Thanks in part to social media and the rise of “lunchtime lifts”—cosmetic procedures that require little to no down-time—the tides are turning when it comes to plastic surgery. While many still prefer not to disclose the work they’ve had done, more women are opening up about the changes they’re making to their appearances.
For years even a whisper of plastic surgery or Botox was considered taboo, but it was especially so in Hollywood, where an incredibly singular form of “natural” beauty has long been the ideal. But like the influencers on our feeds, celebrities, too, have gotten more candid about their decisions and are reclaiming the conversation. Scroll on for 17 celebrities who are open about the changes they’ve made.
It sounds like something out of an Andy Cohen fever dream: a group of beloved Real Housewives gathered together to film a music video celebrating all the work they’ve had done. But, somewhat miraculously, it actually happened—all thanks to Fiber One, whose new campaign highlights the “work” the brownie has undergone to have less calories, less net carbs, and less grams of sugar. (Get it?)
The accompanying song, “Work Done,” includes lyrics like “Yeah, I’ve had some work done but Rome wasn’t built on wishes” and a video featuring what I’d call the champagne-soaked Justice League: Melissa Gorga (Real Housewives of New Jersey), Porsha Williams (Real Housewives of Atlanta), Sonja Morgan (Real Housewives of New York), Dorinda Medley (Real Housewives of New York), and Tamra Judge (Real Housewives of Orange County).
“Obviously, Housewives are known for putting it all out there,” Gorga says when I meet up with her, Williams, and Morgan the day after the campaign’s launch. “When I heard I was going to be in a music video—which, by the way, my fans have been asking me to do for years—I was very excited about it. The fans are going crazy because there’s Housewives from different franchises together, we’re singing, we’re dancing…I mean, we’re giving everybody everything they’ve ever wanted.”
[embedded content]
For Williams, it’s important to make it clear the song’s message is all about celebrating who you are, in whatever way that looks like to you. “If you’ve had actual work done, surgically or not, it’s a lifestyle of living better and being guilt free,” she explains.
Says Morgan, “We like to empower women and not put them down and say, ‘Oh, you’ve had your nose done’ and ‘you’ve had your boobs done.’ We’re not about that.”
“It’s not about shaming,” Gorga adds. “If something is going to make you feel a little more confident—if you want the bump out of your nose, if you want to enhance your boobs, whatever it may be—it’s it’s fair and it’s you. If it makes you feel good, then good for you.”
Here, we ask the women to tell us more: about plastic surgery, about the pressure of being on TV, and what work, if any, they might do next.
With a starring role on the hit series This Is Us, Mandy Moore is arguably one of the most talked-about actresses on television today. That exposure comes with its ups and downs, of course—but when it comes to the seemingly inevitable rumors of plastic surgery that celebrities come up against, Moore has a firm message for speculators.
Moore says she’s well aware that there’s chatter about “getting work done,” but she’s not backing down from giving a response. (Even though, for the record, no celebrity owes the public an answer or explanation for the decision to have plastic surgery.) In a conversation with Popsugar, the actress addressed rumors that she had plastic surgery with humor and honesty. The big takeaway? She doesn’t give those rumors any more attention than she needs to.
“I remember seeing some blog post that said I got a nose job,” Moore said in the interview. “I was like, ‘That’s weird—my nose is pretty imperfect.’ I have a crinkled part underneath the bridge of my nose and I remember laughing like, ‘I feel like I would have fixed that had I had a nose job.’ I don’t know, maybe it was just a weird picture or weird makeup or shading or something.”
Moore went on to share that those rumors are pretty pervasive in her industry: “People think everyone in Hollywood has had a nose job or some work done, but it’s not always true. People are going to believe what they want, and that’s fine,” she said. “And if having work done is going to make somebody feel better about themselves, then more power to them.”
In previous interviews, Moore has discussed becoming more self-assured as she’s grown up in Hollywood; now in her thirties, she’s said that the only person whose opinion matters to her now is her own. “You give less of a shit about how the world perceives you,” she said in her November 2018 Glamourcover story. “Now it’s more important to me to be self-satisfying. And I’m better at that. It just comes with time.”
Back in November, Carrie Underwood tripped on her front steps. The fall was a bad one; she broke her wrist and had to get 40 stitches in her face. Weeks later, Underwood announced to her fans that the accident had changed her appearance. “When I am ready to get in front of a camera, I want you all to understand why I might look a bit different,” she wrote. But when Underwood did appear in front of a camera again — at the Academy of Country Music Awards in April — fans were shocked. They had been prepared to welcome a new Underwood, but she looked like the same old Carrie.
Nine months after the accident, Underwood sat down with Redbook to talk about how the fall changed her life and, well, didn’t change her face. “Anytime someone gets injured, it looks pretty bad in the beginning, and you’re like, ‘What is this going to wind up like?’ You just don’t know,” she explained to the magazine. “It was also a perception thing, because I look at myself [now] and I see it quite a bit, but other people are like, ‘I wouldn’t have even noticed.’ Nobody else looks at you as much as you think they do. Nobody notices as much as you think they will, so that’s been nice to learn.”
She also addressed the nasty rumors that wound up circulating online that her injury was just a “cover-up” for facial plastic surgery. Spoiler alert: It wasn’t. “I’m on some magazine every other week for something crazy,” she said. “It’s a little sad, because the truth is just as interesting. I wish I’d gotten some awesome plastic surgery to make this [scar] look better.” Instead, she spent a few months out of the spotlight recovering: “Life is full of ups and downs, and I might have had a few more downs than ups last year.” But this year, she’s back, and stronger than ever — with the scar to prove it.
Plastic surgery is a purely personal choice, and yet for years tabloids have turned speculation of such into a national pastime—something Katy Perry, who’s been in the public eye for over a decade now, knows well. Of course, no celebrity should ever be obligated to “fess up” to having work done, but in a recent interview for her new CoverGirl lip gloss collection, Perry decided to address the long-standing rumors head on.
“I haven’t had any,” she told Refinery29 specifically about plastic surgery. “I’ve done lasers and got [filler] injections under my eyes for the hollowing—which I’d recommend for everyone who wants a solution for their dark circles—but all of my assets are real. People tend to think they are fake, but it doesn’t really matter.”
She joins a long list of celebrity women who have pushed back against the idea that their bodies and choices are up for debate, which feels especially relevant in a post-Weinstein world. Kaley Cuoco, Courteney Cox, and Sarah Hyland have all recently addressed the “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” stigma placed on women in Hollywood.
But because more people now are treating injectables and plastic surgery like any other treatment—and not like it’s something to hide—Perry said she sees that kind of judgment disappearing. “We’re getting away from that negative stigma about physical alterations. Of course, always be your authentic self, but if someone wants a nose job that makes them feel better, and they love their profile more because of it, it’s like ‘Go ahead!'” she said. “Do whatever makes you feel better about yourself.”
Attention Trader Joe’s shoppers: the beloved food retailer is recalling three of its prepackaged, deli-style salads due to the fact that some of them might inadvertently include pieces of glass or hard plastic, which would make for a very sad desk lunch indeed.
According to a statement released Saturday on the Trader Joe’s website, the salads included in the recall are the white meat chicken salad, the curried white chicken deli salad, and the turkey cranberry apple salad with use-by dates from November 10 through November 21 and inspection code P-40299.
The offending white meat chicken salads (SKU 98091) and curried white chicken deli salads (SKU 96426) were sold in Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. The potentially polluted turkey cranberry apple salads were sold in Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington and have the SKU 60983.
If you purchased one of those salads with that inspection code in one of those states, Trader Joe’s is telling customers to throw them away or return them to a retail location for a full refund. You can also call customer service at (626) 599-3817 or email them if you have any questions.
The good news is that all of the potentially dangerous products have already been removed from stores, so no future customers should be at risk. Again, if you did buy any of those salads, but they have a different inspection code, Trader Joe’s says they should be fine.
This isn’t the first time the retailer has issued a recall of its products. Last year they had to recall some of their frozen foods due to a listeria outbreak that also affected Starbucks and Chipotle. But as long as they keep selling those dark chocolate peanut butter cups, anyway, something something tells us business won’t suffer too bad for this.
