These are photos of Renee Zellweger attending a screening for the movie Long Shot: The Kevin Laue Story in LA on Saturday. She’s with her boyfriend, an old college friend named Doyle Bramhall II. Doyle is a music producer and musician and has worked as a guitarist for Eric Clapton. Renee and Doyle have been together a little over a year so it seems serious.
Renee is shown in the photo above looking thrilled to meet the movie’s subject, 6’11” college basketball player Kevin Laue. The guy is huge! Renee is 5’4″ tall. Laue, 23, is an accomplished player who received a basketball scholarship to play division one for Manhattan college despite being born with just one hand. Wiki tells me that he uses his stump (that’s what they call it!) to help hold the ball when he’s playing. Renee looks astonished at how tall he is and it’s really cute.
Of course we’re reporting this because Renee recently had some kind of plastic surgery or eye work done. Her face looks radically different than it did before. As I said in an earlier post on this, I think Renee looks great and her work isn’t noticeable – if you didn’t know what she looked like before. Compared to her earlier face, she looks much different and more wide eyed. In these pictures of her smiling so cute like that, she looks much more natural to me. I think she looks great, just not like herself.
Many of you pointed out that eye lift surgery is often a necessary procedure to correct eyelid droopiness and may not be for cosmetic reasons. Whatever Renee’s motivation, I hope she likes her new look and is comfortable with it. I wonder if she’ll talk about her surgery at some point. She comes across as a very private person. She’s seems friendly and personable, just private with the press. This is a big change for her and I do think that a journalist is going to broach the question in an interview at some point.
Also, that’s a great jacket, right?
Renee last week:
Renee in October of last year:
Photo credit: WENN.com and FameFlynet
I’m in the minority, but she looked better, more unique and prettier, before.
Make that a minority of 2!
Renee was never a classic beauty like Charlize Theron or Michelle Pfeiffer, but she did have a unique look. Now, she’s lost it. Of course, it’s possible she had the surgery done for medical rather than aesthetic reasons but in any case she’s lost the ‘character’ in her face. She doesn’t’ look bad, just bland.
Bland.. that was the word I was looking for…
And she needs to do at list some minimal brow contouring..
If she is 5’4″ then I am 8 feet tall. I would guess more like 5’2″ at the most. (Don’t forget she was chosen as Tom Cruise’s co-star.)
I’m with you. But maybe she partly did it because of health reasons? Droopy eyelids can be annoying and get worse with age.
I have epicanthic folds (ie, droopy eyelids). They are a pain. They make me look older than I am, and I look tired all the time. Also, they do get worse with age, until they are partially obscuring the pupil.
I’m totally with you. I loved her old face, and I just hate that she looks like a different person. I don’t understand how people say she looks better. She looks so bland. I feel bad for her.
I think so too, but I have some sympathy. My mom had to have the surgery for droopy lids, it eventually began to affect her eyesight. She waited until 60 and insurance covered it as medically necessary. I will probably need to have it, too, eventually, but mom didn’t look like “herself” for years after. It took maybe 5 years before it “settled”. I can see Renee wanting to get it over with now, she was definitely on the road to needing it. My Dr. says that I remind him of Renee, and I am sure it is because of the eye thing. 🙁 I certainly don’t have her figure.
I’m with you. It doesn’t look as obvious here because the pictures are from the side and she’s smiling, but she still looks like a different person. Her eyelids didn’t seem to be drooping so badly that she required surgery. If there wasn’t a way to keep the original shape of her eyes while giving them a little lift, she shouldn’t have done it. Hopefully the surgery will settle over time and she will start to look more like herself again. But I will never understand these surgeons who insist on changing the shape of almond shaped eyes.
Me too. Her eyes were squinty but cute and unique.
She doesn’t look awful or anything now-I just liked her pre-surgery look better.
I also liked her old look more. Also it seems to me that she has done something else (maybe cheek implant as “blue marie” pointed out), so all in all for me it looks too obvious that there was some surgery and I don’t really find the look attractive. Of course if she did it for health reasons, it is what it is, but I hope she wouldn’t mess with her face otherwise. She has very unique looks, a beautiful smile, and she comes across as a really nice person!
I agree about something else. Her face and smile look tighter.
Add me in as liking her better before…she was unique. Now she’s just average and bland.
Kiddo: I’m with you. I never thought she was attractive, but now that I see “before” pics, she was more attractive with her original face. Her squinty eyes made her unique and gave her a somewhat sultry look.
Agree. Prettier before for sure. Surprised at all the comments about how she looks better now, but some current taste seems to favor uniformity. I always liked her look. Now she looks erased.
This ^^. The eye shape that made her so cute, and distinctive, has been erased, taking with it the uniqueness that made her special. Such a shame. It’s like looking at Nicole Kidman, and trying to remember her lovely “before” face, and her red curly hair. Why the race to bland?
I agree. She had such pretty shaped eyes. Now she looks like a 50 year old soccer mom. These new eyes, just like Cindy Crawford’s eye job do not make her look younger. They make her look like someone who got a bad eye-job.
Who dat? And what have you done to Squinty?
Eye surgery and cheek implants maybe? Whatever she did, she looks good and happy.
She does look really cute. Different yes, but very cute (and refreshed)
She looks much more like her(old)self in these photos, which is nice. And she doesn’t look like she’s in pain now every time she smiles, which is a bonus. Good for her.
ITA!
Don’t understand all of the moaning about her surgery. Who would actually want to have squinty or droopy eyes, which only worsen with age?
My dad had a blepharoplasty in his 50’s, 100% covered by insurance, because he couldn’t see anymore! That same fate awaits me. I’m sure as heck gonna have the surgery, as opposed to looking like a blood hound or something. I think Renee looks cute and MUCH prettier with her eyelids corrected.
She looks a lot more like herself in these new pics. Like you said, she looks great, just different. We’ll get used to it.
A family friend had this eyelid surgery for the reason of dropping lids causing vision problems. At first she looked very different to me and I felt a little sad, seeing any loved one’s face change like that can feel funny. It’s been a few years and now I don’t even think about it, plus she is much happier with the healthier eyelids. Renee looks so happy here it just makes me happy for her, she may have been struggling with this medical issue and this decision for awhile!
I was wondering if it was that as well. My mom had that done when her lids drooped too much, and was diminishing her peripheral vision, making driving a problem. Granted, my mom was 75 when it was done and not in her early forties, but the result is much the same.
She’s adorable.
I agree. She is adorable. She was before the surgery and she is now. Maybe she just really needed the eye surgery.
It’s unbelievable how different she looks. I prefer the October of last year face, I wish she stayed with it.
I agree, her eyes were what made her look unique
She looks like Chelsea Handler, especially in the third pic.
I think she had an eye lift and maybe some fillers. She doesnt look bad at all but so, so different.
She looks very generic now. She was unique before….the change definitely isn’t subtle. That’s for sure!
She just looks different. And I agree she’s apparently very private. She’s never talked about why her marriage to Kenny ended so quickly, and she likely won’t provide a listing of her cosmetic procedures, either.
And more power to her. I’ve always liked how private she is. The marriage to Chesney covering People mag was an aberration. I thinks she was probably suffering from a broken heart and let his publicity machine have their way.
I’m not sure I believe the eye surgery was for medical reasons in Renee’s case. Her boobs are noticeably bigger, as well. I think she had a big cosmetic overhaul before her new movie started filming. She’s going to be directing and starring in a new comedy and it’s her first film since 2010. I think her insecurities got the best of her and this is the result.
“still unrecognizable”?? Unless she had more procedures over the weekend to revert back to her former self, of course she is “still” undrecognizable.
She always had squinty eyes and it’s no secret your eyelids do start to droop as you age. Maybe she had eye surgery due to medical concerns. Even if she did it for cosmetic reasons, so what. It’s her face, her choice. I do agree, she looks different but she also looks happy in these pictures. That’s all that matters, really.
I don’t know why you keep using the word “unrecognizable.” It seems like pot stirring. I think she looks like herself and she looks great!
Agree. I don’t think she looks that different. In fact, I always thought her squinty-eyed phase was not her true self and the result of too many fillers. To me she now looks more like her Jerry Maguire-era self, which was always my benchmark for her “real” look.
I agree. She looks more like she did in the Empire Records era.
Agreed. This isn’t a Jennifer-Gray-level adjustment. She looks a little tweaked, yes. Unrecognizable? No. I honestly didn’t know how she saw anything before through her squinty peepers. It’s new work and will settle soon. I think she looks like Renee, but awake and happy.
Thank you! I can’t believe all the people on here saying she looks so different. She doesn’t look that different to me. She’s as cute as she ever was.
Did she have work done, or did she STOP getting the crazy amount of injections she was obviously getting for a while? Besides looking older, she now looks more like she used to when she first started out and could still move her face and open her eyes all the way.
Either way, she looks fine and not all that different to me. She’s certainly not “unrecognizable.”
I really like her either way. She seems like a nice person and I hope she’s happy with her new eyelids.
did she get a rack improvement as well?
Regarding the eye cosmetic surgery for medical purpose, can anyone elaborate further about how squinty eyes may eventually affect one’s vision? East Asian and some indigenous peoples of course have squinty/narrow eyes, and they don’t seem to have such problems. Does it have anything to do with race, i.e. Caucasians with squinty eyes might have more possibility to have health issues with them?
As I get older, my eyelids are drooping, and if my dad is any indication, they will droop right over my pupil, obscuring my vision. No, it’s not about race. It’s about how elastic your skin is, and that can be due to a number of reasons.
Droopy eyelids always remind me of that scene in It’s Complicated when Meryl Streep goes to the plastic surgeon’s office and is told that post-face lift headaches last for six months.
Jeebus! How tall is that guy standing next to her? At first I thought it was the angle (last picture), but he’s clearly really tall.
she looks better now… same with Jennifer Grey and her nose. The problem is both lost their special, unique features because they wanted to be more “mainstream pretty”. Now they look total different and people don´t want to see known and liked actors with total new faces. Why cast a known and expensive actor/actress when no one recognizes them?
Good point. It would be like casting an unknown. Gotta hand it to Barbara Streisand, who never gave in!
Her face looks more like her old self now that it did last week. She looked unrecognizable last week. In these recent photos, she looks like a younger version on herself. She looked like this when she starred in Jerry Maguire. I not know what she did to her face, but it seems to have settled a bit. I think she has also gained weight and looks much healthier than she has in years. She was cute when she first became famous. Her weight fluctuations were not kind to her face; she simply lost too much post-Bridget Jones. I also believe she had really bad skin problems and on top of that was getting Botox or other procedures that made her face worse and her eyes squintier. She seems to be In a good place right now with a non famous boyfriend. Taking a break from Hollywood was a good thing for her. I’d like to hear what she has to say about her new look.
Now she looks more like Linda Blair than Renee Zellweger!
I totally agree!
She doesn’t seem too emotionally stable, so the wise cracks about her eyes may have gotten to her finally. Still, not as bad as Surprised Winona.
A 55yo friend of mine – a farmer I’ve known my whole life – just had her eyelids lifted so she could see. As long as I’ve known her, she had drooping lids as far back as childhood- she always had a squinty look with her eyeballs barely showing. She had reached the point that her vision at 55 was severely impaired. Insurance covered it because of the medical reason. She is so thankful yet at the same time she has seen the world through squinty eyes almost her entire life.
Edit: deleting my accidentally insensitive comment… 😕
I agree, great coat!
Her new face reminds me of her sweet face in Jerry Mcguire. After that movie I always wondered what happened to her face. After all these years I got used to her face now. She doesn’t look bad but she does look very different and that she had work done. I think it will settle in a few months and we’ll get used to it. She’s not wearing too much makeup either.
Don’t know what happened to her but at least she’s not SQUINTING all the time now. That was so strange.
The photos where she is in semi profile looks more like the old her. She also looks almost the same when she’s smiling. Maybe she should stop the puckered lips look because she looks like a startled deer in those pictures.
She’s not unrecognizable. Are you unrecognizable when you squint vs. having your eyes wide? Noooo. Nobody is.
I don’t think she looks that different. I am confused at people saying that she looks like a completely different person, unrecognizable, lost her special look? What?
Thank you Tiffany and Alana I also don’t get why people are acting like she looks like a completely different person, when I saw the photos last week I knew exactly who it was.
I think she looks great!
Oh I think she looks refreshed and pretty.
But I thought she was pretty before.
I think it is kind of ironic that LeAnn Rimes and Eddie get called out for having squinty eyes but there seem to be a lot of people commenting that they liked Renee’s look pre surgery. (Just noticing. Not a criticism).
I think eye surgery or not, Renee just has a sweetness about her that comes thru. (Eddie and LeAnn maybe not so much)
But I do think she looks pretty.
They use to say the same thing about Renee like who she looks like she sucking on a lemon on this site and many others. Same thing happened with Cameron Diaz, sometime I think people just want a reason to complain about celebrities.
She just looks like Laura Dern to me now. I can’t stop thinking it’s Laura Dern and it’s been mislabeled.
I think she looks good, but blander if that makes sense. She was never a great beauty but she had a really cute, unique face before, now she just sort of blends in.
Can I point out that part of why she looks so different is that she also looks happier than she’s looked in a long time? Her red carpet ‘signature’ is that super intense, slightly lemon-y look. Now she seems much more relaxed.
In these photos it doesnt look like she had any work at all. In the event photo before it looks like she got some eye work only and its not overdone. She just looks like Renee. Frankly she can still move her forehead which puts her way ahead the majority of twenty something female stars. Most I see on tv have no life above the nose line or some weird klingon forehead effect when they try.
Shout out to my college and to Kevin! Go Jaspers!!