Felicity Huffman? Huh? I have no idea how much botox Ms Huffman has or not, but I do know that few years back Cindy Crawford finally broke down and admitted that the way to stay looking young is by using "a little help."

Ironically, this came right after a successful campaign of facial cosmetic line in which she swore up and down, showcasing different family members as prime examples, that *these* jars of cream will do what no others can.

Sure, we would like to stay young a bit longer, in which case we need to accept the use of botox and an occasional tuck job. But on the other hand, we are obsessed with wafer thin creatures, grazing us with their wrinkle-less faces. Even Huffman, as mysteriously endearing as she is, has infinitely long legs and bony, fat-free body, looking like a neighbour I never had.

I would like to remind you of few important facts: mediocre acting is not necessarily that hard to do - we witness numerous fantastic roles by people with no experience or training; and Kidman has been "frozen in time" for decades. I remember my reaction when I heard that she is playing the "uninfected human" in Invasion - how ironic, I thought, that this woman kept on ice is playing the *only human* when clearly, she is the opposite.

If you want the things to resemble normalcy of humanity, you will have to tune into more UK television. Sadly, it's in the arms of the British that I find the fat, and the wrinkly, and the positively identifiable neighbourly look and feel of real actors. And they do resemble real humans. Coronation Street anyone? Or Katherine Tate in Dr Who? No matter what you watch, you are bound to find a normal, average visage, rather than this "supreme youthful preserved being" we are all lately aspiring to.

What do I propose? As consumers, we too must unite against the atrocious, preposterous beauty industry. We must write, and whine and complain, stating our demands. If Concerned Mothers of America can, than so can you and I.

How about OMG, this young woman needs to find somthing better to do with her time? "It's for real." "It's a hoax!" "No, it's for real." "She told us she'd say that." "She's grappling with importsnt issues *like* *cloning*???!!!!"

No.

She's interested in creating a media storm. And she either hasn't thought, or doesn't care, about how her "performance art" might impact real women facing "thorny issues" in reality.

Whether or not to have cosmetic plastic surgery is an individual choice. If a woman, or a man for that matter, wants to look a certain way and is willing and able to afford the surgery, good for them. Personally, I think Nicole Kidman was so much lovelier back when she filmed Dead Calm with the delicious Sam Neill, before she started messing with her face. But that's just my personal opinion. Its her face - she can do what she wants with it.

However, for someone who claims to be an actor, any cosmetic plastic surgery - particularly the face-immobilizing type - would seem to me to be career suicide. An actor has to convey emotion, motivation and feeling to an audience, often without words, and struggling heroically to coax any movement at all out of one's flawless forehead doesn't qualify.

The difference between Ms. Mirren and Ms. Kidman? One's an actor, the other's a "star."

And was amazed by the fact that Audrey Hepburn LOOKS HER AGE (31) in it, even though she was playing a character that would have been 20 or 21 at most. There are a lot of close-ups of her face, and it's plain that she's got fine lines around her eyes and mouth.

She never got plastic surgery, and she still managed to look fantastic (and like herself) in her 60s when she was speaking for UNICEF.

"It is very sad that so many women feel the need to take this step, but it has effectively ruined the careers of Teri Hatcher, Demi Moore, etc.

"

Except that Teri Hatcher is currently employed on a highly rated television show and Demi Moore has a film in theters right now and is currently filming another movie scheduled for release next year. These women get work so I fail to see how they've ruined their careers.

I'm not against plastic surgery at all, I'm against bad plastic surgery and having too much of it. I'm never going to find sagging jowls or laugh lines attractive, so it would hypocritical of me to take these women to task for doing what they feel they need to do in order to keep working. A slowed up economy won't keep actresses from having plastic surgery, if anything the competition for jobs might make them have more.

With the advent of HD more and more of this kind of thing is going to happen. The problem of course is that HD shows off the plastic face even more! A lot of female actors hate HD I think.

I am not a fan of Nicole Kidman's acting. It lacks embodiment or warmth or whatever that rare human emotional complexity is which great actors call upon and radiate. In Kidman's case the lights are on but is anyone home?

Of course it is alright to critique an actor's ability (or lack thereof) to use facial expressions to capture the essence of a role. Bad acting comes in many forms and in certain instances it is the good looking who give ugly performances.

I think it is important to undermine the increased pressure for women to attain and maintain impossible standards of beauty. Interestingly, our anxiety regarding imperfection and aging seems to be insidiously linked with the introduction of new procedures and products designed to rid us of flaws and counteract atrophy.

I don't think we need to blame and name individual women for failing to resist the need to resort to knife or syringe, because all this does is project our own anxieties and insecurities about appearance onto an external source. What we do need to do is find reasons for resisting the desire to look better or younger. Of course I'm not suggesting we pretend to rejoice in wrinkles and double chins if this is not what we believe in, because I would personally rather look pretty and numb than creased and old.

My last comment highlites the fork in the road which feminism has reached now that many of the original issues women's groups raised have been at least superfically dealt with and resolved. We are in an age of heightened and rampart individualism and women seem to be disillusioned with the idea of identifying themselves with a general feminist movement. Alternatively, they are more concerned about their own needs, rights and goals. This means that in order to move forward it is important to be honest and open about our personal agenda and identity, for better or for critically worse, when introducing ourselves to the discourse of female subjectivity.

Women shouldn't turn on each other and feel superior just because they are letting themselves age disgracefully and resisting the lure of invasive beautification. This is an illusory sense of righteousness anyway, because all of us in some way or another subscribe to notions of feminity which are restrictive. We need to go into and beyond ourselves, and explore the larger processes and institutions which penetrate the surface of our bodies and intinsically link appearance, idenity and self-worth. Such an analysis is not helped if we fail to take on board the complexity of the interaction between internal and external reality. As individual women we both reflect, react to, and create the bigger picture/mirror.