If you've ever turned on the TV and could not identify the mannequin-faced star chatting with Ellen or Oprah, you know how radically plastic surgery can change the appearance of a once-familiar face. Marlo Thomas, who played the bright-eyed Ann Marie in "That Girl," now looks like that other girl, her facial features so transformed her own mother might not recognize her.
Ditto for "Three's Company" star Suzanne Somers, who had a trendy new stem-cell plastic surgery procedure that made the alternative health maven look like she was trying out for a part in "Halloween III?"
"Suzanne's face looks very puffy and her lips look like sausages," Dr. Tony Youn, a plastic surgeon, told The National Enquirer.
Celebs Who Can't Say "No" to the Knife
Jane Fonda once swore off getting any more plastic surgery but changed her mind last year. The aerobics queen joked she was becoming a "bionic" woman with all of the replacement parts and surgeries she has had. "I just decided it was for me. I don't want to have bags under my eyes that make me look tired," said Fonda about her choice to go under the knife again. Yet the 73-year old Fonda defiantly kept some of her wrinkles intact. "I like my crow's feet and I like my little laugh lines. It was just the little jowls away, that's all."
One woman who makes no apologies for plastic surgery is Joan Rivers, the poster girl for surgically turning back the clock. "I just hosted the Miss USA Pageant and, let me tell you, beautiful gets you everywhere," she told Entertainment Weekly. "The New York Times had an article maybe six months ago: Babies respond to pretty faces. So stop telling everyone it's okay not to be pretty! If you can fix it, fix it! . . . . I love to look in the mirror and say, 'For 77, you look good.'"
Celebs Who Resist Plastic Surgery
Not all aging stars are tempted to nip and tuck. Despite the cringe factor of seeing her older self on TV, "Brothers & Sisters" matriarch Sally Field told Good Housekeeping, "I see myself on TV and I say, 'Oh, I wish that weren't happening to my neck. And your face is falling down, and your eyes are so puffy . . . . (But) I see some of the women (who have had plastic surgery) who I thought when they were younger were so beautiful. Now I think, 'Oh, dear, don't do that!' And it seems to be terribly disrespectful to who they are now."
Two-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep is also not a big fan of actresses surgically masking their age. "When I see it in the people I meet, it's like an interruption in communication with them," she told Vanity Fair. "It's like a flag in front of the view, and that, for an actor, is like wearing a veil; it's not a good thing."
What do you think? Does plastic surgery make older actresses look better or worse -- and does it impede their acting ability? Have you ever seen an actress on TV you didn't recognize after plastic surgery?
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