Diane Lane on Snoozing, Smiling, and Staying in Love

There are few women in this world that truly stop traffic even when no one is behind the wheel and a car isn't even involved.

Diane Lane is that woman.

She struts through the hallways of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills in a filmy white top and tight fitting Levis in such a way that even the busboys are getting whiplash.

Maybe it's the red hair, the curvy-toned body, or the husky voice. Or perhaps it's an attitude that at age 46 screams to the world: I'm not stressing— about anything.

Ask her for her best beauty tips and the woman who was unfaithful to Richard Gere to cavort nekkid in a bathroom stall with Olivier Martinez in "Unfaithful" just shakes her head.

"You want to know the best beauty tip on the planet?" asks Lane who stars this weekend in HBO's "Cinema Verite" where she plays the mom of TV's first reality family.

"Here it is," she says, leaning in conspiratorially over some sparkling water. "I just smile. A lot. I think anyone who smiles automatically looks better. Try it at home."

Well, that's a great tip, but it still doesn't explain why she could put 20-year-olds out of business and film every single blue jean commercial until the end of time.

"Oh that," Lane says with a whoop. "I prefer yoga and I loved it before it became the hot exercise.

 ''They say you are the age and the flexibility of your spine. If your spine is youthful and limber then you too shall be in other departments in your life. Flexibility is more important to me than strength or stamina. You have to be flexible in this life," she says.

SNOOZIN' ON A SUNDAY AFTERNOON

Lane has another beauty tip that's free to everyone.

"You can't replace beauty sleep. They call it that for a reason. You can't exhaust yourself and expect to look your best," Lane says. "I know that sound too easy, but it's true.

"You have to just turn off the world and go to sleep," she says.

As for plastic surgery, she says, "I love the fact that women have options. It's such an individual choice."

She has avoided any knives touching her famous mug.

"There are still days when I wake up and think, 'Did that line form last night?' Then the next day it seems to be gone."

Remind her that's the power of prayer and she releases one of those husky laughs.

FINDING REAL LOVE

Of course, being madly in love tends to make a woman smile.

Lane says she wasn't looking for love when her future husband Josh Brolin came along.

"I don't want to say I didn't care anymore about finding a man. I just wasn't looking," says Lane who was divorced from actor Christopher Lambert and happily raising her daughter Eleanor.

Her single weekends were predictable.

"During that decade, you could find me on a Saturday night at the local multiplex with my girlfriend and an extra large tub of popcorn," she says.

Brolin came along at the right time. Actually, they met many years ago when she was pregnant and married. It was definitely a case of love the second time around – literally

"I don't exactly believe in love at second sight, but I do believe in the mystery of life. I love that you don't know what the next day will bring.

"Hey, it's better than being a fish. They say for them it's all one long day," she jokes.

She says that time for home facials and complex beauty routines is limited in a house with two teenagers including Brolin's daughter from an earlier marriage.

"I went from being a single parent who was living in a bubble to a woman whose house is now full of people. It's a shared life. It's not even my house anymore. They all have rooms and I don't. I say, 'I'll just be in the kitchen.'

"But I love my new life and appreciate it. It's not quiet ever – and I love it," she says.

NOT STRESSING OVER MIDLIFE DATING

But let's rewind for a minute. Before life got hectic, Lane was dating again. At this age. She says that doesn't have to be mind boggling.

"Oddly enough, we had an e-mail relationship for some time. We met each other again and I never had anyone I communicated with via e-mail in a romantic situation. The first e-mail he sent me I knew he was a writer. That's his passion and he still sends wonderful love letters."

What is the secret of a successful relationship?

"You're asking me?" she whoops. "Hey, I want to read that book, too!"

WOMEN OVER 45 IN HOLLYWOOD

Lane has been working since she was a young girl with films including classics such as "The Cotton Club" and "The Outsiders." In fact, she was on the cover of Time Magazine as a teenager, which proclaimed her a star to watch. Her recent film "Secretariat" was a hit and recently was released on DVD.

"It is a amazing to me because I was allowed to work at 16 and they're still allowing me to work. It's an unusual, uncommon situation to be a woman in Hollywood who is over 45 and experiencing more success now than she did as a younger woman," she says.

"We do live in a youth market, but there are a lot of people who have grown up with me. I still have people who run up to me and say, 'A Little Romance.' I loved you in that movie. I'll say, 'I made that movie before they invented sound."

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