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'Consideration' gets a lift from O'Hara


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TORONTO -- As great movie moments go, it's a laugh-till-you-choke sight gag rivaled only by Sacha Baron Cohen's exposed nether regions during the hysteria-inducing nude wrestling in Borat.

It happens in For Your Consideration, in wide release this week, when Catherine O'Hara, as a barely famous B-movie actress, suddenly finds herself the target of Oscar speculation and goes on a late-night TV talk show to boost her nomination chances.

As she enters, the aging performer turns to the audience and reveals a shocking state of facial rigor mortis, her lips puffed like a Pillsbury crescent roll and her eyes artificially lifted to a feline slant.

"I knew it was going to be a big reaction," said co-star Eugene Levy of the scene after the film festival premiere here in September. "But it was almost a standing ovation when she came out."

While some might suspect that O'Hara submitted to Botox injections or even cosmetic surgery for the startling effect, others know better. The venerated SCTV funny lady is famous for contorting herself for such characters as showbiz harpy Lola Heatherton and bawdy songstress Dusty Towne.

"She did it herself," says director Christopher Guest, who has used the actress in all his improv satires, including Best in Show and A Mighty Wind. "I said to her, 'You play a character who has a face lift.' She said, 'I can't put anything on my skin. It's too sensitive. But I can do that look myself.' She can only do that face for three minutes, it's so tiring. But she is brilliant."

After being asked repeatedly how she achieved the look, O'Hara jokes, "I should be doing an infomercial with no product."

Actually, she says she did wear teeth that were longer and whiter than hers, and plastered her lips with gloss and liner. But the talent for doing the instant lift came courtesy of her mother.

"I'm not kidding," the actress says. "Her cheekbones and eyebrows are up to here at 81. Of course, she doesn't look that grotesque. But it makes sense. You've got muscles and you use them everywhere else in your body when you want it. Why not your face?"

If this do-it-yourself thing catches on, plastic surgeons might soon be forced to make a living teaching the O'Hara method of de-sagging.

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© Copyright 2006 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

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