In the upcoming issue of More magazine, actress Jamie Lee Curtis admits that she battled a prescription drug addiction nearly fifteen years ago. She says it started after she had some cosmetic surgery on her eyes and was given a prescription pain killer. Pretty soon she was taking the pills to get high and drinking heavily and combat the loneliness she felt.

The glamorous actress, who became Lady Haden-Guest when her husband inherited his title in 1996, initially hid her dependency from her family. ‘No one knew. Chris didn’t have a clue,’ she says.

The star, whose father was infamous for drug-taking, recalls how her sister Kelly was staying at her mansion while recovering from a broken bone and Jamie Lee began pilfering her pills. Finally, she wrote Kelly a heart-breaking letter which she never sent.
Still stunning: Jamie-Lee Curtis at the Academy 2004

Still stunning: Jamie Lee Curtis arriving at the Oscars in 2004

It said: ‘I’ve been harbouring a bad secret. I have found and taken many of your painkillers. I’ve betrayed you, and I know that you’re angry, and you have every right to be. I am lonely. I take them at night to ease the pain. I was so afraid to tell you.’

[From the Daily Mail]

According to Jamie Lee part of the problem was her low self-esteem that caused her to get plastic surgery in the first place. A camera man had told her she was getting bags under her eyes. And in Hollywood, that’s a big deal. She also claims she drank because she felt ugly to her husband and the world in general.

She has said: ‘I attempted various types of plastic surgery, minutely but enough to stave off this encroaching middle-aged body. And every time I did, something went wrong. I felt misshapen, just not natural any more. I think it was a big stimulator of my drug abuse.’

In the new interview, which apppears in More, a leading US women’s magazine, Jamie Lee says that as part of her recovery she decided to let her hair go grey and stopped wearing high heels. But she admits she has found it difficult striking the right balance.

For a time she ‘got so caught up in not caring about body image’ that she was becoming unfit. ‘So I made a change and lost some weight,’ she says.

[From the Daily Mail]

Larry King’s wife Shawn Southwick King is currently in rehab for a prescription painkiller addiction. Everyone has their own way of dealing with self-esteem issues and feeling unattractive. Certainly drugs and alcohol aren’t uncommon, along with over and under eating. It sounds like Jamie Lee has finally found a balance that works for her – something that can take a lifetime. She also remembers what she’s gone through, and says that she keeps the letter she wrote to her sister as a constant reminder.

Here’s Jamie Lee Curtis being honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on June 11th. Images thanks to WENN.

Plastic surgery is, for most Hollywood actresses, a career requirement as they age. So it’s interesting to hear a few opinions on the whole idea.

Jamie Lee Curtis

The 49-year-old actress has revealed she underwent surgery on her lower eyes when she was 35 after a cameraman told her she was too “puffy” for him to shoot, and she has had work done since.

But now Curtis is urging all women to grow old gracefully because it’s rare that people really do feel better about themselves after they go under the knife.

She tells Oprah Winfrey, “I did it all but, you know what, it didn’t work. The fraud is it doesn’t work; it doesn’t work because there are complications, and I got them all.

“It doesn’t work because you still look in the mirror and you see the fraud of what you were trying to do.”

San Francisco Chronicle

Sally Field

The Places In The Heart star admits her ego has started to get the better of her - and she’s not happy about looking older.

She tells Ladies Home Journal magazine, “I think about it all the time because I see friends who’ve done it and they look great and younger. I have an ego but it’s an actor’s ego more than a woman’s ego. It’s about roles.”

Contact Music

Madonna

As her 50th birthday approaches in August, Madonna says she doesn’t plan to be defined by her age.

“I’m not going to slow down, get off this ride, stay home and get fat. No way!”

She won’t talk about any surgery she may have had, saying “I’m not against plastic surgery, I’m just against discussing it.”

Fox News

Jamie Lee has an interesting opinion on this, in that she says it doesn’t work, because you know it’s a fraud. However, getting your hair colored, a facial, wearing make up and doing your nails are all a fraud too. Except, these things do tend to make women feel good.

How much of that ego boost is from the pampering aspect of a haircut (oh, two hours without my screaming kids!) and how much of it is from your improved appearance I’m not sure. You wouldn’t get the pampering effect from surgery – you’d just get a painful recovery period.

What is the definition of cosmetic surgery? Is botox surgery? Is dermabrasion? Is a facial? Does it count if you only use a local anesthetic?

I think if you are looking to improve your appearance, surgically or otherwise, you need to be realistic. A nose job will not change your life. Changing your appearance won’t make you a better person. It just makes you look better, after the swelling goes down.

And be careful, or you might wind up looking like the infamous Cat Lady, Jocelyn Wildenstein.

In case you were wondering, Sally Field is 61, Madonna and Jamie Lee are about to turn 50. I think all of them look great.

Jamie Lee Curtis is shown on 1/11/07, thanks to WENN. Sally Field is shown on 9/16/07 at the Primetime Emmy Awards and Maddona is shown on 2/6/08 at her Raising Kabbalah benefit with her daughter Lourdes on 2/6/08, thanks to PRPhotos.

Actress/author Jamie Lee Curtis, who turns 50 this year, is one of the few Hollywood stars who isn’t chock foll o’ Botox and silicone- and now she’s going public with how she feels about aging and beauty. Curtis appears on this month’s cover of AARP magazine topless, with little makeup and zero airbrushing. You know, like normal people.

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis has once again decided to bare her soul – and body – to convince women that they will be their most beautiful if they take care of their bodies and age naturally.

The star, whose curves turned heads in such early films as Trading Places and Perfect, will help celebrate her 50th birthday in November by posing gray-haired and topless on the cover of the May-June issue of “AARP The Magazine“, available March 24.

She made a similar splash in More Magazine in 2002 when she appeared makeup-free and unretouched in a sports bra and briefs, drawing attention at the time to her “fatty little tummy” and other flaws. The point, Curtis tells PEOPLE, is that glam isn’t real, but good health is.

Curtis Drops 20 Pounds on a Simple Diet
After learning her cholesterol and blood pressure were too high about a year and a half ago, she dropped 20 pounds by giving up “fattening” foods that most Americans would consider relatively healthy – like crackers, bread and granola, which have white flour and sugar and are surprisingly high in fat. She hopes American women will learn from her example.

She also gave away her uncomfortable shoes and most of her jewelry. For one, she doesn’t wear them (save for her wedding band, a necklace with a charm for her daughters, diamond earrings and a watch), and also because she wants to lighten her load off the scale. “I’ve had the experience of going into people’s homes after they’ve died, and I’m amazed at the number of things people amass and never look at again. And I’m just not that person,” Curtis says.

“I’m like the Terminator, that’s what I am,” she adds. “I should have a TV show where I go into people’s houses and terminate their possessions.”

[From People]

There is something to be said for taking care of yourself and feeling confident in the body you were born with–regardless of age. It’s sexy as hell! I think Helen Mirren is another great example of this - she looked amazing at the Oscars last month. Compare photos of Jamie to other celebs who are fighting the natural process of aging– such as Nicole Kidman and Janice Dickinson– and she blows them away. I wish more actresses would follow Jamie’s example.

Note by Celebitchy: I love how Jamie Lee Curtis has never been afraid to show her body. She is making an important statement about how normal women shouldn’t feel bad when confronted by the Hollywood ideal, which is unnatural for older women in particular. Here’s a quote from her 2002 More Magazine interview where she posed in just bike shorts and a bra with no makeup:

“There’s a reality to the way I look without my clothes on,” she says. “I don’t have great thighs. I have very big breasts and a soft, fatty little tummy. And I’ve got back fat. People assume that I’m walking around in little spaghetti-strap dresses. It’s insidious — Glam Jamie, the Perfect Jamie, the great figure, blah, blah, blah. And I don’t want the unsuspecting 40-year-old women of the world to think that I’ve got it going on. It’s such a fraud. And I’m the one perpetuating it.”

[More Magazine via Ladies Home Journal]

Jamie Lee Curtis is shown on 10/4/07 at the Visionary Ball, thanks to PRPhotos.

The California wildfires have caused massive devastation throughout much of Southern California. The blazes have led to the evacuation of over half a million people, the largest in California’s history. In San Diego County alone, officials estimate the damage will come to at least $1 billion just for the homes. There are currently over 10,000 firefighters on the fire lines, and 585 square miles are currently burning. A lot of celebrity and expensive homes are in danger of burning to the ground – but thousands of regular people’s homes are in danger too, including a lot of people who don’t have insurance and can’t afford to “start from scratch” like some can. So while this affects our dearly beloved celebrity community, it resonates on a far deeper level, as it can do severe damage to people from every economic class.

George Carlin was on “The View” today and talked about his belief that the fires are the result of man-made problems.

Comedian George Carlin and actress Jamie Lee Curtis this week both suggested that the devastating wildfires raging in Southern California should not come as a surprise to a population that ravages the environment. Offering his provocative opinion on “The View” Wednesday morning, Carlin paraphrased an old comedy rant of his, and characterized the fires as cosmic payback from a planet stretched to its breaking point. “People are selfish,” he said. “These people with the fires and the floods and everything, they overbuild and they put nature to the test, and they get what’s coming to them, that’s what I say.”

Joy Behar replied, “That’s a little harsh, George.” But the 70-year-old comic continued: “People think nature is outside of them. They don’t take into [themselves] the idea that nature is a part of them.” Pointing to his chest, he said, “Nature is in here, and if you’re in tune with it, like the Indians – the balance of life, the harmony of nature – if you understand that, you don’t overbuild, you don’t do all this moron stuff.”

[From People]

I have heard a lot of experts saying the land and the air is the driest it has ever been in California. Though people have different view on why this is, most (but not all) chalk it up to global warming brought on by humans. Jamie Lee Curtis voiced an opinion similar to Carlin’s on “Entertainment Tonight.”

Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Jamie Lee Curtis gave a similarly grim assessment of the situation, suggesting people are in “ultimate denial” about what they’re doing to the environment. “Global warming, combined with people building houses in places they shouldn’t, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera,” she said. “It just compounds to become, as they call it, a perfect storm experience here. It’s not by accident. This isn’t an act of God. This is an act of man.”

[From People]

I wasn’t much of an active environmentalist until a few years ago. I was one in theory but didn’t put any actions behind my words. I think that a lot of people (myself very much included) are starting to really understand the impact of our actions, and hopefully the tide is turning. Let’s cross our fingers that it’s not too late.

Picture note by Jaybird: Here’s an image of the California Wildfires from NASA. Header image of George Carlin at the “Jersey Girl” premiere. Image thanks to PR Photos.