My personal favorite for growing old gracefully, Sophia Loren. I was in love with her when I was 12!
Posted on 09/28/2007 11:07:15 AM PDT by traumer
n her heyday she was an international sex symbol who starred in a series of hit films including The Girl in the Bikini.
Nowadays, however, Brigitte Bardot has an altogether more sombre public image.
The former actress and model, who turns 73 tomorrow, was wearing a dark business suit while in her home city of Paris to visit French president Nicolas Sarkozy today.
The star was happy to relinquish her status as sex bomb in 1974 and focus on issues closer to her heart Enlarge the image
Rather than strutting provocatively as she did during a hugely successful screen career, she was on crutches because of a nagging hip complaint.
Gone was the trademark pout and cascading blonde locks, to be replaced by sagging jowls covered in heavy make-up and a wiry, unkempt patch of greying hair.
Miss Bardot still lives close to St Tropez, the beach resort in the South of France where she first shot to fame in 1956 with And God Created Woman, and has often blamed excessive exposure to the sun for her poor skin.
Her torrid private life - including numerous failed marriages and affairs - have also been blamed for her frayed appearance as a pensioner.
"She certainly doesn't look like the Brigitte we all remember from the films," said another visitor to the Elysee Palace, where animal rights campaigner Miss Bardot discussed the plight of Canadian seals with Mr Sarkozy.
"One wouldn't say she's aged well," the source added.
Miss Bardot has also repeatedly shunned plastic surgery, making it clear that her days as an international beauty ended when she made her last film in 1974.
Today she said that all she was concerned about was animals threatened with cruelty around the world. "I've had my best birthday present when I turn 73, and that's the news that France is going to definitely refuse all imports of products derived from seals, as France refuses to be compliant in the annual massacre of seals in Canada," she said.
An embargo on such products was announced by the French government in April.
After becoming a star following "And God Created Women", made by her then husband Roger Vadim, Miss Bardot became known as a French cinematic sex kitten who could rival Marilyn Monroe.
She was also an acclaimed model and recorded pop songs with the singer Serge Gainsbourg.
After divorcing Vadim, Bardot was married three more times, as well as having numerous affairs.
In 1986, she set up the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals, launching legal challenges against governments and other institutions to acknowledge the rights of animals. She later ignited controversy with her marriage to a political activist from the far-Right Front National party.
My personal favorite for growing old gracefully, Sophia Loren. I was in love with her when I was 12!
No, actually I'm a mother who is about Bo's age, and I very much admire her for her horsemanship, political views, and capacity for holding onto her looks without descending into self-parody. She is charming. I hope I can hang onto my looks as well (on a percent basis, of course!)
Good for you. I have always admired BO. It is saying something to be good looking and also smart. She has always been a class act.
Either way, you can’t lose.
“she was blowed up”
Blowed real good!
They didn’t have cameras then.
73 year old Brigitte?
sorry but would not “hit” it
for an older babe bring on Susan Lucci, I’d hit that twice
You’re correct; however, I can still see the sparkle in her eyes. That remnant of our youth still shines through those wrinkles and crevasses.
You bet it does. I have an uncle in his eighties, he is just beginning to become frail-elderly but his spirit is irrepressible.
Maybe a crude sketching of Helen was carved into a rock or something.
A Helenosaurus.
The comments on this thread show why it is more important for a woman to be pretty than to be smart. It’s because most men can see better than they can think.
Looks like me in the morning!
Actually I don’t think that is true. My comment was one of fear of time because it really sneaks up on us and gives us a good kick. Also most of us have only seen Bridget as a young beauty and then years pass and we get a picture of her in her 70’s. It is a natural reaction.
LOL!! Me too, ‘cept that my eyes are usually a bit puffier, probably ‘cause I only get 3 1/2 - 4 hours sleep a night. My hair usually isn’t quite that bad, though. ;o)
Time for a burlap bag!
Thanks for a great start to my weekend...NOT. /sarc
...The Addams Fam-mil-ly...snap snap
Is she famous for the publication of her discoveries in Quantum Mechanics? She's famous because she was beautiful.
Do you really believe that I think she should convert to Islam just so she could wear a burkha? That wouldn't even make sense if taken seriously since wearing one isn't a requirement of Islam.
The article puts no small emphasis on the shocking difference between the beauty for which she's known, and her current appearance. Joking about it doesn't mean that men don't care about intelligent women, or appreciate anything else the aged model has done.
Lighten up, Francis.
Bardot made her living by her looks. She didn't require intelligence to glow or to captivate. What is the important tidbit that you suppose I have missed in any of Bardot's pronouncements after her acting retirement? People who earn a living based on how they look have to understand their chosen ammunition (physical appearance) will run out , and people will notice.
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