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VA-VA-VA-BOOMER! HOLLYWOOD ICON JAMIE LEE CURTIS GOES TOPLESS FOR THE COVER OF AARP THE MAGAZINE AND DISHES ON EMBRACING HER UPCOMING 50th BIRTHDAY
News Release
March 21, 2008
Straight-talking actress Jamie Lee Curtis sat down with AARP The Magazine, the definitive voice for 50+ Americans and the world’s largest-circulation magazine with more than 33 million readers, for a candid interview about her upcoming 50th birthday, embracing the years ahead with vitality and vigor, and putting her family first. Posing topless on the cover of the May/June issue of the magazine—available March 24th and online at www.aarpmagazine.org—Curtis makes a bold statement that reflects a newfound comfort in her own skin. Curtis collaborated conceptually with the photos in the five-page spread asking that they represent her quest to “shed skin,” to do away with what no longer serves her. Facing 50, this two-time Golden Globe winner, is now voicing her desire for the ultimate boomer experience and is an exuberant crusader for aging wisely and well.
On Aging Gracefully… “I want to be older. I actually think there’s an incredible amount of self-knowledge that comes with getting older. I feel way better now than I did when I was 20. I’m stronger, I’m smarter in every way, I’m so much less crazy than I was then.”
“Getting older means paring yourself down to an essential version of yourself.”
“My style is a distillation. I’ve etched out who I am through myriad haircut attempts, outfit attempts, beauty attempts, diet attempts. It’s been an evolution. I’ve let my hair go gray. I wear only black and white. Every year I buy three or four black dresses that I just keep in rotation. I own one pair of blue jeans. I’ve given away all my jewelry, because I don’t wear it.”
“I want to be as a human being. New. Different. Challenging the old. Function over frivolity. Clean living. Clean lines. If I can challenge old ideas about aging, I will feel more and more invigorated. I want to represent this new way. I want to be a new version of the 70-year-old woman. Vital, strong, very physical, very agile. I think that the older I get, the more yoga I’m going to do.”
On Turning 50 “I’m going to give myself a breakfast birthday party. I’ll serve my favorite meal of the day: cereal and waffles and bacon and pancakes and scrambled-egg-white omelets and protein shakes and cappuccinos.”
“To celebrate, I’m making a book of 50 of my photographs and giving it to each of my friends. It’s not for public consumption…I don’t need more attention. I don’t ever want to make taking pictures into another way of saying ‘Here I am.’ Because I’m as here as I want to be.”
On Parenting and the Entertainment Industry… “The one benefit of being around fame my whole life is I’ve seen the façade of it. I know what people look like before they get all duded up. I see these people duded up and they’re talking differently, as if they’re titled aristocracy.”
“I saw a picture of me in a tabloid, where they had actually given my weight. I was like, ‘How dare you—I’m not 161 pounds!’ I was indignant. I got home and I went on a scale and I was 161 pounds. I was in denial about it. This was two years ago. So I started a really healthy way of eating, just avoiding things that I had been shoving in my mouth. Over the course of a year, I dropped about 20 pounds. Now, I get up at five o’clock in the morning every day, filled with energy. I play tennis three times a week, and I do yoga. I’m never going to be an athlete, never going to be running triathlons—I’m not that person. But I walk with girlfriends, and walking is incredibly good for you. That was a moment of truth and a big shift, taking care of my physiological life.”
“I’ve been an inconsistent parent at times, and it’s my greatest regret. When my daughter was small, I worked too much. I was replicating what my own mother did.”
“When my kids leave I would like to go back to school. To me, a great boomer fantasy would be creating courses of study, like book clubs, where people come together in small groups, for lectures, reading, movies, music, art, and then travel to that place.”
What’s Next?… “If I can challenge old ideas about aging, I will feel more and more invigorated.”
“As we get older, we say goodbye to a lot of people. We say goodbye to our friends, to our family, and discover our capacity to love and communicate and have intimacy—real intimacy, not the superficial intimacy we had in our youth. Strip away the bulls---; be done with that. Ask yourself these two questions: Did I learn to live wisely? Did I love well?”
“If I get the chance, I would like to evolve as a public voice, to find a way to talk about making better choices. It is very difficult to talk about people’s personal choices, and the addiction to having what we want when we want it.”
About AARP The Magazine
With more than 33 million readers nationwide, AARP The Magazine (www.aarpmagazine.org) is the world's largest circulation magazine and the definitive lifestyle publication for Americans 50+. Reaching over 22.5 million households, AARP The Magazine delivers comprehensive content through in-depth celebrity interviews, health and fitness features, consumer interest information and tips, book and movie reviews and financial guidance. Published bimonthly in print and continually online, AARP The Magazine was founded in 1958 and is the flagship title of AARP Publications.
About AARP
AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that helps people 50+ have independence, choice and control in ways that are beneficial and affordable to them and society as a whole. AARP does not endorse candidates for public office or make contributions to either political campaigns or candidates. We produce AARP The Magazine, the definitive voice for 50+ Americans and the world's largest-circulation magazine with over 33 million readers; AARP Bulletin, the go-to news source for AARP's 39 million members and Americans 50+; AARP Segunda Juventud, the only bilingual U.S. publication dedicated exclusively to the 50+ Hispanic community; and our website, AARP.org. AARP Foundation is an affiliated charity that provides security, protection, and empowerment to older persons in need with support from thousands of volunteers, donors, and sponsors. We have staffed offices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.