Looking at the picture and Helen’s enviable curves, it seems hard to believe that this is the same actress whose portrayal of the Queen won her an Oscar. Yet this was no retouched studio shot, with the only work to transform her toned body having been carried out during gruelling hours in the gym.

She bought a castle in the neighbourhood to celebrate her 2007 Academy Award for Best Actress.

To celebrate her 2007 Academy Award for Best Actress, she bought a 500-year-old building and grounds near Lecce and immediately drew up big plans for the estate with refurbishment work starting last summer. The property was uninhabitable, with tumbledown walls and a driveway that was little more than a dirt track. Her new Italian home is surrounded by high fortified walls and has a mature vineyard within its grounds. The Mediterranean can be seen half a mile away.

Dame Helen also owns an enormous home in California and a property by the Thames in Wapping, East London.

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Tea For Two

The British actress had turned down a dinner invitation previously in the aftermath of her Oscar triumph. . At the time, Dame Helen, 61, said she made “every effort” to make the date at Buckingham Palace but her filming schedule in the US was “impossible to change”.

But all was forgiven as she had tea with Queen Elizabeth II in the royal box at the Royal Ascot race meeting on Thursday. The pair spent nearly an hour chatting and enjoying English traditional cucumber sandwiches and cakes with their tea.

Why Not Find A Special Someone To Have Tea With….. UK, British personals & dating

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During her acceptance speech at the Academy Award ceremony, Dame Helen praised and thanked Elizabeth II and stated that she had maintained her dignity and weathered many storms during her reign as Queen.

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Hollywood makes it official: Older women are sexy

By Bonnie Erbe

May I have the envelope, please? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the verdict is in and Hollywood has decided: Older women are officially declared sexy. At least that’s the media’s response to two major releases this holiday season. The media have ruled it so (and they always know, don’t they?) due to the success of “Something’s Gotta Give,” starring Diane Keaton, rejuvenating her career after a decade or two of semi-retirement, and “Calendar Girls,” starring Helen Mirren and Julie Walters – British actresses of a certain age.

In the former, Keaton plays a fabulously successful playwright in her 50s who dumps Keanu Reeves, a hunk of a younger lover, for Jack Nicholson, who plays a terminally single, senescent playboy. In the latter, a sweet group of polite British 40-to-60-something ladies pose nude (or almost) as a fund-raising stunt to drum up money for one of their cancer-stricken spouses.

For the longest time, stretch marks and wrinkles were beyond passe. They were verboten, terminators, as it were for women’s acting careers. Now (we can hope at least) they’re in vogue.

It’s about time the reel Hollywood caught up with the real Hollywood. In their private lives, older actresses are pairing up with younger male stars at unheard-of rates. Look at a sampling of Hollywood’s hottest couples: Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher- she is 16 years his senior. Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake – he is 9 years younger than she. Then there’s 44-year-old Madonna with her director-spouse Guy Ritchie, 10 years her junior. There’s Julianne Moore, who trumps her mate, Bart Freundlich, by nine years.

Long gone is the time (1967 was the year) when “Mrs. Robinson” was new to the Hollywood lexicon and the idea of older woman with her “spring rooster” was shocking, jaw-dropping, and bizarre. Even into the early ’70s, the movie-going public was still incredulous when Burt Reynolds, then a major sex symbol (but God knows why) had a four-year romance with singer Dinah Shore, who was 20 years older.

But is this progress, or is it Botox? Are younger men just more accepting of white hair, yellowed teeth, wrinkles, and sagging skin? Or have Botox, hair dye, tooth bleach, and plastic surgery merely transformed 60-year-old women into 45-year-old look-alikes?

Novelist and columnist Amy Sohn makes a fabulous point on her Web site. “Women in my mother’s generation are supposed to be happy that there are more and more roles for middle-aged actresses, but there’s not much to applaud for when the actresses look like mutated freaks. When my parents see a movie and my dad admits a crush on the 52-year-old, nipped-and-tucked, female star, my mom’s not going to feel flattered. She’s going to feel majorly dissed – because until she pays the 20 grand to get the work done herself, she’ll never be able to compare.”

The question is valid: If middle-age and older actresses merely cut and paste themselves into looking younger, are they really leading us into a new era, or just reinvigorating ancient stereotypes?

While we are not yet riding the crest of a tsunami, the data tell us we’re moving forward. The Screen Actors Guild collects data on diversity in filmmaking. In 2001, the guild reports actresses landed 38 percent of all movie roles and actresses over the age of 40 landed 24 percent of all film roles. That, while women overall accounted for 51 percent of the U.S. population, and women over the age of 40 represent 22.6 percent of the population. In 1992, actresses secured 29 percent of total roles and women over the age of 40 landed a mere 9 percent.

Actress Rosanna Arquette released a documentary earlier this year called, “Searching for Deborah Winger” in which she interviewed 25 leading (or formerly leading) actresses including Jane Fonda, Whoopi Goldberg, Sharon Stone, and Vanessa Redgrave. They talked about the consequences of aging and trying to stay alive professionally in an industry that so worships youth. Said Whoopi Goldberg, “I’m being stalked by my butt. It’s gotten bigger since I hit 45 and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Ah, Whoopi! Lead us to truth, once again.

Technorati Tags: Hollywood, older women, article, sexy, Diane Keaton, Helen Mirren, Keanu Reeves, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Madonna, Julianne Moore, Rosanna Arquette

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Helen Mirren, making a guest appearance on Ophra’s post Oscar TV special revealed she didn’t wear underwear to the Academy Awards. It seems the champagne-colored Christian Lacrois gown was from fitting and custom made for the 61 year old screen and stage legend.

“You look at the inside of this dress. It’s as beautiful as the outside. It’s fantastic. It was all made for me, so I didn’t have to have any underwear.” While grabbing her chest, Helen continued, “It held me like two angel’s hands.”

Check out this great video that’s tribute to Helen Mirren. It’s set to the music Pop Goes My Heart by Hugh Grant and there are many pictures that I’m sure you’ve never seen before.

Technorati Tags: Dame Helen Mirren, Helen Mirren, Ophra, Oscar, Academy Awards, Christian Lacrois, Helen Mirren, Pop Goes My Heart, Hugh Grant

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