Most people in Hollywood—arguably the most image-conscious place on the planet—have reportedly had some nips and tucks. even icons like Marilyn Monroereportedly had a little work done.
But some stars have taken going under the knife way to the extreme and the results aren’t pretty.
These 17 celebrities paid up to $1 million dollars for puffy lips and stretched-out faces. We found some compilation videos on YouTube that showcase the worst of the worst.
There’s one model who’s so puffy from Botox you’ll barely recognize her. plus, a rock star who barely looks human.
Amanda Lepore is a 44-year-old transgender model and recording artist. her repeated anti-aging attempts left her looking like this.
Guns N’ Roses’ 50-year-old frontman Axl Rose reportedly got cheek implants and a facelift.
Former French first Lady Carla Bruni’s puffy face is reportedly the result of Botox.
Special to The Daily News Published August 21, 2012
GALVESTON — it was 9:12 a.m. on April 16, 1947, and the surgical instruments rattled on a tray while Dr. Truman G. Blocker Jr. was performing surgery at the University of Texas Medical Branch.Rushing to a window, he saw a mushroom cloud and imagined the beginning of another global conflict.In fact, it was the detonation of 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate aboard the SS Grandcamp, a freighter docked in Texas City. Explosions and fires killed almost 600 people in what remains the worst industrial disaster in American history.Casualties soon began arriving at the medical branch. Blocker, then chief of plastic and maxillofacial surgery, triaged patients, marshaled residents and brought to bear his years of experience as a decorated military surgeon.In that day of tragedy lay the genesis of the Blocker Burn Unit at the medical branch, a world-recognized center in research and treatment of burn patients.For nine years, Blocker and his wife, Dr. Virginia Blocker, followed 800 patients injured that day. that focus on research and evidence-based practice has remained the guiding principle of the Blocker Burn Unit. Blocker became the first person to hold the title of president at the medical branch.last week, the Blocker Burn Unit had a rededication ceremony to celebrate a complete renovation of the unit, the first burn center in the United States to be a verified center of excellence by the American Burn Association and the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma, an accreditation it has maintained continuously since 1996.“this is a glorious day and we wouldn’t be here without the community,” said Dr. David Herndon, chief of staff for the medical branch burn service, and chief of staff and director of research at Shriners Hospitals for Children-Galveston.he told the assembled crowd of donors, friends and staff that Blocker was his idol.“he started the first burn center in the United States here in Galveston and made it a center of excellence to treat burn patients from throughout the world.“The mortality and outcome statistics in this unit are the best in the United States.”As the only center in the country where critical care fellows can be trained in burn care, the Blocker Burn Unit has trained more than 200 fellows who are now leading burn centers around the world.The renovated Blocker Burn Unit has roughly doubled in size — with two more dedicated beds, bringing the total to six — and now comfortably accommodates both inpatient and outpatient care in a soothing environment that incorporates the best in design.Treatment for burn patients requires a team approach with as many as four care providers at the bedside simultaneously. The rooms have nearly doubled in size, allowing that care to flow freely and providing extra space for family to stay in the room.The design now allows the health team to provide hydrotherapy and wound care at the bedside for critically ill patients.Warmth is critical when caring for severe burns and the new design makes it possible to keep room temperatures at more than 100 degrees without warming the entire unit.
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Alex Smith, 37, has worried about exposing her cellulite since she was a teenager.
“I’m always self-conscious because I don’t like the way it looks- I’m always covering up that area,” Smith said.
No matter what she tried—the dimpled skin she, and so many others, dread, remains.
It was present “even when I was in very good shape- working out all the time,” she said.
“nothing seems to make it better or go away,” Smith said.
But an innovative laser treatment, called cellulaze, could be the solution.
“It is the first treatment for cellulite that actually works,” said plastic surgeon Dr. Rondi Walker.
Walker says women are lining up for the minimally invasive, FDA-approved procedure.
“You can use it on the buttocks, thighs, posterior arms,” Walker said.
During the two-hour procedure, a tiny laser is inserted under the skin to heat and melt the fat. then, the laser cuts through fibrous bands that are pulling the skin down—creating that dimpled look of cellulite. Finally, the laser delivers energy to the undersurface of the skin.
“To create more collagen to tighten the skin and thicken the skin so we have a very nice smooth layer,” Walker said.
Before and after photos show dramatic improvements and Dr. Walker says women can expect about a 70 percent improvement in three-to-six months. in Europe, results have been shown to last at least two years.
“It’s definitely going to be changing cellulite treatment- this is the treatment for cellulite,” Walker said.
“I am hoping that I can feel more confident with my legs and not have to cover up and hide them as much,” Smith said.
Patients should expect some swelling, bruising and minor discomfort for a couple weeks and will need to wear compression garments to help with healing. Cellulaze costs about $2,500 per area treated—but, some doctors are offering package deals for multiple areas.
Last year, German exports rode to a new record, jobs were being created in massive numbers, real wages rose, housing and real estate boomed, the federal budget was nearly balanced, and consumers felt good and spent money—despite the havoc that the Eurozone debt crisis has been wreaking.
Whatever was happening, Germany would be able to make up for declining exports to the Eurozone with strong exports to Asia and the US. Internal demand would remain solid.
And this illusion of durable economic strength and fiscal virtue has tainted the discussion about saving the euro, bailing out debt-sinner countries in return for austerity measures, and keeping the European Central Bank in check.
But now the crisis has moved from Germany’s front yard to its doorstep and is about to enter its living room.
Beer sales, for example. that the German Federal Statistical Office tracks them shows just how crucial a staple beer is. Alas, beer sales to customers in Germany dropped 2.3% in the first half over the same period last year, and ominously, exports dropped 2.9% [for the worldwide beer phenomenon, beer consumption per capita, and where the growth really is, read.... Beer, A Reflection of the World Economy?]
Auto sales got clobbered in July, dropping by 5% from July last year, and by 16.5% from June, knocking year-to-date sales, which had been holding up well, into the red (-0.1%). Auto sales have been a fiasco in the Eurozone for a while. In Greece, where they’d been plummeting for years, they plummeted again in the first half, by 41.3%! In Italy, by 19.7%, in France by 14.4%, in Belgium by 12.7%. But until July, Germany had been spared. No more. of the big brands, only Audi (Volkswagen) was up (+14.3%). the others got hammered: Opel (GM) -18.6%, BMW, Mini -17.9 %, Mercedes -14.6 %, and Ford -4.4%. even VW, market-share leader and on a phenomenal worldwide roll, was down 1.5%.
Retail sales, which had also been doing very well, stalled. And the closely watched Ifo index for July deteriorated so sharply that Hans-Werner Sinn, President of the Ifo Institute, admitted, “the euro crisis is having an increasingly negative impact on the German economy.”
Germany’s manufacturing industry is now in a rout. Output and new orders dove in July at a rate not seen since April 2009, the depth of the great recession. it was the 4th month in a row of lower production volumes, and the 13th months in a row (!) of declining new orders—a terror for future production. the overall PMI index crashed to the lowest level since June 2009. Exports were hardest hit, particularly to Western Europe, Asia, and the US, the three largest markets in the world! the decline in exports was steepest since may 2009. And there is talk of “job shedding.”
These trends are reminiscent of the financial crisis, when export orders fell off a cliff, causing GDP to plunge 2.1% in the fourth quarter of 2008 and a horrid 3.8% in the first quarter of 2009. Annualized, those two quarters amounted to a double-digit decline in GDP—the worst two quarters in the history of the Federal Republic. the German economy lives and dies by its exports.
Yet my contacts in Germany remain “relaxed.” There’s no malaise or panic. “In the countryside, everything goes on regardless,” wrote one of them. Restaurants are doing well. People have jobs, wages are going up. Inflation has backed off. the recent feeling of optimism, after years of pessimism, is still hanging in the air. People are bidding up rental properties and plowing their savings into brick and mortar. Well-educated Greeks and Spaniards are heading to Germany in search of work. For them, it’s nirvana. the German government, through various organizations, is trying to rope in its expats in Silicon Valley and lure them back with special incentives to fill the shortage of qualified talent at home. clearly, the numbers I mentioned haven’t yet made their way into the perception of day-to-day reality.
The public debate about bailing out Spain or Greece, and about Draghi’s plan to go on a bond-buying binge, is taking place to the backdrop of a sweetly humming economy. But the ear-piercing screech of the German export machinery as it shifts gears will change the debate—and the political will. German exporters, a super-powerful lobby, will push for all-out “do-whatever-it-takes” flooding of the Eurozone with money. On the other hand, if prospects of layoffs or forced part-time work (Kurzarbeit) are hounding consumers, their appetite for bailing out southern countries will fade altogether—and so will Germany’s ability to do so.
The Bride of Wildenstein left a film crew standing at the altar, court papers say.
Jocelyne Wildenstein — the millionairess whose good looks have been ravaged by innumerable plastic surgeries aimed at making her look like a cat — is being sued for allegedly backing out of a deal to appear in a documentary.
In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Transparent Television says it struck a deal with Wildenstein and her designer beau, Lloyd Klein, back in 2007 to appear in a film called “the Glamorous World of Lloyd and Jocelyne.”
Wildenstein, the suit notes, “represents herself in the media as a glamorous multimillionaire divorcée and world-recognized socialite who mingles with celebrities in a life of ‘jet-setting’ from one home to the next, each of which are ‘filled with priceless antiques.’ ”
She’s also “widely recognized as one of the world’s most notorious users of cosmetic or plastic surgery, having been dubbed in many periodicals as ‘the Cat Woman’ based on her present appearance,” the suit says.
The deal called for Wildenstein and Klein to be paid $100,000 for about 15 days of shooting.
They were paid $25,000 up front, but when it came time for them to be filmed, they pulled a disappearing act, the suit says.
“despite repeated attempts by Transparent TV’s executives to schedule filming with the defendants from january 2008 to May 2008, the defendants continually made unjustified and meritless excuses and refused to make themselves available,” the suit says.
The pair subsequently “made themselves completely unavailable,” causing Transparent TV, which had hoped to do a film and reality show on the pair, “substantial damages,” the suit says.
They also refused to return the $25,000, the suit says.
Transparent says the entire episode cost it big bucks, and damaged its reputation. It accused the pair of fraud, and is seeking more than $700,000 in damages for their “criminal conduct.”
Wildenstein and Klein could not be reached for comment.
Wildenstein’s purr-fectly stunning looks first made headlines in 1997, when she was involved in a sensationally ugly split from her billionaire husband, Alec Wildenstein.
Kirstie Alley visibly slimmed down during her run on Dancing with the Stars last year.
The former fat Actress star also said during appearances on QVC and in online promotional materials that a weight-loss product called Organic Liaison helped her drop 100 pounds.
But now a disgruntled dieter has taken it upon herself (and whoever wants to join her would-be class-action suit) to prove that Alley and the supplement maker have engaged in “nothing more than a healthy deception” to get people to buy their product—and that Alley literally danced her butt off.
Meanwhile, in a statement sent to E! News by Alley’s manager, Organic Liaison calls the claims against them “patently false.”
Plaintiff Marina Abramyan charges in the lawsuit filed Friday and obtained by E! News that DWTS “tracked [Alley's] weight loss as a result of hours and hours of dancing every day for several months.” Meaning, Abramyan says, the supplements weren’t what whittled the Cheers star’s frame down to an announced “size 6 and still counting.”
Alley’s extreme weight loss was the “result of an above average exercise regimen and extremely low calorie diet,” according to the suit.
Fancy that.
Also in her complaint, Abramyan states that she purchased the product, followed the Organic Liaison Weight Loss Program and “did not experience any of the benefits Defendants advertised.”
Furthermore, she contends, there are “no well-controlled, well-conducted studies” regarding the effectiveness of Organic Liaison or whether or not they’re any better than “standard dietary supplements incapable of causing weight loss.”
Abramyan alleges that the supplement’s marketing campaign involving Alley violates Federal Trade Commission regulations and that she wrote to the company demanding they cease their deceptive practices.
The Florida-based entity wrote Abramyan back in February, denying her claims and refusing to change their advertising practices, prompting her to file suit.
She is seeking an injunction preventing Organic Liaison from proceeding with its current campaign, which utilizes before-and-after-DWTS photos of Alley, as well as unspecified damages for the “proposed plaintiff class.”
The supplement maker, meanwhile, says that Alley started their weight-loss program in “early 2010″ and had already dropped 70 pounds by the time DWTS began. she went on to lose another 20 pounds while on the show, but did not hit the 100-pound mark until “months after” the show ended—thanks, the complain asserts, to her “studious adherence to the Organic Liaison Weight Loss Program, which requires regular exercise for success.
One and a half years spent on the program was a key factor in Alley’s slimmed-down shape, the company maintains. “We will vigorously defend ourselves against these frivolous claims,” the defendant said.
LONDON — The head of amateur boxing’s governing body sees the Olympic debut of women’s boxing as one of his major achievements. Now he plans to do more.
Wu Ching-Kuo, president of the International Amateur Boxing Association, said Saturday he wants to see more female boxers at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
AIBA plans to ask the IOC to increase the sport’s overall athlete allocation so women’s boxing will have more than London’s 36 fighters in three weight classes in Brazil. Although Wu is unsure of his chances of success, he is in good position to do that lobbying as a newly elected member of the IOC’s executive board.
“The IOC will look at the performance, the result of women’s boxing,” Wu said after the opening session of men’s boxing at ExCeL. “And as president of AIBA, if it’s really positive, I certainly have the duty and the responsibility to fight for more, because we now have three gold medals for the women and 10 for the men.”
After decades of steady growth and nearly a quarter-century of sanctioned amateur competition, supporters of women’s boxing say their sport was more than ready to join the Olympic program when the IOC approved it for London in 2009.
Yet the IOC wouldn’t increase the sport’s overall athlete allocation because of its efforts to limit the total number of Olympic athletes to about 10,000, forcing AIBA to trim its men’s field to accommodate the women. Boxing eliminated the featherweight class for men, trimming down to 10 weight classes, and reduced the overall men’s field to 250 of the 286 boxers allowed.
Those accommodations still forced women’s boxers to fit themselves into three widely spaced weight classes, leaving many longtime amateur stars without a chance to compete when they couldn’t qualify at flyweight, lightweight or middleweight.
“It’s not enough, but it’s a very good beginning,” Wu said. “Once we start, we can ask for more, but our performance must be very good.”
That’s not likely to be a problem when women finally take the Olympic ring next weekend for several sold-out sessions of competition.
Women’s boxing has evolved rapidly over the past 24 years since Sweden formally sanctioned the amateur sport in 1988. The first world championships were held in Scranton, Pa., in 2001, and the sport has grown into a popular pursuit worldwide, with even Syria and Afghanistan holding their first national championships last year.
Yet the women still fight discrimination in many corners of the world. Cuba, a longtime men’s amateur boxing powerhouse, refused to send a women’s team to the Olympics, while the sport’s safety has been questioned for decades.
“When we broadcast the competition to the world, everybody will fully realize that women’s boxing is not dangerous,” Wu said. “It’s for skill, and if there is danger, in the AIBA, we look after boxers’ safety.”
Amateur boxing appears on an upswing after decades of corruption and decline, and its advocacy for women’s boxing is just one part. The sport’s much-derided computerized scoring system is on the way out after the Olympics, to be replaced by more traditional judging, while the men’s boxers are expected to begin fighting without headgear.
Wu noted that every boxing session in London already is sold out after the sport to large crowds at the Beijing Games.
“We have a lot of work to do, a lot of effort,” Wu said. “But we put the athletes’ interest no. 1. we start from the grass roots.
A songwriter’s job is never done and Eric Taylor has no sympathy for those who complain about writer’s block.
“I’ll write someone a letter to get the juices flowing,” said the Texas singer-songwriter who annually makes a stop in Wallowa County on his Northwest tour.
“I don’t have empathy for people who complain about writer’s block — if I call the plumber he doesn’t say, ‘I can’t come today I’ve got plumber’s block.’”
Taylor says he never plays a song the same way twice, which keeps his live performances elastic. However, he said, “Songwriters have an advantage that people failto remember — once it’s recorded it’s forever in plastic so you better get it right.”
Taylor is old school, coming from a tradition of early ’70s Houston songwriters like Townes Van Zandt, washing dishes and playing joints. He broke out of the smoky club scene with his first album in 1981, Shameless love.
His songs go well with whiskey on a late, moonless night. They evoke longing and memories of long ago.
Taylor has been the man behind the music for other Texas crooners like Nanci Griffith and Lyle Lovett. A year ago he recorded a live, studio album with his two old friends and collaborators, wife Susan, and Denice Franke at the Red Shack in Houston.
The album hit no. 10 on the Americana charts and there is a rumbling that Taylor and “Eric Taylor and Friends, Live at the Red Shack” could be nominated for a Grammy.
Taylor lives with Susan in Borden, Tex. When he’s not touring he’s writing and when he’s not writing he’s recording and working out songs in his home studio. after the Red Shack album was recorded, he hit the road for his summer tours and Susan stayed home to produce the album. it was released in December.
Taylor is a frequent act at the Kerrville Folk Festival in the west hills of Texas. In 1977 he was a winner of its “new Folk” competition and in 1995 his self-titled album “Eric Taylor” was chosen as the 1996 festival album of the year.
Taylor returned to the fabled festival the first weekend in June before hitting the road for his summer tour, a place, he said, overrun with “free range hill hippies.”
Saturday afternoon he performed a spoken word piece as a eulogy for a friend and Saturday night he played a set under a summer’s sky.
Before his tour, Taylor was able to get five or six songs “in the can” in answer to a lot of pressure to get another album done before he goes to Europe later this year.
He’s also working on a couple of books, a documentary about early 20th century writer Jim Tully for PBS, and possibly a feature film.
A train whistle blows in the background, fitting for an interview with a man who writes folk/Americana/alt country songs. His style remains the same, though the description of it changes over the decades, whatever best sells records.
Taylor may not have reached the commercial success of Griffith and Lovett, but his writing, his voice, and his guitar picking are as fine as anyone who has sold millions of albums.
“If one more person tells me I’m a genius, I’m going to ask him for a check,” said Taylor.
Working 14 hour days for a man who has been in the music industry for more than 40 years can take its toll. after his Northwest tour two years ago, he returned home and had heart surgery. Well recovered, he’s staying busy.
Taylor said, “I’ll stay alive and keep my sideburns, too, that’s what Leon Russell used to say.”
Taylor plays in Joseph June 12 at 7 p.m. at the home of Rodd and Mary Ambroson, 105 1/2 Barton Hts., and is sponsored by the Wallowa Valley Music Alliance.
Tickets are $25 and available at The Bookloft in Enterprise and the Sheep Shed in Joseph, or call Rodd Ambroson at 541-263-1556. Parking is limited.
For information on Eric Taylor, visit his website: www.bluerubymusic.com.
NEW YORK — Amy Winehouse’s father says he has a hard time enjoying her breakthrough “back to Black” album because the songs are about her ex-husband.Mitch Winehouse blames Blake Fielder-Civil for leading her into drug abuse, and he details her long decline in a new memoir, “Amy, My Daughter.” His views on the British singer’s ex-husband have been stated before and are well known.Amy Winehouse, whose “back to Black” disc sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and won a Grammy Award for album of the year in 2008, died of accidental alcohol poisoning in July. The British singer was 27.Mitch Winehouse, a former taxi driver and aspiring singer, writes in the memoir that it recently occurred to him that one of the biggest-selling albums of the 21st century is all about Fielder-Civil, whom he disparages. he prefers his daughter’s jazzy first album, “Frank,” which wasn’t released outside England until after her later success.
His memoir is scheduled to come out June 26. The Associated Press bought a copy on Monday.Winehouse recalls his daughter as a girl writing into a notebook phrases that later turned up in songs and his pride as her singing talent became evident. but most of the book is about a seemingly endless cycle of attempted recoveries and relapses as she battled drugs and alcohol.Winehouse also says that his daughter suffered from stage fright throughout her career. she had breast enlargement surgery more than a year before her death and considered plastic surgery on her nose.Amy Winehouse’s strong will may have helped her during her career, but it didn’t help with substance abuse, her father writes.“Long before Amy was an addict, no one could tell her what to do,” he writes. “Once she became an addict, her stubbornness just got worse. There were times when she wanted to be clean, but the times when she didn’t outnumbered them.”he writes that he could never understand why she was so in love with Fielder-Civil, a music industry hanger-on. The book details his numerous run-ins with Fielder-Civil and his family. Continued…
TERRE HAUTE — the Terre Haute City Council chamber in City Hall was literally divided Thursday night, with supporters of the city’s new smoking ordinance on one side and a larger group of opponents of the measure on the other. More than 50 people – opponents of the ordinance – filled the seats on the north side of the council gallery while a smaller number of people filled the south side, many sporting T-shirts reading “I support clean air.” several members of local veterans organizations and several bar owners and tavern employees spoke to the council, asking the city’s legislative body to repeal the measure they passed 18 months ago and allow the new state law to govern smoking in public places in Terre Haute. Terre Haute’s new smoking ordinance is set to take effect July 1. It prohibits smoking in virtually all indoor workplaces, making it more strict than the state law passed this year by the Indiana General Assembly. the state law allows smoking in bars, private clubs and casinos. the Terre Haute ordinance prohibits smoking in bars and private clubs. only tobacco shops and a small number of hotel or motel rooms are exempted. the topic of the city’s anti-smoking ordinance was brought up during the council’s 30 minute period reserved for public comments for non-agenda items. no measure to change the city ordinance has been introduced and the matter is not currently slated for discussion next month, although that could change if an ordinance is introduced by a member of the council. However, speaking after their meeting, several council members said the body plans to wait and see whether the Vigo County Commissioners change the Vigo County ordinance to match the city’s, something the commissioners plan to debate this month. the Vigo County Commissioners will conduct a public hearing on whether to adopt the city’s standards at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Vigo County Annex. they could vote on the matter the following week. “I think, by the presentation tonight by both sides, maybe we need to look at it, but we’re going to wait and see how the county proceeds and then we’ll make a decision then,” said Don Morris, council president, speaking after the Thursday night meeting. “It’s a hard decision,” Morris said. “It’s tough. when you look at the veterans, it’s a matter of choice. but it’s also a matter of choice on the other side, too.” In all, about 17 people spoke during the public comment period about the smoking ordinance. More than half wanted the city’s ordinance changed. Bruce Adelman, owner of Bohannon’s East tavern, presented a petition to the council containing more than 3,200 signatures seeking a change in the ordinance. he stated, however, that some individuals had signed more than once and some were not residents of Terre Haute. he promised the council that he would have clearer figures at the next council meeting, currently scheduled for July 12 at 6 p .m. in City Hall. • also Thursday, the council voted without opposition to increase the speed limit on Brown Boulevard between Locust Street and Maple Avenue. Because the street is within the city limits, it was automatically assigned a 30 mph speed limit when it opened last year. the council voted to increase the limit to 40 mph believing the roadway to be able to safely handle traffic at that speed. Reporter Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.
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