The Beauty of Retrospect, Actress Edition: Kate Winslet

Kate Winslet has done two major movies since I last featured her here in 2007. Both of them were released in 2008.

In The Reader, the British actress played an ex-Nazi concentration camp guard who has an affair with a teenager who witnesses her trial for war crimes when he becomes an adult - a role Winslet admits to being very difficult - and in Revolution Road, she starred as a suburban housewife who can't escape the ennui of her existence. This movie reteamed her with her Titanic co-star Leonardo Di Caprio, who played her husband. This time around, DeCaprio appeared to be like the man Rose DeWitt (Kate Winslet's character in Titanic) was relieved to have avoided marrying.

Currently, Kate Winslet is set to play the title role in a miniseries version of the 1945 Joan Crawford movie Mildred Pierce.

That's it for retrospectives. I'll be back with new subjects soon.

The Beauty of Retrospect, Actress Edition: Teri Polo

Being a fan of Teri Polo feels like what it must have felt like for Charlie Brown of "Peanuts" fame to be a fan of Joe Shlabotnik, a baseball player (fictional, of course) who kept ending up in the minor leagues. I hope against hope that she's going to be a bigger star than she is.

Teri Polo did enjoy success as Pamela Byrnes in the Meet the Parents movies, but it's only as Pamela that she's been able to attract the masses. Alas, she has to her credit two failed television series, three failed television pilots, and a couple of forgotten movies.

She remains active, though. She recently appeared in the cable television movie Expecting a Miracle and, at this writing, is set to appear in a third Meet the Parents movie.

The Beauty of Retrospect, Actress Edition: Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman, featured on this blog in September 2007, is thought of as being from Australia, but she was actually born in Hawaii to Australian parents living in Honolulu and lived there for four years. As a result, she has dual Australian and American citizenship.

More recently she appeared in the historical adventure movie Australia and in the movie version of the sexually explosive Broadway musical Nine.

She's married to country singer Keith Urban.

The Beauty of Retrospect, Actress Edition: Katherine Heigl

When last we left Katherine Heigl on this blog in August 2007, she was starring in the ABC hospital drama "Grey's Anatomy" as Dr. Isobel Stevens, and filming the movie 27 Dresses.

She's no longer on that show, having left to focus more on her family, but I suspect that her rising movie career also has something to do with it.

Not only has 27 Dresses since been released, but Heigl has also appeared in 2009's The Ugly Truth, and she's starring in the coming movie Life As We Know It, which she's also producing. It's set for an October 2010 release as I type.

The Beauty of Retrospect, Actress Edition: Courteney Cox

Courteney Cox has come a long way from her appearance in a Bruce Springsteen video.

In September 2009, she returned to network television as the star of ABC's "Cougar Town," a sitcom about a middle-aged Florida real estate agent who still thinks she's hot.

Well, actually, she is. :-D

"Cougar Town" is so titled because "cougar" is an unflattering, frankly misogynistic term for a middle-aged woman who aggressively goes after younger men, which Cox's character Jules Cobb has a tendency to do. As "Cougar Town" is proving to be more of an ensemble comedy than just a Courteney Cox vehicle, the show is likely to be retitled in time for the start of its second season.

The Beauty of Retrospect, Actress Edition: Julie Bowen

When I last featured television actress Julie Bowen, who first made a name for herself as Carol Vessey on the late and lamented NBC comedy-drama "Ed," she was on ABC's "Boston Legal."

That has changed.

Julie Bowen - still looking as gorgeous and fresh-faced as she did in 2000, when "Ed" debuted - now stars as Claire Dunphy in "Modern Family," a sitcom about an extended family comprised of three separate units - a traditional nuclear family, a gay couple and their adopted daughter, and a third unit involving the family patriarch married to a young and sexy trophy wife with a son from a previous marriage.

Claire is the mother in the nuclear family. In addition to dealing with a vain older daughter, a nasty younger daughter, and a dimwitted son, she has to contend with the whims of her doofus husband Phil, who is sort of like the guy Carol Vessey could have easily married if she hadn't wed Ed Stevens first.

The Beauty of Retrospect, Special Supermodel Edition: The Return of Louise Vyent

With her striking looks and wonderful poise, Louise Vyent left an indelible impression in many a fashion magazine and catalog in the late eighties and early nineties. That's precisely why I continue to revisit her. :-)

I don't know of many models who could make the ensemble above look chic, yet still bring life to conservative outfits such as the one below.

Her casual look was no less captivating. (The photo below is from a Dillard's catalog.)

Now a photographer in New Jersey (a point of fact I made before), Louise Vyent has expanded her photographic talent to specializing on portraits of teenagers. In addition to her main Web site (the link to which I've provided once again), she has a separate page for her teenage portrait business. :-)

The Beauty of Retrospect, Special Supermodel Edition: Heidi Klum With and Without Makeup

Heidi Klum, perhaps the most famous high-profile fashion model of all time, looks stunning at her most glamorous, as seen below in this photo from November 2007.

But she looks even more beautiful without makeup.

She has that wonderful "Fraulein next door" look. :-)

Whether in the public eye or not, Heidi Klum has a lot of class.

The Beauty of Retrospect, Special Supermodel Edition: Beverly Johnson, Casually

Exactly what makes Beverly Johnson a top model after so many years?

Maybe it's her ability to strike a casual, natural pose like this one without even trying.

Interestingly, she originally aspired to be a criminal justice lawyer.

The Beauty of Retrospect, Special Supermodel Edition: Nancy Dutiel, Double Image

I didn't think I'd be returning to the subject of former Lancôme model Nancy Dutiel so soon, but I just had to share this picture!

This double image, showing her in both black and white and in color, really brings out her beauty in a unique way. Double images of Nancy Dutiel were regularly used in her early Lancôme print ads, accompanied by the slogan "From sensible to sensational." :-D

The Beauty of Retrospect, Special Supermodel Edition: Nancy Dutiel, In Close-Up

This stunning close-up photo of Nancy Dutiel is from early in her tenure as the spokesmodel for Lancôme in the United States.

As I've indicated here before, Nancy Dutiel's stint with Lancôme was very brief, but it produced some memorable print ads and even a few captivating TV ads, where she displayed her incredible figure and poise as well as her undeniably beautiful face. Isabella Rossellini, who replaced her, may have had star power, but Nancy Dutiel had a unique blend of sexiness and style that made her such a lovely presence.

This picture should certainly make that obvious. :-)

The Beauty of Retrospect, Special Supermodel Edition: Nancy Donahue

With her trim figure and fresh appearance, Nancy Donahue was undoubtedly one of the greatest high-profile fashion models of the 1980s. That's why I'm featuring her again here.

Born and raised in Massachusetts, Nancy Donahue was discovered by Mademoiselle magazine while in college after she won a modeling contest. She appeared in numerous magazines and ad campaigns throughout the eighties, and while she had plenty of beauty and glamour, she also projected a unique Boston Irish sensibility and panache that no one else could match. :-)

These days, Nancy Donahue is an entrepreneur, having co-founded a company selling a beauty product that . . .

On second thought, why not check out her product for yourself at this link? :-) The site explains it better than I can.

The picture above is a more recent photo of Nancy Donahue, demonstrating how ageless her beauty really is. :-)

The Beauty of Retrospect, Estée Lauder Women: Karen Graham

You saw this coming, of course. :-)

I don't know if what can say about Karen Graham that I haven't already said, but it's amazing that I'm still finding pictures of her that I haven't seen. But then, her fifteen-year stint as Estée Lauder's official spokesmodel and a three-year comeback at the turn of the millenium would produce a lot of pics, wouldn't they? :-D

The above ad shows a conservatively dressed Karen Graham in muted, autumnal tones. The picture below is much more sexy. :-D

This photo, from a 1981 Cinnabar ad, shows our heroine in a strapless, low-cut red dress. How regal. ;-)

The Beauty of Retrospect, Estée Lauder Women: Shaun Casey

Shaun Casey, you will recall, served as an Estée Lauder spokesmodel concurrently with Karen Graham in the early eighties before both were replaced by Willow Bay. Although Ms. Casey's run was brief, it produced memorable Victor Skrebneski photos like the black-and-white one below.

Very nautical looking. :-)

I forget the Lauder product this was meant to advertise, but does that really matter? :-D

The Latest Numbers

I have now posted 349 different women on this blog.

For the next several days, I'll be posting pictures of women previously shown here, including a few of them - actresses, mostly - who have gone on to new projects (movies, new television shows) since I last depicted them. Not a bad idea to catch up on what they are or have been doing, eh?

I'll get back to newly featured women later.