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It’s an epidemic. Look at these ridiculous recent examples of photoshopping. At a time when more actresses are allowing themselves to be photographed without makeup, Hollywood ageism is still alive and well and fueled by movie posters and celeb magazines:
First, here’s Barbra Streisand on her new movie The Guilt Trip‘s one-sheet for Skydance/Paramount opening December 19th. Of course she had complete approval so this phony baloney is her fault. (Well, the pic is supposed to be a comedy.) Then again it’s humiliating to have pundits like Deadline’s own Pete Hammond write Streisand’s Gypsy: Too Old — Or Going For The Gold?:
Then here’s an unrecognizable Gwyneth Paltrow from InStyle UK’s January 2013 cover. Could they have done this without her say-so?
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Gwnyeth is a very sexy, beautiful woman w/o the photoshopping. I don’t understand why she feels the need to.
It is ridiculous. What’s even more absurd is how younger women are cast to play the mothers or aunts of actors only a few years younger than themselves.
A good part of the problem is that women of “a certain age” are not cast in mainstream roles.. they’re considered too old to play opposite male actors of the same age. This leads women to resort to cosmetic procedures to try and retain their youthful looks.
Barbara is what, 70?
I must agree with Mini about the Hollywood double standard. It is no wonder female go under the knife like it nothing. If they get the right doctor they will look like a winner.
Yes, we’re outraged, but the real question is how do you go about changing that culture? In addition to photoshopping, botox and plastic surgery, I would also like to see women naturally go gray and not feel pressured to dye their hair.
Sorry, but no. It’s the culture. I don’t think we can blame our urges to reproduce anymore, it’s 2012, and women are held up to unrealistic and often times dangerous standards for how they should look. Not just with age, but with weight and skin color and hair as well. Can you blame that on biology too?
When an actress does try to age gracefully or doesn’t look perfect she is skewared by other women. I don’t seen men on the forums and blogs discussing wrinkles or calling someone over 120 pounds fat. Women do these things and marketers follow along with public tastes. Take away Photoshop and how many magazines would InStyle or anyone else sell? The same thing is done to men – Brad Pitt, Leonardo Dicaprio, and Tom Cruise photoshopped to look like they did 20 years ago. It’s a simple as pretty and plastic sells. Real doesn’t.
are women really held up to these standards? or is it that too many women spend an inordinate amount of time flipping through trivial fashion magazine, reading magazines like cosmo whose only aim is to make women feel sh*t about how they look so they will go out and buy all the goop (yes, i did say goop) in these worthless fashion magazines.
The culture sets the bar for the acceptable body (which is no longer a real body whether one is 30, 40, 50 or 60) and as a result produces girls and women who are filled with self-hate. It’s nearly impossible in this culture to accept and love your female body. Check out endnageredbodies.org for an international perspective on fighting back.
If thin bodies are impossible, why do many, many Slavic ( white) and to an even greater degree, Asian women) have very slim bodies.
It’s not a real argument, just get off the plane in Moscow and it’s like a different species.
There’s only so much wishful thinking and politically correct BS you can throw before the physical, objective, counterexample is staring you in the face. ( And usually staring more sympathetically than a grrl power Western woman.)
How many OLDER Russsian women do you know? They don’t age well. How do I know? I AM RUSSIAN. Not there yet, but looking at my aunts and mom sends a shiver up my spine. They get heavy and the features get gargoyle like.
That looks a lot like Gwyneth to me?
Yes, it’s sad. Unfortunately, we have an enormous double standard about aging. The biggest male stars (Clooney, Pitt, Cruise, etc.) are close to or north of 50. And top female stars are generally in their 20s or early 30s (Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone). I’d love to see that change, there’s so many brilliant actresses in their 40s and older, but I’m not holding my breath.
I would actually argue that the two biggest female stars in the world (the two who people with pay money to see no matter what movie they’re in) are Meryl Streep and Judi Dench. They look their age and celebrate it. They’re stars because they’re distinctive and incredibly talented, not because they loot young and hot.
I would argue a movie star is someone you can take to the studios and get your movie made. It’s a short list, Meryl is the only woman over 50 who can do it. Judi is terrific, but getting her does not get you a greenlight.
Jennifer Lawrence in a romantic film with Bradley Cooper is almost as gross as Catherine Zeta-Jones in a romantic film with Sean Connery. Or in a real life romance with Michael Douglas.
Maybe. How weird that sexual drive peaks in the exact opposite of what you indicate – 16 for men and 45 for women.
Get stuffed you moron….I had a baby at 43 & we are all happy & healthy & the uterus perormed admirably…with some men it is hit & miss later in age apparently ie shooting blanks…we are just told by Hollywood that young girls are the choice & that old men are what womwn want – what bull…and these old men are trying to set back the aging process too so no, women aren’t always attracted to 60 year olds !!!!!!!!!!
Speaking of Jennifer Lawrence — why hasn’t it been written that it’s TOTALLY UNBELIEVABLE that this 23 year old is a widower of a policeman in “Silver Lining.” I might have bought it if she was from a small town and married to a military guy — maybe – but when I was 23, I knew NO ONE who was married, much less a widower. This role was clearly written/meant for a WOMAN in her late 20s/30s.
I couldn’t agree with you more. Lawrence was cast, after Anne Hathaway dropped out, simply because she was so popular.
It’s awful. And particularly terrible that someone of Streisand’s age & stature would stoop to allow that. They all look dreadful and preposterous photoshopped. What’s worse is, behind the scenes the same pressures apply to women. If you’re a writer/producer (I won’t say director because there are too few out there) and look too old, you won’t get hired (people somehow think your brain stops working after 31.)
Perception is reality in Hollywood (show biz) more than other places, and the perception is that actors/entertainers do not age like the rest of us. I believe it is a way to stay young. Nothing makes one feel older than to look at Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Streisand, etc. We have all aged as they have, but most of us don’t want entertainment to be a mirror on aging. Entertainment is not a reflection of real life most of the time.
It appears that men can age more easily than women, but this is true most everywhere. It is not just a Hollywood thing, but it more visible to the public.
Adding to the problem is the high definition picture quality captures every line and wrinkle. So, the better the image…the more it must be ‘photoshopped’.
If there is a personal downside, it is the lengths that actresses ( especially) must do to themselves to try and stay young. The more they do…the more is needed. It becomes a vicious circle.
And, for those who doubt this is true, I ask you when out and about do you tend to look more at the young than the old?
None of us spend much time dreaming about getting or looking old.
Umm…Look the Instyle cover I understand, but do some reporting before you talk about a movie poster. I want you to think clear and hard about this…You ready?…How OLD is she supposed to be in the film you idiot! Yes we know her age in real life but in film you can be an age you want. Holy crap people think first comment second. They do it to men too. Movie posters are meant to look great! But the age of the CHARACTER not the ACTOR is what you need to look at.
Um, she plays Seth Rogen’s mother, so she can’t be too young.
What everyone needs to realize is that there’s been retouching since the beginning of photography. You look at photos in the archives at the Academy, and in many cases they’ve been retouched by something as simple as Liquid Paper and a brush. It’s always gone on, it will always go on. And it is by no means exclusively a female thing. The studios (and the agencies they farm out to) do a lousy job with their key art nowadays, so it’s not surprising that they go too far with the retouching and skintone adjustments. They have LOUSY retouchers working in-house and on standby, so this is what you get.
Thank you for this post! The photoshopping, the obsession with looking young, and the refusal to celebrate or at least appreciate that we all age is driving more and more actresses (and actors) to either inject Botox or surgically alter their faces. What is singular and human gets erased. In an effort to extend their careers, many performers are doing just the opposite. Their faces become unemotive — it’s an epidemic of frozen foreheads and smoothed out features that in the end makes these performers, sadly, unwatchable. And we are the lesser for it.
The pic of Babs does look pretty silly — but no different than the homogenized and bland Meryl Streep on the Hope Springs poster. I wonder, Nikki, if you’d blast Streep for having approval, or was this a way to take a shot at Streisand? Yawn.
Nikki,
Whilst you speak the truth — it’s a sad, sad reality about women in Hollywood, it’s awful, and what it teaches (or not teaches) little girls worldwide! — are you not guilty of the same sort of exploitation when it comes to box office?
Just like a botoxed face or a pair of lips pulsating with collagen, you reduce the simple and natural beauty of art (a film) to a spreadsheet. Numbers. Bottom-line. Movie sinks or swims on opening weekend — people lose their jobs; directors never work again — and you’re right there perpetuating that.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m complicit to. I love your blog. It’s all very dynamic and electric — exciting stuff.
Essentially, though, we’re all guilty of exploitation in one form or another. Hollywood ends up taking the blame as it’s a microcosm for American culture. Whether it’s a movie or a face, no one wants to die or fail in America. No one wants to admit that he or she is capable of death. That’s the problem. Death. Age. Wrinkles. Gray hair. Etc. It all happens, people. Eventually, we all die. We need to embrace that!
What about the growing age gap between leading men and women in movies? Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper?! Keira Knightley and Steve Carrell? Even comedians like Will Ferrell, Jim Carey, Adam Sandler, and Mike Meyers have cast the likes of Jessica Alba, Brooklyn Decker, and Zooey Deschanel as their love interests. Frankly, it makes them all seem like dirty old men.
What’s so “dirty” and/ or “old” about an older guy in his late 30′s or early 40′s being cast opposite a younger woman? Better yet, what’s so “dirty” and/ or “old” about an older guy in his late 30′s or early 40′s actually BEING with another woman? It goes both ways, Beth. I guess the popularity of “cougars” has gotten by you. You must be old.
if 32 is old, then yeah, I’m old. I’m not sure who you’re talking about when you say late 30s/early 40s. Bradley Cooper is approaching 38. Will Ferrell is 45, and the rest of the guys I mentioned are 50 or about to turn 50. They’ve all reached the level of fame where they have a huge say in who stars opposite them. And they’ve all cast early 20-somethings as their love interests. it’s never addressed in story-line, but if a guy in his 50s was dating a 20something woman in real life, the age difference would most likely be discussed. i’d much rather watch a movie where steve carell’s love interest is julianne moore and his daughter is played by emma stone. otherwise, the ick factor takes me out of the story.
Don’t hate the player, hate the game
Totally agree! If this is the point of the movie, fine, but it’s RIDICULOUS that the may-dec relationships are never addressed. These older actors think they look younger w the actresses but they don’t — Bradly Cooper looked so much older when he was in the same frame as Jennifer Lawrence who is SO young looking (naturally). And ewww — Steve Carell and Keira Knightly. Not only was the film unwatchable but their “love story” didn’t help. Eeck.
Jennifer Lawrence is playing older so I had no problem with it, but keep beating that dead horse. You obviously have an agenda to keep repeating the same thing.
Omg, if 32 is considered an old hag to you then I really hope you are a twelve year old. You certainly have the maturity level of one.
I’m 23, but yeah, 32 is pretttty old LOL. And lol @ my posts being deleted. I guess people can’t handle the truth around here.
We’re not bitter or jealous, just waiting for the day when we’ll have just as many 40-something women dating 20-something men reflected in films and television. It does go both ways you know. However in HOllywood there is an over abundance of pretty 20something girls all out here to become famous… when that doesn’t happen, they look for sugar daddies and will date the older men BUT ONLY IF THEY HAVE POWER OR MONEY!
People prefer to look at pretty people, news at 11.
No, people prefer to look at *interesting* people. It’s so refreshing to look at older American films, or contemporary European films, and see a wide range of faces, body types and ages, rather than the interchangeable Barbies and Kens of today’s Hollywood.
What both Chris and Mark mean when they say “people” is “I”
Pretty people are overrated. Give me a great actress in a well-written movie over pretty people trying to be regular people.
All the old casting directors and big wigs need to just die or retire already, along with the inevitable residual sexism that comes with living before the 80s, (let alone those alive before the 60s) so the next, much more liberal, much more feminist, much more diverse generation in Hollywood can do away with the prejudices of the old white men who pull the strings today
You talk about this being a more diverse generation and rail against prejudice yet you suggest old people die or retire?????
Spot on, Crystal!
Ageism in Hollywood isn’t just restricted to women–or people in front of the camera.
This is not the fault of men, but women. Women compete with each other. They are obsessed with no longer seeming desirable thus they go through these machinations to try and look younger.
The other thing is, when you write a good part for an older actress for TV, they look at you like you are clueless. How dare you expect someone of their stature to do television.
Well, you no longer star in movies, I would just assume the next logical step would be to star in a great TV series. We all get old and a new generation comes in to star. That’s life.
And Hollywood women CAN age publicly. Some of them choose not to. And since Hollywood is controlled by men and run by underlings who want so much to be in the Industry that they’ll do whatever it takes to remain in it, this is how it’s going to be.
This is not really ageism, in my opinion. Given the choice, we prefer to look at young, beautiful faces vs old and wrinkly ones. Father time spares no one, and eventually leaves us with withered, used up bodies. Hasn’t it always been this way?
It’s not as if I am choosing my accountant based on looks. That would qualify as ageism. This is escapist entertainment, however.
Also, why allow trashy articles like Pete Hammond’s on your website Nikki? You are an inspiration to women in entertainment everywhere and are in such a position of power in terms of media influence – why not set the bar?
I daresay the pervasive and noxious snark in this industry is part of the problem.
Looking pretty is one thing looking weird is another. When was the last time you saw a woman in media with just a little gray hair? At some point in life one has got to start looking ones age. We have all seen women in their 90′s look like something from space and ask our selfs; wow, how old is this old broad?
Women have always the worst. In every kind of business but especially in Hollywood. You can be the biggest female star in the world but once you over forty. The roles dry up so quickly. I absolutely hate it! There are tons of over forty actresses who are much better actresses than Knightley, Lawrence but yet they are cast as co-leads of Carrell, Cooper. I wish I could live in a world that actresses are treated the same as actors. Look at Nicholson, De Niro, Pacino. They’re still getting leading roles but Sarandon, Weaver, Spacer can play only supporting roles of mothers, grandmothers or aunts. This is absolutely disgusting! People go to the movies for actresses too! We do not care only about actors. I’d like to see one day a blockbuster movie with a female in a leading role. Not as a co-lead to male but as a sole leading character. Nikki, I’m glad you’re speaking the truth! Keep that up!
Streisand and Paltrow have actually had some work done. Hence they look younger than they are…seth rogen aint no beauty and was photoshopped in that billboard too
Gwyneth looks her age to me in that photo. But who is that in the bottom picture?