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Today's new look of beauty is very likely to be an old familiar face. The over-60 actress is no longer politely retiring to demure legend status. She's hot and in demand.
"They have life experiences. It's very sexy, and their confidence reflects that," says Carol Hamilton, president of L'Oreal Paris, which launched TV ads this week featuring Diane Keaton, 60. "It's an incredible attitude that you're still young at age 60, and that is very different than it was 10 years ago."
It is the first spokesmodel gig for the Oscar-winning actress of 1977's Annie Hall, who wowed audiences in 2003 with a nude scene in Something's Gotta Give. Other actresses whose beauty still wins raves:
*At 71, Sophia Loren is the oldest woman to pose for the famous Pirelli calendar in its 42-year history. She said in a statement that she "felt like a kid" during the June shoot for the calendar, which is known for its provocative and sexy photography. The theme of the 2007 edition, to be unveiled Nov. 16 in London, is personality and sensuality. Loren's fellow pinup girls include Hilary Swank, 32, Naomi Watts, 37, and Penelope Cruz, 32.
*Catherine Deneuve, 62, who will appear this fall on the hip, sex-laced TV series Nip/Tuck, is MAC Cosmetics' 2006 beauty icon. In February, MAC will announce another spokeswoman who is "well into her 60s," president John Demsey says.
Former supermodel and Revlon spokeswoman Lauren Hutton, 62, launched her line of cosmetics for the 40-plus woman in 2003 because she thought beauty companies were focused on products for dewy twentysomethings.
"We are not our mothers and grandmothers," she says. "We're interested in life, and that's why life is suddenly interested in us. I know I am definitely interested in seeing Sophia Loren in a sexy, near-naked pose."
Hutton did her first nude photo shoot last year, and the eight-page spread in November 2005's Big magazine caused a stir. "I thought they'd never be published," Hutton says; she expected editors to back out.
Aging in popular culture is "completely renewed and fresh and different," MAC's Demsey says. Today's 65-year-old woman grew up listening to Jefferson Airplane's Grace Slick, and "if you're rock 'n' roll, you're rock 'n' roll forever."
Rules for "age-appropriate" behavior no longer exist, he says. "It's OK to be seductive in your 60s."
"Yee-hah," Hutton says. She and her 60-plus sisters are "getting hotter, getting wiser and there are many, many of us out there."
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