Virginia Madsen on the Ultimate Beauty Secret

Yes, Virginia there is a beauty secret you must share.

 "Oh, you're going to really hate me for this, but ….," begins gorgeous star Virginia Madsen.

"My motto is taking care of myself," she says. "I use a conservative amount of Botox. But I don't care if you have a gallon of Botox, you have to listen to this secret because everyone can do it."

I'm leaning forward. My ears are peeled. I grip the side of my leather office chair.

"Get yourself to the gym. Right now. No more excuses," says the 47-year-old star of the recent "Red Riding Hood" and "The Event."

"The gym is your best friend," she says.

REALLY …DO I HAVE TO? VIRGINIA SAYS I DO

Virginia laughs and says, "You have to get to the gym and deal with yourself. Sure, I get bored going just like everyone else, but physical activity — the kind that makes you sweat — is really the key to feeling and looking better."

Madsen says she mixes up just regular gym activities like cardio with a few extras.

"I'll go on a hike with friends or just with my music," she says. "I have the kind of job where it's required that I stay in shape.

"But this is about so much more than just looking in the mirror," she says. "It's about really looking at your life.

"It's not about what size you are," she says. "It's about what 60 or 70 year old you will be some day. Activity is your real life insurance policy. I know I want to be that 70 year old who springs up in the morning and feels 50.

"I want to feel younger as long as possible," she says.

SAGE ADVICE

Madsen has always been one of my favorites. A native of Chicago (like me), we've talked countless times over the years and she always has some sage advice or gives me an ah-ha moment.

I love that she was never one of those so-called Hollywood lollipops where she had the big head and a body that was an anorexic bag of bones.

"For me, it was never about size. I workout for strength," she says. "I think the whole weight thing comes down to this. Find your natural body weight. What feels good to you? What gives you the most energy?"

""I think it's sexier and more sensual when you have a little meat on your bones as a woman," she says. "Someone who looks like they could break in half – forget it. I don't know one man who finds that attractive."

OH, THOSE PAST BEAUTY ISSUES

 "I got called names in high school in Chicago because I had big boobs," says the Oscar nominee for one of my favorite movies, "Sideways." "Even at that age I knew that it wasn't about how I looked but how I felt."

"As for getting older, I feel like in your 40s as a woman you arrive. In your 50s, you fly. And when it comes to 60, I look at someone like Helen Mirren and want to be just like her," Madsen says.

"Did you see that picture of her in a bathing suit? She has got the manly man and the career. And she takes good care of her body, mind and spirit. That's my kind of woman."

AND THE REST OF IT

Madsen lives quietly with her son Jack whose father is Antonio Sabato Jr. She marvels that her little boy has reached his teens.

She says that worrying about him is her only life stress.

 "The only thing I get really scared about is something happening to my son," she says. "I love that with age the rest of it can melt away.

"Everything else I used to be scared of seems so small now. For instance, if we had a little earthquake in California, I would think it was the big quake all over again. I would get so scared when I was growing up in Chicago of those bad summer thunderstorms. It would seem like my whole house was going to crash in with each lightening bolt.

"But now all that seems silly and it's all about my son. Kids makes you strong, but they also make you more vulnerable," she says.

Ummmm…how is the hottie mom dealing with her son dating?

She laughs.

"The good news is teenage relationships usually only last a week. I only get to meet them once or twice," she says.

"But I'm already excited about being a grandmother someday. My son is like, 'Mom, I'm just a kid! Leave me alone. You're not going to be a grandmother for a long, long time.'" 

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