Lara Flynn Boyle at the 2003 Golden Globes (top) and yesterday (bottom). I could have just posted a picture of the big "HOLLYWOOD" sign because it would have gotten the same idea across. What goes up must come down; time to pay the piper; etc.
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That's so funny because yesterday I almost posted this but feared you guys would say I was too mean. I mean, Jesus, what the hell happened to her? Too much Botox?
I suspect booze.
Booze + anorexia + plastic surgery...
I didn't realize she was still relevant as late as 2003... ah, I see. The Practice.
I don't understand what you're trying to say with this post other than the fact that people age. "Time to pay the piper"?!? What did you expect? Why are you making such hateful comments towards someone just because they are getting older?
I'm offended mostly because I witness a lot of public acceptance of age-shaming towards women; since aging is something that comes naturally and happens differently for everyone, why not embrace it rather than make thoughtless comments of something that was inevitable?
I read an interesting article the other day about how men (and women, too) are conditioned to hate women because of looks, entitlement, body image, etc. I'll stop there before I embark on a full-on rant.
Crystal, with respect, you misunderstand me entirely.
What I'm getting at with my "pay the piper" remarks is the clear observation that this young woman went to tremendous trouble to physically look a certain way when she was in her late 20s and early 30s, transforming herself (via surgery and an eating disorder) from a fresh-faced vital actor (on Twin Peaks into the razor-sharp image of perfection that you see in the top photo. At that time she was known for being vain and shallow and difficult, and totally absorbed in her own fame and notoriety, dating Nicholson etc. Then her star faded and all her facial work collapsed and the result is today's still-young woman who (like the picture of Dorian Gray) is like a shattered remnant of her former self. If she'd had the self-possession and the wherewithal to avoid the bulimia and botox and collogen etc. (and whatever else she got into subsequently) she'd be healty and fine, but instead she looks ravaged and miserable. That's not the face of natural aging; it's the face of a victim of the Hollywood system who leveraged her health and peace of mind into carving herself into an unsustainable image of perfection and is now paying it back plus interest. She's younger not just than Susan Sarandon and Sophia Loren; she's younger than Kate Winslet and Uma Thurman and so many other young female actresses who didn't do such violence to themselves and as a result are still healthy (and still working) rather than having tied their entire identity to a fleeting, artificial skin-deep image of youth and beauty.
Jordan, I understand your reasons since you've laid them out (I didn't know that much about her) but I don't think I misunderstood you because of the hurtfulness of your comments. I hope you can see my point of view that I feel like you're the one who is misunderstanding.
I'm coming from a place where I would just really hate to be that chick who thought that I had to throw up what I ate and cave in to people's pressure to get surgery done in order to achieve a certain look that is, quite literally, unattainable -- but what popular culture convinced me would be the key to prolonging my own fame and physical beauty.
I can understand that you feel sorry for her but your comments came with a terrible sting. And you pulled a classic Paparazzi trick of the "after" photo coming from a casual, makeup-less, smile-less (and therefore unflattering) day.
Crystal, fair enough. You're right; there's an underlying insensitivity to what I'm saying. It's obviously still vastly more difficult for Hollywood women to deal with all of this than for men (as it is everywhere else in our culture). I was thinking of Lara Flynn Boyle as being akin to Lindsay Lohan, but the comparison is superficial; Lohan is a far better example of a petty personality leading to self-destruction in precisely the one area that's most important to that petty person.
I believe that I'm more sensitive to what you're saying than comes across in this post, but I acknowledge that the burden of proof's on me.
I admit that I'm also somewhat conflicted, because on the one hand (for example) I just watched The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and I had no idea that Rooney Mara (who was mind-blowingly brilliant and got her Oscar stolen by Meryl Streep, in my opinion), a woman young enough to play a Harvard undergrad two years ago in The Social Network was going to spend so much of the movie nude and was also going to (mild spoiler warning) not just get sexually involved with Daniel Craig, who's my age, but was going to instigate the relationship. (To be fair, Craig gets pretty naked himself, and did what's probably the only James Bond nude scene in Casino Royale). I was like, "That's Hollywood; the man in his forties and the woman in her twenties." But on the other hand, I have to admit that there's a part of me (the "man in his forties" part of me) that didn't entirely mind the social/cinematic acceptability of this (and actually enjoyed watching it for that reason).
(The reason I'm coming clean about that last part is because I made a vow years ago that I would never have a discussion about gender roles and identity politics in which I lied about what appealed to me. So, yes, I objected to what I was seeing, but I am forced by that "vow" not to pretend I didn't enjoy it too.)
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