Jezebel: vanity

Addicted To Beauty Should Be Called "Vanity Is Ugly"

Dodai — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 12:20:00 EDT

Actually, from what the cast members reveal in this preview clip, the new Oxygen show (premiering tonight) could be titled Plastic Surgery Overload. These men and women don't just work at a "medi-spa" in Southern California; they're customers:

Combined, they've had breast implants, cheek implants, chin implants, nose jobs, dental procedures, neck liposuction, waist liposuction and laser hair removal. One woman has had Restylane injected into her feet.

In today's New York Times, Ginia Bellafante writes:

"Addicted to Beauty" aims to be "The Office" with liposuction, the emphasis placed on staff politics rather than on patient shenanigans… Nobody looks good; everybody merely appears as desperate as [a castmember named] Gary sounds.

LA Times TV critic Mary McNamara calls Addicted To Beauty "less a reality show than an infomercial." Whether people tune in to watch a "reality" show in which people are so fake remains to be seen. But since these people clearly feed on attention, it seems kind of creepy to enable them.

Tucking, Augmenting and Office Politics [NY Times]
'Addicted to Beauty' [LA Times]

Death Becomes Her

Sadie — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:30:00 EDT

A new study finds that the obituary photographs people choose are getting progressively younger - even as we're dying older. The number of outdated obit pics more than doubled between 1967 and 1997. [UPI, Obit]

Bet You Think This Post Is About You

Dodai — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:20:00 EDT

Do you have a glamorous Facebook picture? Do you have tons of Facebook "friends"? Researchers from the University of Georgia have found that the number of Facebook friends and wallposts that individuals have on their profile pages correlates with narcissism. In other words: How you behave online — with numerous yet shallow relationships — is often consistent with how you behave in real life. Facebook profiles can be used to detect whether someone is a narcissist, but, associate professor W. Keith Campbell says: "Nearly all of our students use Facebook, and it seems to be a normal part of people's social interactions. It just turns out that narcissists are using Facebook the same way they use their other relationships -– for self promotion with an emphasis on quantity of over quality." [EurekAlert]

Jackie O's Perfectly-Designed Camelot Was Also Full Of Uppers

Jessica — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 18:00:00 EDT

Although it's common knowledge at this point that John Kennedy. schtupped everything that moved, this month's Vanity Fair insists on perpetuating the Camelot fantasy of squeaky clean Kennedy imagery. Though painting Jack as the ideal family man is dishonest at best, the constant reverence given to Jackie galls me no end. Sure, she was beautiful and slim and she dressed well. Good for her. Most thorough accounts of Jackie also show her to be a gold-digging, status-seeking lightweight. Also? Through most of the early sixties Jack and Jackie were as high as kites, receiving near-daily amphetamine-laced injections from Dr. Max Jacobson, aka "Miracle Max."

According to a 1989 biography called A Woman Named Jackie by C. David Heymann:

Truman Capote described the common effect of the Jacobson amphetamine treatment as one of 'instant euphoria. You feel like Superman. You're flying. Ideas come at the speed of light. You go 72 hours straight without so much as a coffee break. You don't need sleep, you don't need nourishment. If it's sex you're after, you go all night. Then you crash-it's like falling down a well...You go running back to [Miracle Max]. You're looking for the German mosquito, the insect with the magic pinprick. He stings you, and all at once you're soaring again.' Max Jacobson's amphetamine injections provided Jackie Kennedy with the fuel that enabled her to survive the White House Restoration Project."

She needed her energy for decorating! And that's not all. After Kennedy's death, Jackie's marriage to Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis was widely acknowledged to be for the money. "I can't very well marry a dentist from New Jersey," Jackie told friends. And boy, did Jackie ever clean up. Before she even agreed to marry Onassis, Jackie insisted that he put $3 million into her bank account. "Do you think $3 million is too much?" Onassis asked an associate. "Hell no. You can buy a supertanker on that, but then you have to pay fuel, maintenance, insurance and a lot of extras."

Wait! There's more. According to a new book, Ol' Supertanker also didn't like it if her daughter, Caroline, put on pound or two. "You're not going to order dessert, Caroline," Jackie allegedly said to Caroline. "You're much too fat. Nobody will ever want to marry you."

Say what you will about Hilary Clinton, but at least she never told Chelsea to lay off the cheesecake. Jackie O the icon might have been a model of impeccable taste, but as a person, she was pretty fucking tasteless. Unseen Camelot [Vanity Fair]