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http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6286471%255E13780,00.html

's battle for beautyBy Grace BradberryApril 15, 2003

THOUGH the "cosmetologists" of Beverly Hills consider it heresy to say so, expensive beauty treatments can make you look older.

is locked in a no-win war with her beauty treatments. Picture: AFP If they don't want anyone to find this out, they should come up with a way to keep Griffith at home. Recent pictures of the actor, 45, reveal a woman whose essential good looks are caught up in a no-win battle with her beauty treatments. The forehead is smooth (botox injections take care of that) but a little too smooth. Her lips are plump (half the middle-aged women of Los Angeles look as if they've been punched in the mouth, thanks to collagen) but oddly misshapen, while her skin looks reddened and patchy. There is a weary look, too, in Griffith's eyes, and a strange dissonance between those parts of her face that have been "fixed" and those allowed to take their natural course. It is a discord that is suddenly emphasising her age rather than disguising it. The odd thing is that only a few months ago, Griffith was vowing to give up her very public struggle to look 10 years younger. Until two years ago, she had a $2 million-a-year advertising contract with Revlon, who saw her as an icon of ageing defiantly. However, recently she quipped, "I'm too old for 'defy it'." But what is driving Griffith in her desperate battle to hold on to her youth? With her luxurious home life, her six-year marriage to one of the world's sexiest actors, Banderas, her three children (by three different men) and the self-respect that should come from a string of successful films, why can't she enjoy what should be carefree years? She has battled addictions to drink, drugs and prescription painkillers and now, those who know the actor nominated for an for Working Girl in 1988 say she is eaten up with anxiety, dwelling on fears about her husband's fidelity and her career. "She has three healthy, beautiful children, a husband who loves her and enough money never to have to work again," an associate said. "The only fly in the ointment is her own insecurity. She always talks as though staying with her is conditional. It's all: 'If I look old, will he leave me?' The irony is, there's nothing more ageing than stress and she is always stressed out about something." Two years after she left Miami Vice star Don for Banderas, she was quoted as saying: " doesn't look at me in the same way anymore. The last time I went out without make-up he looked at me as if to say, 'Have I really married this old bag?' I'll never forget that look. "It was full of disgust for my wrinkles and saggy skin. If he didn't think that way why would he make me exercise for five hours a day and keep sending me to the plastic surgeon? He knows what I've become - old and ugly." The Daily Telegraph