Iron Man 2 accounted for 70% or so of all movie tickets sold this weekend at the movies which might suggest it’s still a teen fanboy’s world. Despite all the talk about Iron Men maybe this year belongs to the Steel Magnolias? I don’t mean Dolly, Sally & Julia… but women of a certain age and older! By the time the weekend wrapped wasn’t it 88-year-old Betty White and not Robert Downey Jr. that everyone was tweeting about?
Hollywood is notoriously tough on actresses who dare age (how dare they!!!) but maybe things are looking up. Meryl Streep has been riding a second tidal wave of super stardom at 60 the likes of which she hasn’t seen since she was winning Oscars in her early 30s. Annette Bening, who turns 52 this month, is generating Oscar buzz (again) for her two summer flicks Mother & Child (now playing) and The Kids Are All Right (coming in July. Trust me, it’s so good!). And finally Helen Mirren, who is 64, is chasing her recent Oscar nomination with three new movies this year, one in which she takes on a famous male Shakespearean role. She’s as big as ever and she just got a wax sculpture at Madame Tussauds.
So let’s hear it for the Golden Girls… and I’m not talking about Rose, Blanche and Sophia. Which 50+ actresses would you most like to see having a huge career revival next: Jane Fonda? Michelle Pfeiffer? Geena Davis? Kim Basinger? Kathleen Turner? Susan Sarandon?
† Helen Mirren All Waxy Sans Botox
† Flashback Appreciation: Lisa Kudrow in Romy & Michelle
† Famous Actresses Who Never Had Children
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