More older actresses modeling birthday suits
By Miki Turner
For FLORIDA TODAY
The _expression_ on Jack Nicholson's face when he inadvertently spots Diane Keaton in the buff in "Something's Gotta Give" is priceless and typical.
Old naked women, no matter how accomplished or stunning, are rarely considered appealing or desirable -- at least in Hollywood. This holiday season, however, Keaton's full frontal nudity and Helen Mirren's partial nude scenes in "Calendar Girls" are the talk of the town.
"It's about time," says Kevin Thompson, who covers television and movies for The Palm Beach Post. "Diane looked good!"
For Keaton, the choice was simple. "I really didn't think much of it," Keaton, 57, said during a recent interview to promote the film in New York. "I mean, it was like what do I have to hide? Besides, I didn't think anyone would really want to look at me anyway. I think I would have been more worried about exposing myself at 20 than I am now."
"I am what I am, and my body is what it is," she said.
That seems to be the prevailing attitude in Central Florida where the old and the saggy outnumber the young and the perky.
"I would like to see more older people nude on screen," says 60-year-old nudist Carolyn Hawkins of Cypress Cove. "I think it's great that older people are comfortable enough with their bodies to show them off. It's good that we're not ashamed."
Perhaps Hollywood is taking note. In the past two years, some of its most mature stars -- including plus-size Oscar winner Kathy Bates -- have shed their clothes for the camera. Ironically, she did so in a hot tub scene with Nicholson in 2002's "About Schmidt."
This rather new phenomenon hasn't been lost on him either.
"Well, I'm like you. I saw them naked on the screen," Nicholson said at the press junket for "Something's Gotta Give." "It wasn't like I was off camera watching them. But hey, didn't Diane look great?"
Well, that depends who you ask.
Kelly Byrnes, a local queen of The Red Hat Society, would prefer to see younger and older actors fully clothed. Byrnes saw "About Schmidt" and felt "Kathy Bates made a fool of herself. I understand she had to have quite a few drinks before doing that scene."
Byrnes hasn't seen the Keaton movie but doesn't understand why the woman who won an Oscar for "Annie Hall" and sparked a national fashion trend as a result, would resort to such "cheapness."
"I really don't care for it," Byrnes, 72, said. "She's such a good actress. I feel like all of them have degraded themselves. Anyone, after a certain age, should have more respect for themselves and their bodies."
Conversely, sixtysomething Hank Jewell, second vice president of the Brevard Single Adult Club, sees beauty in naked ladies of all ages."I don't know a thing about what point they were trying to make in that movie, but I don't think age should play into it," says the Cocoa Beach resident. "I know a couple of ladies past 70 that are knockouts. So, I wouldn't want to squash (seeing older women naked on screen).
"That doesn't mean necessarily that I think it's wise, either."
"Calendar Girls," which is a true story about a group of former British calendar models, opens later this month. But "Something's Gotta Give," in which Keaton plays the mother the woman (Amanda Peet) dating Nicholson, was the No. 1 movie at the box office last weekend. In an effort to be politically correct, Keaton falls for a younger man (Keanu Reeves) before she and Nicholson hit the hay.
Managers at the two local movie theaters showing the Nicholson-Keaton movie said they've heard no reaction from patrons regarding Keaton's nude scene, but ticket booth employee Charlene Laughlin of the Satellite Beach Cinemas said, "everybody just loved the movie and the fact that Jack (and this is a stretch) was playing a dirty old man.
"I can't wait to see that movie about the calendar," Laughlin added. "God Bless them. I wish I had the guts to do it."
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