Enough already!

Posted: Wednesday 19 May 2010 07:11pm

Apart from the glaringly obvious, the tragedy of the Bogdanoff twins, Igor and Grichka, is that these guys would think they look really hot. The former TV heartthrobs stunned fellow partygoers at the Cannes Film Festival this week with their alarmingly alien features.

In the 1980s, the-then boyishly handsome pair (now 60) hosted popular prime time series on science and science fiction on French television, and appear to have taken the subject matter as inspiration for their surgeries.

After multiple procedures believed to include chin and cheek implants, as well as overdosing on the Botox and fillers, the Bogdanoffs are totally unrecognisable from their former selves. They looked pretty happy with themselves, anyway.

An equally puzzling phenomenon is that of US TV starlet Heidi Montag, who submitted to 10 cosmetic surgery procedures in one day last year to morph into a Barbie factory second cum Hugh Hefner girlfriend clone, whether or not that was her intention. (One of the stranger aspects of her transformation is that Heidi didn’t bother about the cellulite on her thighs. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course, just that it seemed a far simpler and more obvious way of improving her appearance.)

Heidi, 23 – whose main claim to fame prior to her surgical reinvention was her role on faux reality show The Hills as a vacuous, obnoxious dilettante who wants to be famous without doing anything menial as work – was once a very pretty girl with a great body.

It’s not as if she isn’t pretty anymore; indeed if you didn’t know what she once looked like she could pass for stunning in a plastic kind of way. Except for the breasts, each big as a bowling ball or, as one Gen Y colleague exclaimed, “as big as her head!”.

Again, Heidi looks pretty pleased with herself – so much so, she is said to be planning another augmentation to further inflate her bust size.

While it could be considered a major publicity stunt – which worked stupendously well, if the case – the real reason is probably more sinister.

“Heidi obviously has major self-image problems, which need the care of a psychiatrist, not a plastic surgeon,” says US plastic surgeon Dr Anthony Youn, also a popular blogger and commentator on celebrity cosmetic surgery.

“Any plastic surgeon she goes to next should seriously consider referring her to psychiatric care instead of picking up the scalpel.

“She appears to be a candidate for Body Dysmorphic Disorder, a psychiatric condition where the person sees their body in a completely unrealistic way. What we see as massive breasts, she sees as small breasts.”

The poster person for BDD, of course, is the infamous Cat Woman (aka The Bride of Wildenstein), Jocelyne Wildenstein.

The Swiss-born ex-wife of late American billionaire Alec Wildenstein has undergone at least seven face lifts and drastic eye reconstruction surgery and had dermal fillers in her lips, cheeks and chin.

Now 63, she embarked on her bizarre quest in her 40s when she feared her husband’s interest was waning.

“Pushing 50 and insecure about her looks, Jocelyne visited a renowned plastic surgeon,” says Dr Youn. “The first surgeries were successful. This happy state of affairs lasted quite some time [but then] she learned Alec wanted to sleep with other women.

“She formulated a plan that was so audacious in its daring that she may be forgiven for failing to see its drawbacks.

“Joceleyne realised that Alec loved his jungle estate, and the cats that inhabited it, more than anything else in life. So she returned to her plastic surgeon with an unusual request: She wanted to be transformed into one of the giant Cats that Alec loved so much.

“After countless surgeries – no one can say with certainty just how many – Jocelyne the Swiss beauty disappeared, and The Queen of the Jungle took her place.

“The first time Alec saw his `new’ wife, it’s said he screamed. Jocelyne returned to her plastic surgeon for more work. It’s rumoured that several prospective patients ran screaming from the office.”

The marriage subsequently ended in one of New York’s most bitter and expensive divorce settlements. So that worked …

I met Jocelyne at a party in New York a few years ago. Let’s just say photos do not do justice to the full catastrophe – and she’s had several more transformations since then.

While BDD is not always manifested in such extreme ways, the danger of going too far with cosmetic surgery can still radically alter a person’s appearance for the worse.

“People can lose perspective, and much of this can depend on a person’s peer group or doctor,” says Dr Gabrielle Caswell, President of the Cosmetic Physicians Society of Australasia.

“The one-millimetre-too-far rule is an important one, as that tiny amount can make a big difference in how you look.”

In Australia, a more natural look is favoured – Jocelyne Wildenstein’s case is “a tragedy in all areas – it would never happen in Australia,” says Dr Caswell – but she adds there can come a point where people don’t look natural and the face becomes expressionless.

“It’s important to choose a practitioner who is going to leave movement in your face, enhance your natural features, and be sympathetic to your genetic and individual ageing process.

“It’s important to note that in America their concept of beauty is much younger, rather than accepting that all ages have their own beauty, hence people are attempting to recapture or maintain something that is unachievable with our current technology.”

When assessing patients, Sydney plastic surgeon Dr Michael Miroshnik tries to divide motivating factors into “internal and external” groups.

“Internal motivators are those doing it for themselves, to enhance their appearance and make themselves feel great,” he says.

“They have often been thinking about it for a while and are very clear in what they hope to achieve from their surgery. From a plastic surgeon’s perspective, these people make the best patients and luckily form the majority of the patients we see.

“Conversely, external motivators are factors such as partners and careers, which give patients the incentive to seek surgery they would otherwise not be interested in.

This is a smaller but dangerous group, because if the external motivating factors are not rectified by the procedure then these patients may not be happy. For these patients, surgery may not be the answer.”

You have been warned!

by Jenni Gilbert

Comments (0) Print Send to friend Share or bookmark this page