Plastic Surgery: Face Fiction?

A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction." Ouch. But then, Oscar Wilde's quotes often carry a triple whammy: one part truth, one part judgment, one part sting. (Personally I like George Bernard Shaw's quote better, #8).

A friend's Facebook update this morning alerted me to Dyan Cannon promoting her new book, Dear Cary, on Access Hollywood. "She's taken plastic surgery to a whole new level," she wrote. "Sad."

And what ensued was a lively discussion on judgement, doing what you want to do, self-esteem and aging gracefully.

The 72-year old actress made an Academy–award nominated splash in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice in 1969 and one of my personal favorites, Heaven Can Wait. She was also married to Cary Grant, which is the focus of her new book, so she's hitting the talk show circuit and related media. But her new face has been getting almost as much focus.

Her plastic surgery was evident in the last decade when she regularly appeared as a judge on Ally McBeal. So this recent 'incarnation' if you will suggests something my friend Lizzie* insists on—that women who started earlier (plastic surgery) suffer because the techniques (stretching the skin)  make you look freaky, especially if you keep doing it over and over.

I suppose she's right, but, depending on your age, timing is a factor. Yes, we're luckier in the newer techniques available, but the next generation will probably say the same thing.

I guess here the accusation is not one of bad timing, it's that Dyan Cannon has a lack of self-esteem. She may. (She also looks dangerously anorexic.)

The same accusation has been leveled at Joan Rivers, whose plastic surgery has been deemed freakish by many, including comments on this site. But Joan Rivers also said, in the unexpectedly poignant documentary Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, that she would rather look the way she looks now than what she might look like had she aged 'naturally.'

Lizzie adds adamantly: "aging gracefully does not just mean aging naturally" ..."people who condemn having work done are in secure relationships or jobs where it doesn't matter how you look, or they don't have jobs at all," she wrote me.

And that having work done to reflect how you want to look based on how you feel (as GBS said) is not a fiction.

Frankly, it's a slippery slope no matter where you stand.

People like Dyan Cannon and Joan Rivers — Kenny Rogers and Mickey Roarke were also mentioned –- probably didn't mean to go "too far", although it's not for me to say.

But if it wasn't a choice per se to end up looking the way they look, it is sad. Or is that judgmental? What do you think?

Related stories:
Bringing Up Cary's Baby — Our exclusive interview with Jennifer Grant, duaghter of Cary Grant and Dyan Cannon.
Jane Fonda Is a Virgin  – Jane talks candidly about plastic surgery in her new book; one commenter said she was starting to look like Mary Tyler Moore.
Facelifts Over Vitamins for Longevity?
The Beauty of Older Women
How to Avoid Pillow-Face
More Men Going Under the Knife

*not quite her real name.