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There's this New York interview with 35 year-old supermodel Kate Moss that went up yesterday. The idea is to plug a Kate Moss for Topshop collection of urgent-style apparel. But I'd be remiss if I didn't allude to the slideshow that's attached to the article. It's funny how people can look younger than their years for a long period, and then out of the blue they look somewhat older. No crime in this, but Moss could be 40 or 41 now. That's the lifestyle catching up, of course.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on February 16, 2009 at 12:50 PM

comment #1

Carl LaFong says ...

Ages ago, my brothers and I came up with a name for this, calling it "Richard Widmark's Disease".

RWD is the sudden aging of a youthful or vital looking performer, first noticed between the four year gap between The Long Ships and Madigan when Widmark visibly transformed from a trim and athletic leading man into weathered/beaten older man, appearing easily 20 years older.

It goes far beyond hair color or a few wrinkles, but an ungraceful transition that is jarring and disquieting.

Some RWD victims are understandable; Montgomery Clift having suffered a disfiguring accident & substance abuse comes to mind. Others are more baffling like Richard Dreyfuss, Anne Bancroft, Spencer Tracy, Roddy McDowell, Kathleen Turner, Claude Rains, Lauren Bacall, etc. Of course, there are special case people like Wilford Brimley and character actor Ian Wolfe who perpetually looked significantly older than they actually were.

I'm not sayin' that Kate Moss suffers from RWD, but she does look more mature, and in a good way, dropping that unhealthy "heroine-chic" appearance from the decade past...

Posted by Carl LaFong at February 16, 2009 1:32 PM

comment #2

Calraigh Bracken says ...

She's not waif-skinny anymore and this shoot is completely, refreshingly, un-photoshopped. At least with her acquiescence, at most at her request. And she looks great. And 36, if anything.

Posted by Calraigh Bracken at February 16, 2009 1:37 PM

comment #3

Rich S. says ...

I would point out that the spread is mildly NSFW, for those scoring at home.

In some shots, she looks vaguely reminiscent of Kim Basinger. I don't know why. Maybe it's the hair.

Posted by Rich S. at February 16, 2009 1:50 PM

comment #4

Sabina E says ...

That's what smoking, drinking, and partying will do to your face, folks.

Can't stand Kate Moss-- never understood the hoopla and hype over her. Just another overrated "pretty" face, a model, who has no personality.

I prefer actors and actresses over models.. that's just me of course.

Posted by Sabina E at February 16, 2009 1:53 PM

comment #5

Sabina E says ...

looking at those photos, I have to say she looks way better being natural than her overrated "heroin chic" look in fashion ads.

Posted by Sabina E at February 16, 2009 1:55 PM

comment #6

Deathtongue_Groupie says ...

I think you meant to type "former supermodel" because she looks very girl next door average good looking in those pictures. In fact, I know several mid 40 year old women who are friends of the Mrs. who look far better.

Another reminder that sometimes life can be fair and balanced - she had it, now it's gone. Enjoy it while you can.

Posted by Deathtongue_Groupie at February 16, 2009 1:57 PM

comment #7

frankbooth says ...

Richard Jordan. Matthew Broderick. Ron Howard. John Cusak. From 25 to 45, overnight.

Posted by frankbooth at February 16, 2009 2:08 PM

comment #8

LexG says ...

KATE MOSS OWNS. SO hot, want to do her.

As for the accelerated age thing, NOBODY can touch ETHAN EMBRY. Wasn't he like an EIGHT YEAR OLD KID in 1991's DUTCH, then a teen in EMPIRE RECORDS?

So, like, why does he look 41 YEARS OLD now?

Posted by LexG at February 16, 2009 2:23 PM

comment #9

Carl LaFong says ...

Good ones, Frank. What the hell happened to Cusak?!?!

Let's throw in some more RWD victims (seemingly aged at the flip of a lightswitch): Michael Douglas, Orson Welles, Jackie Chan, Peter O'Toole, Nick Nolte, Mary Tyler Moore, Harrison Ford, Roger Moore, Jeff Fahey, Alec Baldwin, Michael Biehn, Dan Aykroyd, etc.

Sometimes it happens to a fairly young person, like Cusak or Welles, other times to an older person who has maintained a youthful appearance/image and just snapped over a brief period like Widmark or Sean Connery.

Posted by Carl LaFong at February 16, 2009 3:20 PM

comment #10

Rich S. says ...

This is kind of an old one, but Angie Dickinson. One day she's Danny Ocean's hot ex and the next she's Police Woman.

Posted by Rich S. at February 16, 2009 3:25 PM

comment #11

Ryansi51 says ...

God almighty has anyone seen NIKKI COX lately? She used to be such a piece and all of a sudden she looks like... like... like

http://www.wwtdd.com/photo.phtml?post_key=17081&photo_key=59291

Posted by Ryansi51 at February 16, 2009 3:33 PM

comment #12

Sabina E says ...

yeah, she has thsoe awful fish lips.

Plastic surgery, about 97% is NEVER a good idea. Very, very few people can get away with it.

Posted by Sabina E at February 16, 2009 3:50 PM

comment #13

frankbooth says ...

Shit, now I'm afraid it's gonna happen to me. It still freaks me out when I see people my age and they're, like, OLD.

I agree with Lex about one thing -- people shouldn't oughta have kids. Because if somebody my age has a kid who's, say, 22...well, it just doesn't compute.

Dirty bastards, shoving reality in my face.

Posted by frankbooth at February 16, 2009 3:59 PM

comment #14

nemo says ...

One of the things that happened to Richard Widmark was his early 50s. He was 50 when he made The Long Ships and 54 when he made Madigan.

For those of you who haven't reached your 50s yet, it is not a pleasant time. When I reached 50, I still looked about 35. When I reached 55, I looked about 55.

In the intervening 5 years, my last 2 grandparents died, my father died, my brother died, my mother had a stroke, my wife developed cancer (she seems to have recovered), my dog developed a disabling autoimmune disease (he walks in a dog wheelchair now), the job pressure turned upwards a few notches and stayed there permanently, George Bush was president the whole time, and the stock market and the economy crashed (though fortunately I was prescient and lucky enough to move to a mostly cash position before the really big hit).

I guess I should feel fortunate to look 55 at age 55 instead of looking 75.

Posted by nemo at February 16, 2009 4:43 PM

comment #15

Edward says ...

Lauren Bacall never suffered from RWD. She still looks amazing for someone her age.

Posted by Edward at February 16, 2009 5:16 PM

comment #16

Sabina E says ...

I'm 26,but strangers ALWAYS think I am 16.... I still get asked for my I.D if I buy cigarettes or alcohol. grrrr

Posted by Sabina E at February 16, 2009 5:27 PM

comment #17

Carl LaFong says ...

Edward, I'm not denying that Bacall isn't amazing looking for her age (BTW, mark me down for Charlotte Rampling and Jacqueline Bisset in the "still smokin'" over 60s column), but somewhere between Dark Passage (when she was pure hot-sex on two legs) and How to Marry a Millionaire something happened to Betty and she physically changed alot. I don't know if it was smoking or (as nemo noted) the stress of Bogey's declining health, but she was only in her late 20s. Luckily, after that initial RWD jump in the early 1950s, she stayed remarkably unchanged for quite some time and remains a grand dame even now...

Posted by Carl LaFong at February 16, 2009 5:50 PM

comment #18

frankbooth says ...

Shut up, Nemo.

Posted by frankbooth at February 16, 2009 5:56 PM

comment #19

nemo says ...

Middle age, frankbooth. It's a-coming for you.

It still beats the alternative.

Posted by nemo at February 16, 2009 6:03 PM

comment #20

frankbooth says ...

How do you know?

Posted by frankbooth at February 16, 2009 7:35 PM

comment #21

nemo says ...

No one knows. The alternative is that undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns.

(That passage got me looking in the dictionary when I realized I was not sure what bourn means or how it's spelled. It turns out the modern spelling is "bourne" as in Jason, but Shakespeare spelled it "bourn". Whichever spelling, it means boundary or limit, but it can also mean goal or destination.)

Posted by nemo at February 16, 2009 8:00 PM

comment #22

D.Z. says ...

Surprised Moss doesn't have trademarked vomit bags and crack pipes...

Posted by D.Z. at February 16, 2009 8:26 PM

comment #23

frankbooth says ...

It's true that most of us would rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of. (Though I'm not sure what queasy ursines have to do with anything.)

Posted by frankbooth at February 16, 2009 9:01 PM

comment #24

Valentinus says ...

Richard Jordan. Matthew Broderick levitra online. Ron Howard. John Cusak. From buy levitra 25 to 45, overnight.

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