear sunscreen, drink lots of water and take care of your face!
I like your advice. I’ll be 34 in a few weeks. I only drink water (with a caffeine free beverage maybe once a week), moisturize with coconut oil everyday, and people think I’m 25. Sometimes younger. Admittedly, I have really good genes. My mom is 62. She looks 52.
Everything she said is true, but I think she could’ve gotten her point across without name dropping. I think the women she called out are very aware of what they’ve done to themselves and feel bad enough about it without being mean girled by Jane Leeves.
I agree ladybird! I’m and I get very little botox on my forehead 1-2 times a year. My doctor gives me the least amount possible so I still have movement. I love it. People never believe it when I tell them my age. I also swear by Retina A and lactic acid peels. Oh and sunscreen on my face every day!!!
When I was 30 I was still getting asked for ID. The last time I got carded was just before I turned 40. I used to work out and was in very good shape… and I hate to admit at that time I wasn’t adverse to taking a drink, guzzled coffee like a fiend and smoked on top of it all. I’m nearly 60 now and still look younger although I gave up everything except a cup of coffee. The only “work” I had done was a mole removed from my chin that grew hairs out of it and the only other thing I would consider is removing a red spot from the top of my nose.
I think Jane is absolutely right about all the horrible work, I can’t stand to look at some of those people. Their mouths are misshapen and their skin looks like wax paper. It makes me feel queasy.
Great advice, LadyBird3! I’m 45 and I would add Vitamin C Serum with lots of Sunscreen mornings and Retin-A at night. Also, don’t get too skinny. It makes your face and neck look old.
Can you put retin a underneath your eyes?
+1
The truth hurts as they say. I wish more people would tell it!
The motivation behind that hurtful truth I am absolutely convinced is a strategy I call shock & awe self-promotion.
Celebs say/wear/do shocking things to garner media attention for themselves and/or their latest project.
John Hamm harshly criticized Kim Kardashian’s brain power just before last year’s season premier of Mad Men.
Get Oscar red carpet attention in something hideous or see-thru a la Goop in Gothy see-thru, Jlo in see-thru, and Barrymore in ratty blond hair with black roots.
the truth is the truth.
LadyBird83 – With all due respect, 30 is very young to be doling out ageing advice, talk to me when you’re 40! 😉 I say this as a late 30 something, I am really only just now starting to see any real wrinkles and they aren’t too bad (Knock wood spit spit). I agree with all of your advice, but anyone who has taken care of themselves should really not be thinking about botox or other “minor” treatments until their 40’s at the earliest imo, unless they have other skin probs. I have never seen a woman under 40 who had botox and looked better for it. I get so sick of reading magazine articles about 25 yr olds who think they are staving off the ageing process by getting injectables and botox. Our society is warped.
@Mrs. Darcy, I’m with you. I personally didn’t begin to see any real signs of aging until I hit 45. I’m active and eat healthy and drink a ton of water and get plenty of sleep, all things that young women can do to look their best naturally.
Now that I see some sagging (my dermatologist said mine is the type of skin most prone to it, sadly) it’s a bit dismaying but I’m working on acceptance. 🙂
True and fair but wasn’t necessary. There will be some backlash on this one. Just wait. I love Jane Leeves so I don’t really care.
Yes, true. But fair, I’m not as sure. There is enormous pressure on women to “age gracefully” or, even better, not age at all. Exponentially more so than men. The fact that 30 year-olds are sharing their anti-aging skin regimines is proof. You don’t hear that so much with guys.
My mom always swore she had no qualms about getting older, but when she turned 50, she had a full-on, hardcore, fear-of-aging meltdown. It was shocking. I imagine the importance of image creates even greater fear for women in Hollywood, because no one is going to be picking apart my mom’s physical aging process on the Internet and it was already terrifying enough for her. Fear, change in appearance, fewer roles, easy access to plastic surgery, lousy surgeons & lousy advice, living in L.A. – all these things probably attribute to the melted-face trout-pouts that are becoming The Look for actresses of various ages. It’s tragic, when you think about it. Sad. Talking generally about the issue rather than calling out specific women might have been fairer, and definitely would have been more compassionate & kind.
I once worked at a place where a poster on the wall showed a woman’s face from childhood to old age. The line below read, “Because the sun setting is as beautiful as the sun rising.” It was probably a commercial for a pharmaceutical, ugh, but the sentiment has stayed with me. There is beauty in every age if you know how to look for it, and we carry inside us every age we have ever been.
I watched French Kiss the other day — I miss Meg’s old face. However, shut up Jane. Don’t call people out directly like that just to stay relevant… Even if you’re a vampire.
Why should she shut up? She has free speech remember the first amendment. It always amazes me people want to give their opinions and think other people should shut up.
Shes British, speaking to a British paper, on British soil. First Ammendment is totally irrelevant on that soil, Marcus. Britain does have a rich (and much longer) history of protecting the Freedoms to Expression though. Lol
Agree.
Anyway, just because you CAN say whatever you want doesn’t mean you SHOULD.
Her comments were hurtful and mean. I don’t think Jane would like to be on the receiving end of another actress calling her out for like… Bad acting!
Jane Leeves needs to mind her own business instead of criticizing the choices of other women. It’s Meg’s face and her deal. These self-righteous types really get on my nerves.
^^^ The irony of this comment made me laugh out loud.
And yet, you don’t see Meg Ryan or Melanie Griffiths bravely telling the world that they made bad choices about plastic surgery–and maybe sending a better message to women about accepting themselves and their looks as they age. I like Jane for her honesty–why should she have to walk on egg-shells and not name names? At least she’s not a hypocrite.
this Jane woman needs to sit down. Look at her talking about substance as if she has any. She is no Helen Mirren , neither was she or ever will be a Meg Ryan. Noone cares if she’s aging ‘naturally’ or not.
Oh Shelley, did you get some lip injections, too?
At least Meg Ryan had a career to destroy, Jane..
and Jane’s apology coming in 3..2..1.. “it was all taken out of context”..
Jane Leeves made an enormous amount ofmoney on Frasier. She’s doing just fine.
Meg is a public figure and if she chooses to have such obvious surgery that turned out absolutely horrid & continues to do so (this is key, she continues to get terrible injections, etc) then I think its expected people will say something & Meg being a celeb knows this.
I agree that plastic surgery in the end destroys the face. We are genetically going to age a certain way. It is just predetermined. When you shift something the body is thrown off and that drop that was suppose to happen just shifts in a different way. So you alter the map and it goes haywire.
If you look at the women she named; Merly, Susan, Helen.. beautiful women of a certain age. Thing is these women have been around a long time. And at least with Meryl and Helen they got a kick because of a film they did. They really are in a different time. And I wonder if they were just starting out now if they would have done it differently.
I will never understand why Meg did anything to her face. She was so unique and cute/kirky.
I read the interview yesterday and I agree with her assessment regarding these actresses.
Meryl Streep was never known as a sex symbol or the cute girl next door. She’s known for her brilliant acting. So no, I don’t think she would cave to the Botox/filler/facelift crowd. Streep has also built a life outside of Hollywood. She has a long-lasting marriage, children and interests outside of the business.
The other women being called out made their careers from being beautiful/cute/sexy. Their careers were built based on their looks (and then there’s the male, Rourke – I don’t know why he’s done this to himself).
I think these women who were always known for their looks have a harder time aging in Hollywood.
I always thought Meryl Streep was better looking than Meg Ryan. Meryl was gorgeous around the time she was in The Deer Hunter.
I agree with what you said. But I also think that the internet and gossip sites have made it very different. Just for example. Print media has become somewhat obsolete because news gets to public fast. By the time it is in a paper or magazine it is OLD. So now pictures of celebs are on sites daily. Whereas before you had to buy a magazine or see the celebs in a movie. Merly and the other women benefited from that period. And yes it was easier to live a non public life. Things are different, and judging celebs based on their pictures being taken is not exactly fair anymore on some level. Yes many court it, but the times are different. As you said Merly’s personal life has not been of interest to the media nor the public. that is just the fact. Because look a Nigella Lawson. Her private life was very private until something happened that made the public interested. NOW she is being followed and photographed. I don’t recall any story about her on this site before that.
@Thora – I agree! I first saw her in the Holocaust mini-series. I thought she was beautiful! However, when you think Meryl Streep, the first thing I think of is “brilliant actress.” I hear Pamela Anderson and I think “Playboy.”
Mickey Rourke went down the surgery route to restore his face after a disastrous boxing career that had completely destroyed it.
He went through a phase of really hating being an actor, so he became a boxer because according to him, it was a more ‘manly’ thing to do.
He wasn’t successful as a boxer though he won some bouts, he decided to re-enter the hollywood game, but unfortunately his face had been destroyed by the boxing.
His face is a result of having really bad material to work with as a result of the boxing damage and possibly bad surgeons since he was in no financial position to afford the best at that point in his life.
If I’m not mistaken Rourke and Priscilla Presley had the same plastic surgeon do their face-lifts. They both (along with many others) sued him for malpractice as they actually lost some feeling in their face and things didn’t “settle” well. How traumatic! I would be so scared to do anything other than peels and laser treatment. You always run the risk with any surgery that things will be far worse than before you did anything.
My husband was in a horrific car accident long before we met. He literally had his head cracked open, ear detached, part of his face peeled off. He had what he describes as horrific series of reconstruction surgeries, and while he looks handsome and he looks like the rest of his family, there are some things the surgeon didn’t do right. There are a few things he’d love to fix but he’d never volunteer to go under the knife again. At the time, they wanted to literally cut above his ear, down the side of his head to lift the side of his face because it would be “easier” than many little incisions and bless my father-in-law who said, “no way, he’s going to be bald like every other man in my family and the last thing we want is a huge 10 inch scar running down the side of his head.” Now he’s bald and it would have been horrible. My mom also had bad plastic surgery — she had 7 lumpectomies in 4 yrs and they took some muscle tissue, leaving pock marks and ripples in her breasts and was very self-conscious. She went to one of the top rated plastic surgeons in the US who specializes in boobs to have it all fixed. 3 surgeries in 2 years later they still don’t look right/hang even and she has now has no feeling in one of her nipples. I don’t believe plastic surgeons always do whats right for the patient, especially when it comes to reconstruction like with Rourke or Rose McGowan even. the body has too many variables for anyone to successfully predict exacts.
@Chicagogurl. You are right on. People forget that surgery has its risks, sometimes even fatal. A young guy we know, father of three young kids including an infant, recently went in for elective surgery (not plastic surgery) and died a couple days later at home from a blood clot.
Your husband and your mom sound like strong individuals.
When Meryl was younger she was absolutely stunningly gorgeous!! Go check out the video of when Cher won her Oscar for Moonstruck and Meryl was totally cheering her on…she was stunning. A perfect example of a classic beauty. Everyone knew she was beautiful but she was known for her talent. Even back then people were calling her an icon and gushing over her acting and she never made it a point to focus on just her beauty. Meanwhile with Meg she was always known for being this adorable pixie-ish, girl next door type. She was never some great actor and had such a cute look that was all her own. So when she started messing with her face I think it shocked people. Especially because she still looked great when she started getting work done. I remember she was in You’ve Got Mail and was her adorable self and them BAM…big weird looking lips and her eyes were wonky too.
Hey y’all, it’s not actually a compliment to say someone “used to be” beautiful or gorgeous. Imagine being on the receiving end of that. “Used to be.” Lauren Bacall absolutely decimated Jay Leno on the Tonight Show for saying she “still looked good” at age 70. “Still!” She kept repeating. “Still!” Aging doesn’t mean loss of beauty. It is beauty transformed. Watch Meryl glow in her husband’s sweet gaze or when chatting with friends or in the company of her children. She is radiance incarnate. Still!
Ryan couldn’t bear NOT being “cute-quirky” anymore as she aged, and so she had all that terrible plastic surgery. What I don’t understand is that some women and men in Hollywood have had masterful plastic surgery which is almost undetectable, and yet others have surgery which makes them look like fish or as if they’re caught permanently in a wind tunnel (or both).
Are the ones who have bad surgery cheap bastards who don’t want to pay for the best doctors? Have they been persuaded/conned into procedures which end up being terrible instead of flattering? I dunno. It’s a mystery.
All I know is, Leeves is right. And British people (as well as the French) are much less neurotic about aging than Americans.
Everything she said is true. I’m just suprised she was so candid.
Agree. The interviewer may have prodded her for specific examples. I don’t disagree with a single thing she said, and certainly wouldn’t assume she was drinking prior to the interview.
It seems atypical of this actress to talk like this. Maybe she was more relaxed because it was her home country and the UK readers are less plastic surgery crazy than Americans.
I watch Hot in Cleveland, and although Jane looks great, I’ve always thought it looks like she uses fillers and botox. She is bone-thin and yet has the plump, puffy face.
i mean c’mon she’s not being snarky just stating FACTS.
Agreed, she is stating the obvious.
Yeah, I read the original interview and the excerpts sound snarky but that wasn’t really her tone. And who can deny Meg Ryan ruined her face?
Wow I don’t agree with surgeries either but I think she’s being harsh calling out people by name. Someone should call her out for being on such a sucky show.
No, I don’t find her harsh either. I think she’s refreshingly honest.
Agree. Something you don’t hear much these days.
I love Hot in Cleveland. And Jane is only stating the obvious.
I don’t know, I find her honesty refreshing. Maybe if more people had been honest with Meg Ryan in the first place, she never would have gone as far as she did with the tweaking. It’s a damn shame, too, because she was cute as a button.
Meryl Streep or any other middle aged~old actresses that don’t look like they’d ever gotten plastic surgeries ALL DID/DO get work done. it’s just subtle. that doesn’t mean they are aging “beautifully”. ha, that is ridiculous!
Honestly, the only working actress on my radar that hasnt had something done is Dame Judy Dench. Meryl and co have had very subtle work done. Maybe not knife work but chemical peels and occassional fillers. I love Meryl, she really is a queen but I have eyes too. Its clear from looking at older pics that her lines diminish occasionally.
(Dame) Maggie Smith looks like she she has aged naturally too.
I agree, but isn’t that how it’s supposed to work? I think they look beautiful and you can’t really blame them for trying to intervene somewhat in the aging process since they have to see themselves onscreen.
I’m just happy there are a few out there who haven’t gone full-on cat face. Meg Ryan really ruined herself. It’s a shame. I loved her early work (“When Harry Met Sally” is my forever NYE movie).
I dearly love that movie too. She was adorable with her original lips. I’m pretty sure she went with implants, and it’s likely irreversible now. Temporary injections are the way to go if you don’t want permanently disfigured lips (hello Nicole Kidman!)
@Pretty. THANK-YOU!! They’ve all been tweaked, most definitely.
I think a few nips and tucks here and there and some peels and botox are fine, it’s when a woman completely destroys her face that it’s a problem. Meryl may get work done, but she still looks like herself. Cat face needs to end!
Exactly.
You are right. I cant think of one celeb who hasnt had something done. The major difference is getting subtle work done not overfilling & plumping and a good surgeon. It also has alot to do with ones perspective. Meg continues to overinject her face and overinflate her ridiculous duck lips so she obviously thinks it looks good. Why do all the Real Housewives look terrible? Because they overdo it. Meryl, Angelina, Brad, Tom Cruise etc all look natural because they do it subtly and over time not ply more fat than a hippo has all at once into their faces.
Yes, but that’s the point. There is a way to simply look like yourself, just more “fresh”, and yet so many American women think they look better this extreme.
It’s become so distracting on tv and in movies, I almost wish these actresses would be boycotted. Meg Ryan’s career was affected, but this was also around the time when her good girl image was tainted by her affair with Russell Crowe. Nicole Kidman has horribly damaged her face and yet continues to get roles. I love her, but only when her career is affected will she maybe stop doing it.
Yeah, I wouldn’t say she was harsh – the examples she cites are pretty egregious.
I’m actually shocked that Meg Ryan had any career at all after forty. Her whole schtick was the wacky cute ingenue.
Meg’s whole career was built around playing the cute, perky petite blonde comedic character. All of her other genres seemed to tank at the BO. In the Cut anyone?
“I’m actually shocked that Meg Ryan had any career at all after forty.”
She did?
She starred in a couple things…lol offhand I can’t remember them.
oh this topic reminds me, did you guys see the recent Ellen Degeneres’s pictures without make up?
she .. looks very very different. but i think she looks her age. if she is getting work done, it probably is very very minimal and subtle cause wow~!
EG had a significant amount of plastic surgery on her face and neck several years ago…http://www.celebitchy.com/259560/enquirer_ellen_degeneres_has_spent_a_fortune_on_lots_of_secret_plastic_surgery/
pretty — I saw those Ellen pics and I was surprised bc I’ve never seen her looking that wrinkled before — can makeup cover that up? She looks fairly wrinkle-free on tv.
I don’t think it’s harsh when it’s just so obvious. And true. She’s not outing anyone, certainly.
And I don’t mind the backlash against plastic surgery. You know – whatever floats your boat, but when people have obvious work done, it doesn’t make them look younger, it just makes them look like they’ve had work.
I recently had to sit across from two women at a social function – one could barely blink and the other had absolutely no movement in her face. These were women in their 40’s! Hardly “aged” – but they looked much older because of all the pulling and poking!
Yes, it’s because your face change, and you don’t know how is it going to happen, if you go with surgery you can’t know how your body is going to react.
Meg Ryan and Melanie Griffith look crazy even with makeup on. I can’t imagine how they must appear without nothing on their face.
It’s so hard to look away from these people, and yet it’s rude to stare.
I think it’s about time there was a huge backlash. Everyone who gets cosmetic surgery looks worse — everyone. They might look okay for a little while, but then their faces melt, and it’s because they’ve destroyed part of their bodies.
It can also kill you. To risk that over a few wrinkles or “thin” lips or a nose that is perceived as being not perfect is absolute madness, especially when the victims of it always look worse.
Harsh but honest.
Meg and Melanie were both cute, never beautiful. Meryl and Helen are actually beautiful women with beautiful bone structure. Plain and simple Meg and Melanie lost their looks, and no amount of botox and fillers will get them back. When you aren’t a bright eyed and bushy tailed 20 something anymore, there’s no amount of product or work that will get that youth back.
Wait–none of Meg Ryan’s “face stuff” happened overnight. It was gradual, after the affair with Russell Crowe. There were some lesser movies she made after that, and it was apparent that she tweaked parts of her face. The movie roles got sparse and her attempts to look “perky” were a disaster. Desperate+Plastic Surgery= Bad
Well, she is being honest, a bit harsh, but honest none the less.
If folks want to have work done, then at least be subtle about it. You should not end up looking like an alien with duck lips.
Maybe it’s because she’s British and speaking to a British tabloid?
Whatever the reason, it mirrors what everyone else thinks but is hesitant to say.
I didn’t find any of it harsh, to be honest. To repeat a cliche, she’s only saying what we’re all thinking (and saying, and blogging!).
These actresses do ruin their looks and often their credibility with surgery, they can’t turn back the clock or stay the hot young thing forever, they just end up looking odd, plastic, and for the few older-woman roles available, they’re going to pick those actresses who can still move their faces without creaking…
THIS
It’s about time someone other than the puplic said something! Is not like none of these ladies mentioned can hide their age. They are being ridiculed all the time and yet the addiction keeps going.
Reminds me of the clip in Ray Donovan where Jon Voight’s character is making fun of the waxy ladies sitting in the next table, theyre so obvious and plastic looking that its hard to dismiss even for a thug
Leeves is simply stating the obvious. Meg Ryan doesn’t look younger or prettier. She looks like a mature woman who’s messed up her face. I wonder what she sees when she looks in the mirror. Something equivalent to body dismorphic disorder, but specific to the face? I don’t think all is well inside when one chooses such extremes, and that is sad.
What GiGi said above!
🙂
She only said what everyone thinks. It wasn’t as if she were telling secrets.
It’s true what she said, and I find her honesty refreshing. Those women did mess up their faces something horrible.
Kind of mean to call them out. We all know they had bad plastic surgery. I bet the ones she mentioned as aging gracefully are laughing too because you know they’ve had some work done.
I’ve always liked her but I think it’s easy to criticize when you have a naturally young looking face.
‘Meg Ryan destroyed her career with plastic surgery.’
I agree with this but also she really never branched out and had great success in other types of film other than Romantic comedies. Even though she was in City of Angels, WAMLAW and The Doors movie, she will always be remembered/known for her romcom movies. When you reach the age where you’re not believable(aka younger) anymore in those romcoms, they cast someone ‘younger & prettier’.
At a certain age in Hollywood for women, offers dry up you can see the reason for her plastic surgery.
Also, no one wanted to see Meg Ryan in anything except for a romantic comedy. It’s not b/c she couldn’t act or anything, but sometimes when the audience falls in love with you for making certain films, they want you to continue on making films like that. Forever. Getting typecasted can be a bitch sometimes.
Jane Leeves is 100% right though. Was it a little harsh to call her out on her messed up face? Probably. But she definitely isn’t saying anything that we all know not to be true.
And don’t forget… the British have less of an issue calling people out on their crap than Anericans do. They tend to be more blunt about everything. Wish we were all more like that.
Also, no one wanted to see Meg Ryan in anything except for a romantic comedy. It’s not b/c she couldn’t act or anything, but sometimes when the audience falls in love with you for making certain films, they want you to continue on making films like that. Forever. Getting typecasted can be a bitch sometimes.
mte. To me she is the rich-mans Jennifer Aniston. Obvious she’s a/was a better actress and had better films than Jennifer Aniston, but both of them have been typecast in these romantic comedies.
@LL
I’m not buying that entirely. Some actresses don’t want to go out on a limb and look unattractive in a film or TV, or to play older roles, and further, some like Aniston have very limited acting range. Aniston is basically perky boobs and butt in all films, regardless of her character.
If they want juicier roles, why not spend the money they’ve made on producing an indy film for themselves? I think the issue is that some “actresses” are starlets while others, like Meryl Streep and Charlize Theron, are actors. Of course there will be an expiration date on the starlet route.
IIRC – Didn’t Meg Ryan’s career tank after she left Dennis Quaid for Russel Crowe? That seemed like it was quite a thing for some reason.
It did. Everyone thought that she was some crazy adulterer, even though Quaid had been cheating on her for years. She should have told everyone her marriage was over in the first place and saved herself the backlash.
Also, she probably should have taken the opportunity to branch out into different roles after that scandal, which I think she did, but then she destroyed her looks and then it seemed like it was all for naught. That face lift/other surgery was the icing on the cake that just truly torpedoed her career. It’s too bad.
To Gigi & Geemoney….couldn’t agree more.
It fails me why Meg didn’t call out Dennis on his cheating at the time. Hard to believe now Meg & Russ were such a scandal 🙂
A lot of actors (male & female) don’t seem to understand that they can’t just play any darn role they want…very few are believable in every role they choose.
…well she’s not wrong.
The lip thing kills me. How much or how little you do to your face is a choice but I cannot think if a single case where lip injections have looked good on someone. It doesn’t work, stop it!!!
They look like blow-up dolls.
Sadly they look worse than blow up dolls.
“It looks as if they’ve all been in a fire at a certain point, it really does.”
Exactly this. I don’t think she was too harsh at all. The skin on some actresses is so stretched and pulled they really do look like burn victims who’ve undergone skin grafting. Meg Ryan is definitely one of them. Priscilla Presley, Melanie Griffith, Mickey Rourke, Daryl Hannah, Nikki Cox, Liza Minelli and that guy she was married to… Courtney Cox, Carla Bruni and Mary Louise Parker are one major surgery or a few tweaks away from that and Calista Flockhart, Kylie Minogue and Portia de Rossi are quickly getting to that point. Nicole Kidman will join the list if she ever starts messing with her eyes or has a full facelift.
None of the actors who’ve mutilated their faces in this way have particularly thriving careers, as she points out. So there’s no harm in calling them out. If she was calling people out for using botox or having a few little tweaks done over a long period of time she’d be much more vulnerable, but Meg Ryan damaged her own career so badly with the face work she’s not capable of damaging anyone else’s.
Jess – I would add Nicole Kidman to your list already. She looks like a freak and it makes all of these actresses/actors look very insecure. I find most of them scary to even look at. That Bethenny Frankel woman scares the living daylights out of me everytime I see her face. It reminds me of Michael Jackson’s scary face. Along with any Real House Wife character for that matter.
@ TG
I have to agree with you about Nicole Kidman. I can’t bare to look at her anymore expecially when she smiles (Rabbitt Teeth).
When did the whole lip thing start? Was it when Angelina Jolie became a huge star? and Why… Is it done to make them appear sexy or is it due to aging?
Being a Brown skin girl and born with full lips. I’m really ignorant as to why this started with HW actresses.
I have to agree with Jane, unless you’re born with full lips don’t f**k with them.
What kills me, none of them admit to lip injections when they’ve spent most of their career as thin lipped actresses.
Let’s add Lara Flynn Boyle to the list as well. She was really a pretty woman once upon a time.
BTW, Martha Stewart looks great too.
Priscilla Presley’s face was destroyed by the injection of industrial strength silicone into her face by a quack. I’m sure she also had plastic surgery but her looks were permanently ruined by the industrial silicone in her face that they can’t remove.
I don’t think she was harsh, she just said the truth. She didn’t say ‘they’re awful actresses or human being’ just that having a bad plastic surgery will surely affect your job. Which is also true.
I think Meg and Melanie really regret having the plastic surgery too now.
I don’t think she was terribly harsh. She was only repeating some truths that have been said many times and by many people. Griffith and Ryan have ruined their looks and damaged their careers by going crazy under the knife.
And yes, her name is Leeves, not Levees.
Seriously. You never look at a person who gets that work done (she called out Mickey Rooney as well), and say “oh my! You look 20 again!” It’s weird.
She also admits that she’s been lucky because she still makes alot of money from Frasier and that takes alot of the pressure off.
I agree- she didn’t exactly “out” anybody- those plastic surgery debacles have been well documented. I have never understood the lip injections- sitting across a table once with someone who had it badly done- all I could see were those huge lips flapping together- it was creepy!
I totally agree with Leeves – I work in an upscale art gallery and holy facelift, some of the women who come in to buy art look pathetic – stretched, injected with fillers, botoxed, not to mention thin, stringy and over-exercised. I don’t understand the void they need to fill by spending tens of thousands of dollars to look scary. One woman came in the other day and she couldn’t make any expression on her face it was so frozen. You could tell she was once drop dead gorgeous but her eyes looked dead and she couldn’t even talk properly. I felt sad for her – she has all the money in the world but still feels she has to resort to torturing her face to maintain her youth no matter how ridiculous she looks.
“holy facelift” – love that!
Color me surprised as well, though it is refreshing to read a piece where the actress is being so blunt, lol. I mean, does anyone in the world think that Meg Ryan looks good these days? She’s flat out scary.
Yeah, I have to agree. It’s not that what she said is untrue, but it’s pretty rude to call people out by name and comment on their faces. Not very polite, Jane.
I do not think it is harsh, its the truth. I watched The Heat this weekend and could not get pass Sandra’s face.
Yet I understand why the ladies of Hollywood feel they have to do that, such a double standard that you can not get old as a female. How many times do you hear “he just gets better with age”, yet how many times do you hear that with females?
Nicole’s overly botoxed face ruins Australia for me. Thank God for Hugh Jackman, also the cinematography is another saving grace.
YES! I could barely watch Australia because her face was so jacked up with that third lip. She looked way too weird and plastic to be believable as a 1930s/40s heroine.
She used to be so beautiful. I think she still would be if she had showed a little more restraint in having work done, like Sharon Stone or Julianne Moore. That goes for all of the ladies Jane mentions.
I feel the same way about the main character(Kathryn Morris) on the show ‘Cold Case’. When the show first started she was so pretty but by season 5(there were 7 seasons), her face was jacked up. Her lips and chin area were so horrible looking, that’s all you can pay attention when she came on screen.
Halle Berry is ridiculously beautiful… and has had very little work done. Meg Ryan should have taken a page out of her book.
Agreed. And Jane was being blunt but true…
Halle has amazing genetics on her side though.
Black dont crack! Just saying 🙂
Oh come on….. Look up old pics of her nose. Many jobs on that thing. She has had little improvements all along the way!
I think there’s a difference between a nose job when you’re younger and messing with your face to try to stay young. The former has worked out just fine for a lot of people. The latter always fails in the end — you can do some subtle things, but you can’t actually stop yourself from aging and the more you try, the worse it looks.
Really???? Look up old pics of her nose. Many jobs on that thing. She has had little improvements all along the way!
I doubt she’s had more than 1 nose job. Black women risk a lot by having surgery on the face, even minor stuff like chemical peels are risky in terms of serious discoloration and when it comes to nose jobs they risk a lot due to (generally) having thicker skin at the tip and around the nose and can get seriously scarred.
Halle’s mother is white, not black.
@taxi – What is your point? She, like many other biracial people, is looked at and treated as a black woman no matter how white her mother is.
Halle has had great nose work.
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTRzU-D5UBocPc-Gux71-50_d8bgMSUn2S8ZZz4cIyrJNeK5obp
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQRiI3B8A_GVWDb1MKQkDde2VRFW-rJjVD6zyVaNnM9t9cEy16zLQ
What she said is the truth and it is obvious, but if I were a public figure and discussing it, I don’t think I would have named names as she did. It makes it a little more personal and hurtful towards those people, who either know they jacked their face up and have to live with it, or are having some sort of psychological issue where they aren’t really seeing what’s happened to them.
Agree with this completely. We can all think of examples of people, mostly women, who look terrible because of plastic surgery. You can make the point about it being a bad idea without calling out specific actresses.
Once the self-imposed damage is done.. unless you refuse to be ashamed by your foolish vanity, that is.. I have fame and money money therefore am rich and privileged enough to escape aging .. quit living in la-la land.. Jane has a valid point..
She is saying what needs to be said. And maybe her saying it so publicly is a signal of a backlash against this culture of plastic surgery that Hollywood supports.
*so many thoughts on this topic, not enough coffee this early in the morning to express them*
Harsh but true and she is just saying what everyone is thinking and what a lot of people have said on Celebitchy for years. I said the same thing in the last post on Meg Ryan. She really messed up her face. She would have looked great if she had allowed herself to age naturally. Meryl and Helen look great and it is because they haven’t gone under the knife. I’m perfectly fine with non-invasive procedures like chemical peels and laser resurfacing. To me that is just going a step farther than getting a facial. It helps smooth skin and get rid of age spots and wrinkles. It is not, however, cutting up or pulling the face and turning a person into something completely unrecognizable. I believe Susan Sarandon had a little something done, but she didn’t go overboard, and she still looks good. Good plastic surgery should be undetectable and natural looking. Leeves is absolutely right, but yeah, she was being really blunt calling out names.
I would say she was being “especially honest,” not “especially harsh.”
I would love to see what Meg Ryan would have looked like without the plastic surgery…I imagine she would have looked WAY better at this point, had she laid off. People end up looking totally unlike nature intended, but not really any younger.
YES! June Stahl on Sons of Anarchy was the worst case of this I’ve ever seen. At one point in the show, the surgery was so obvious and her face was twisted into something so grotesque, that I thought Gemma was going to make a comment about how plastic surgery had ruined her face. It ended up being weird that NONE of the characters ever said anything to Agent Stahl about it.
YES! I was glad to see that mentioned. I couldn’t believe they would cast someone who had such a distractingly, obviously fake face without even mentioning it. It was almost painful to watch her trying to emote. And Gemma calling her out would totally fit her character too.
Pretty sure her husband is the head of the network so I’m not surprised it wadn’t used for an insult. I did notice it with her as I used to watch her old show.
I like her but I don’t think it was necessary to “name and shame”, anyone with two eyes can see who has had the bad work done. I don’t see what point she made that she couldn’t have made without naming names, I just think how awful I would feel if it was me being platic surgery shamed. These women are under so much pressure, Jane Leeves was a t.v. comedy actress, not a movie star, so I really doubt she has any comprehension of what it felt like to be an ageing Meg Ryan. Unfortunately she and Griffiths both got sucked in during the worst era of filler mutilation and will pay the price for the rest of their lives. I don’t think it’s fair to entirely blame the career trajectory on the surgery either, Meg Ryan never broke out of the rom com mould even though she tried, her shelf life was always going to be a certain age. She is just not that talented compared to Streep and Sarandon, and unfortunately now all you see when she is on screen is the work on her face. Melanie Griffiths is maybe another story, she really did botch her career.
I wonder exactly how fragile the actresses are that Jane Leeves called out?
I hope none of them do anything stupid because Jane Leeves thought it was ok to hold them up to public ridicule. That would be sad and maybe even tragic.
If they’re fragile egos can’t take it, at their ages!, they should reconsider their choice of careers. Famous people get talked about, good and bad, and when you do something obvious to your face, people will talk. Obviously.
Little tweaks here and there are fine. It sucks, but some women don’t age well. Like someone above said, you never hear anyone say women get better with age. Heck, most of us are terrified of aging. The thing is, these face lifts don’t make these women any younger. The cat face, stretched out Joker look makes them look like they are wearing a freaky mask. No one is going to take that seriously on screen. And men are not immune to this either. Mickey Rourke, Bruce Jenner, Kenny Rogers, Billy Crystal (WTF, I love him!!), Ray Liotta and Sylvester Stallone all look awful. Hollywood is so afraid of aging, that they all go around looking like melting wax statues and it is very distracting while watching them in anything!
Melting wax figures is the perfect description. Sometimes they almost look lifelike.
Mickey Rourke’s surgery isn’t about aging but trying to restore his original face that was destroyed by his boxing career and then being initial ‘repaired’ by a shady surgeon.
At some point in the 90s, Mickey quit his Hollywood to become a boxer. Unfortunately, that didn’t pan out and his face was destroyed by the repeated punches to it.
The first surgeon who worked on his face did very bad job. The surgeon’s excuse was that Mickey’s face was too far gone.
He has spent years trying to repair both his face and the shady work that was done on it. His face actually looks better now than it did after the first bout of surgery he had. That was truly scary.
Poor Meg, she looks like the joker.
Well, she’s not wrong.
I don’t understand why any sane woman would get her lips done – it NEVER looks good.
Ever.
If you don’t have naturally full lips, don’t fight it, embrace your smaller lip size because I can assure you it looks much better than the weird duck lips.
Sometimes the result is very good. It all depends on your ability to restrain yourself from ‘too much’. Anjelina Jolie injects her upper lip, so it balances out her very full lower lip (if you look at photos of her when she was younger, her upper lip was not as full). The result she gets is very beautiful and natural, because it results in a more balanced face.
As far as naming names? I disagree with that. I think Meg’s career took a huge hit when she hooked up with Russell, because she was so harshly judged (unfairly it turns out). It would have been quite possible for Jane to make her point without shaming anyone, especially Meg who I think is quite fragile.
If you can’t say something nice…
Oh, so that explains why Angelina Jolie’s lips look so strange, when they used to look like normal, thick lips.
It never looks good. Not ever, on anyone.
i’d also add Mickey Rourke to the list of people being called out unfairly because his surgery isn’t about trying to look young or better but to restore damage to his face as a result of his boxing career.
Jennifer Garner had a pretty obvious (I thought at least) lip work done to her upper lip in between Felicity and Alias. It actually worked well for her. Before she barely had an upper lip.
Coconut oil and Retin-A on my face, neck and chest. At 48, my skin is glowing. Yes, I have some lines and a tiny bit of sagging showing up at my jawline. But I’m trying not to freak out about it. Better I look like myself and not Madam!
https://www.google.com/search?q=madamism&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=Ti3cUdqEMcfxiwLKxYDIDQ&ved=0CC0QsAQ&biw=1360&bih=580
Everyone has has some type of “help” in Hollywood including Jane Leeves. But to just pick on the women is sexist & unfair. Let’s talk about how much work Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise has had. Neither of them look like they are aging normally because they aren’t. Ryan Seacrest looks like he can’t move his forehead.
She’s completely right about everything.
I actually don’t think it was just bad plastic surgery that took down Meg’s career. Honestly it was almost like a “perfect storm” of conditions that worked against her. Yes, she did have TERRIBLE work done to her face but she was also facing her 40’s which we know is a bad time for Hollywood women. Then the whole thing with her husband and cheating happened which hurt a lot because her image was as America’s Sweetheart and that went totally against it. And then there was the fact that she was kind of eschewing her typical sweet girl roles and trying to be edgier. And I don’t think anyone wanted an “edgy” Meg Ryan. I feel bad for her and I also miss seeing her around. It seems like I watch one of her movies at least once a month because they’re all my guilty pleasure flicks.
I agree with you.
The main reason(s) why Meg Ryan’s career isn’t what it used to be has little to do with the plastic surgery, although it didn’t help matters. It’s a shame, really, because there was something about Meg Ryan that was appealing. And frankly, I think that she was capable of playing complex, darker characters. I think about E’s True HW Story, which broached Meg’s family life (her mom abandoned her family for another man)- I think Meg could’ve exorcised some of her demons regarding that incident if she was provided with material along those lines. Unfortunately, HW wasn’t motivated enough to encourage that version of Meg Ryan.
As for Jane calling people out, she was pretty mild, compared to what some of the posters here and on other blogs have said and will say. Hell, I’m just happy that anything resembling ‘girl’s girl’ rhetoric isn’t coming out of Jane’s mouth.
Although, I do think that Jane is doing something, in terms of preserving her face.
I agree, but once she went completely nuts with the surgery that was it for her. Before that she could have made a comeback. She’d done it before. She was never going to top When Harry or Sleepless, but she could have still had a film career and tried tv if her ego could take the hit. But her face is so freakish now she could only play characters who’s terrible plastic surgery is referenced.
Jane’s loaded so can fund all the other non invasive treatments to look young so she isnt exactly scrubbing her face in carbolic soap each day!
She’s right – about everything…
it’s pretty tacky that she called out her peers in Hollywood like that. Maybe it’s passive aggressive because all the other women she mentioned have WAY MORE talent than she has ever had — I can’t think that this was a dumb move on her part, career wise. I mean, why tell everyone what they already know? It was just tacky.
I feel bad for Hugh heffners young YOUNG girlfriends and all their plastic surgery when they didn’t need I, just likenLeanne times and Courtney stiffen. Poor thins just don’t have enough common sense between all of them to step back and look at what they’ve done 🙁
What Jane Leeves said is 100% true, and it needs to be resonated throughout the industry for mainly women to hear what everyone thinks. I was a huge Meg Ryan fan, just loved her! When she got her plastic surgery, it was such a shame. We loved her just the way she was. It’s so sad that women in general have to worry about wrinkles and our other physical aging elements, while men, can worry free for a much longer time. Jane Leeves and Meg Ryan are basically the same age. Meg has less wrinkles, but who looks more attractive now?
As a 4th generation, Asian American, I have thought how nice it would be to have wider eyes, a higher nose bridge, bigger breasts, but that’s not who I am, but I can be a different flavor of beautiful. And that’s fine with me.
who is this bitch? At least I’ve heard of meg ryan.
She was only on one of the funniest and longest-running sitcoms of all time. That’s who she is.
She spoke the truth. Meg put that implant in her top lip, and her top lip is now much wider and joker-like and then she had filler issues for a while. I remember the first movie I saw where she had changed, and I couldn’t stop staring at her mouth the whole movie. I was a huge Meg Ryan fan before that.
Okay, as someone with thin lips, I’ve wondered something…If you can tell immediately that someone has had her lips done, does this just mean that they were overfilled? I’ve researched this a little and there do seem to be examples of lips that have been enhanced but are subtle and natural-looking. I think that all of these look pretty natural:
http://www.realself.com/photo/301198
http://www.realself.com/photo/633491
http://www.realself.com/photo/549863
I’ve wondered if there are lots of people out there with lip enhancements, but they’ve been done well, so we don’t notice it.
That is an example of very nice work, I think. They didn’t try to change the shape of their lip, just enhance it a bit. On of the clues that the lips are OVER done, is they don’t have any creases at all – they look like fat sausages. I think that many times a little looks great, so they think a lot will look even better. But it doesn’t.
While I agree with Jane, should could’ve said plastic surgery ruined the careers of some prominent actresses. Maybe Meg stole her cookie or, some sh-t, I dunno.
I do agree about surgery being distracting in performances. Nicole Kidman’s lips in Rabbit Hole were a huge liability in an amazing performance. It seems atypical for a b list actror to name drop a and former a list actors, wonder if she knew it was on record.
I’ve seen just as much good plastic surgery as bad. Jane Fonda, Christy Brinkley and others look fabulous because of it. There’s many women out there who would not look good aging if it wasn’t for plastic surgery.
To each their own. Jane should be thankful she still looks good. It could all go south any day. I think she was very tacky for singling out certain people.
I am 28, half white American and half African. I am still bombarded with messages about all the creams, serums, and potions I need for “prevention”… My same aged girlfriends already talk about their crows feet and smile lines.. Enough already! I moisturize, use sunscreen and avoid too much sun. Are we as women ever allowed to just feel beautiful and comfortable without something to “fix”?
I do find it hilarious that she holds Helen Mirren up as an example of a “naturally ageing woman”. Helen had a (subtle) facelift just a few months ago – she was even photographed with the bandages on her face!
Meg’s career faltered for several reasons. First, she was a rom-com girl and that always has a shelf-life for most actresses. Secondly, she was photographed cheating while she was married with kids. That hurts anybody, but especially her because she was in rom-coms and a woman catering to the mini-van majority and because she was married. If she had been some indie actress or anyone who had not built their reputation on appealing to middle America as a rom com star, or not married, the fall out probably wouldn’t have been as brutal. Lastly, the plastic surgery. It was a combination of all three things, topped off by some very bad movie choices.
I think it’s wrong to call people out on plastic surgery when you’re obviously getting stuff done yourself. don’t get me wrong, she looks good, but I’m 37 and have crow’s feet w/o botox and she’s 52 and a line free face? she’s not all natural, i guarantee. Only diff is she has a good dermatologist, like me. She prob does botox and fillers. Those people who have bad plastic surgery have bad doctors. The others just have better ones so their work isn’t as obvious. so to call somebody out for trying to look better and not knowing they have/had a s*itty doctor is kinda f*cked up to me. not to mention, mean. I get botox and just got a little bit of filler last time and nobody has a clue. Everybody at work was like, oh did you change your hair? are you wearing more makeup, you look good, blah, blah.but no one knows what i did because my doctor didn’t go overboard. but i would never call anybody out for trying to look younger. because aging is rough. i am a sunscreen freak and i still started getting wrinkles. and my face lost a lot of volume, seemingly overnight, and it’s quite upsetting. so i would never blame anyone for trying to look better and having the unfortunate experience of choosing a bad doctor.
I met the most gorgeous 95 year old woman the other day. She had huge eyes, an expressive and kind face, and an absolutely lovely attitude.
On the other hand, I know a woman in her fifties that I have a hard time getting along with because I keep on misinterpreting her tone because her facial expressions don’t match her words.
My point: beauty is about so much more than wrinkles and smooth skin.
I find nothing refreshing about stating the obvious. Especially when the person doing it has been long-rumored to have suffered from anorexia. Given how painfully thin she became on Frasier, I don’t doubt it.
Regardless, I find her statements mean-spirited, sanctimonious and tactless. Not to mention, completely unnecessary.
The fact that Meg Ryan felt she needed surgery, and at such a young age, speaks to her obvious insecurity (and I don’t mean that in a glib way). For another actress, especially, to pinpoint her in this way is at the worst, hateful, at the least showing a profound lack of compassion