first-world problems

 

a Capsule about Elizabeth Taylor:

She was a movie actress.  Born in the United Kingdom, she lived from 1932 to 2011.

She starred in many Hollywood movies, including

National Velvet    (1944)

Little Women    (1949)

Father of the Bride    (1950)

A Place in the Sun    (1951)

The Last Time I Saw Paris    (1954)

Giant    (1956)

Raintree County    (1957)

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof    (1958)

Butterfield 8    (1960)

Cleopatra    (1963)

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?    (1966)

The Taming of the Shrew    (1967)

The Comedians    (1967)

A Little Night Music    (1977)

--------------------------------------------- When I was a child, Elizabeth Taylor was often in the news -- like today's celebrities are, now -- and not so much for her movies, but a lot for her personal life:  when she turned 40, who she was married to, who she was getting divorced from.  

She was married eight times, to seven different men -- during her first marriage to Welsh actor Richard Burton, 1964 - 1974, it would make news when Mr. Burton bought her a gift of jewelry.  

        I remember my dad saying once, each time Richard Burton buys expensive jewelry for Elizabeth Taylor, they donate the same amount of money to a charitable cause.

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Yesterday's post-title,

"these have always brought me luck"

was from a commercial for White Diamonds, a perfume with Elizabeth Taylor's name on it.

Wikipedia / excerpt:

White Diamonds is a perfume created in 1991 by actress Elizabeth Taylor.  The perfume, advertised with a cinematic TV commercial starring Taylor, was an enormous and enduring commercial success, with total sales of $1.5 billion as of 2018.  

Though not the first celebrity fragrance, the unprecedented success of White Diamonds popularized the trend of celebrity-branded perfumes which accelerated in the following decades. ------------------------- [end / Wikipedia excerpt]

        I started thinking about "White Diamonds" because I was writing about beauty products with famous people's names on them.

        Make-up and skin-care "lines" that are supposedly "developed by" actresses or singers, I'm pretty skeptical of, but fragrance is a different thing -- to me, anyway.  Because the factors that matter for perfume are:

Do I like the aroma of it?

Is it comfortable on my skin (no itching or irritation) - ?

Is it within my budget?

A fragrance is not tasked with as much as we need from skin-care.

        Yesterday I was speculating that a "celebrity" probably uses a face-cream that costs $180... maybe I'm wrong, but it's my belief that no product of that type is really worth that much -- it's an option for ladies who have some money they need to get rid of.  

Psychological:  you pay that much and you feel like you've bought for yourself the best there is.  (And there are face creams that cost much more, even, than $180 -- I just tossed that number out...same principle, anyway.)

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The whole psychology behind getting plastic surgery must have many convoluted twists and turns.  Someone on the Internet showed three photographs of a singer / actress:

First photo on the left showed her original nose at the start of her career

The second photo in the middle showed her after she had a "nose job"

and

The third photo at the right, showed her after another (!) nose job.

I was just flabbergasted that someone (who was beautiful in the first place) would have this operation -- twice.  It's horrifying, to me.

        Especially since the third picture was inferior to both the others.  She had too much done -- the end of her nose is too "pointy," now.  It's as if they get in a mind-set of "The smaller my nose is, the better."  And that is not true.  People are supposed to have a nose.

        Remember Michael Jackson's transformation over the years?  No--no--no.  Some of these people lose perspective.

The actress / singer in the Three-Photo display:  if she had asked my advice, I would have said, leave your nose, and the rest of your face, alone.  You can create different looks with make-up and lighting.  And the most important thing is your talent and charisma, for which you do not need any surgery.  (Ughh.)

Best:  the picture on the left.

Second best:  the middle picture.

Worst:  the third picture.

If someone has the belief that a narrower nose is better, then the middle picture could be named the "prettiest" one.  But that standard of beauty depends upon discounting and devaluing an individual look, and using surgery to "erase" uniqueness, individuality, and ethnicity.

        My standard of beauty is not erasing stuff and creating someone who looks like a lot of other pretty people.  That isn't beauty, it's conformity.  I guess my standard is -- Does the person look good?

(Maybe I'm too simplistic -- lol.)

(me as Hollywood casting director) -- "Yeah, they are all beautiful and talented, hire 'em all."

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