Let's Face It

Meg Ryan always had such a distinctive face, a face that could express without words what most of us were feeling as she captured character after character on the big screen. Then, in the middle of the Hugh Jackman film, the one where he's from the past, Meg's face changed into a scary Jack Nicholsonesque joker caricature: she had a face lift or reconstruction or something that completely changed her look -- and not in a good way. Since that change, I've been uncomfortable with her appearance, so I don't want to see her in films. Perhaps coincidentally, she hasn't been cast in many films since altering her facial appearance.

This past week, I taped a Christmas movie that features Melissa Gilbert, who has brought many chick flick TV characters to life during the past several years. I was horrified to see that the Melissa we all remember has been replaced with a Lisa Renna knock-off: big, fishy mouth and eyebrows way up on top of her forehead. Nothing cute or endearing about the finished product, and certainly NOT the look for a romantic lead in a light-hearted seasonal drama!! Her face became a distraction during the film and I found myself wishing that someone more youthful, more natural looking, had been cast instead of Melissa Gilbert.

It used to be that women who had "work done" came back from a two-week vacation looking rested, relaxed, smoothed out. No one really knew if she had "work done" or not because it was subtle, not startling. Let's face it: it's nice that public people have access to plastic surgery, to the quick pick-up that keeps them forever the way we remember. However, with all the excellent plastic surgeons available to people of means, how the heck did two of the top stars end up with such dramatic -- and not very flattering -- fixes?