Two faces of TV: Left, Janice Dickinson in scenes from her reality show, 'The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency'; right, Julia Louis-Dreyfus in 'The New Adventures of Old Christine.'

TV Studios See Shortage of Lined, Lively Faces; Importing British Stars


As an aging divorcee on the CBS sitcom "The New Adventures of Old Christine," Julia Louis-Dreyfus struggles to grow older with dignity, often sparring with the more-Botoxed-than-thou moms at her son's private school. In one memorable scene, Ms. Louis-Dreyfus, 46, ends an argument with the "meanie-moms" by shouting, "At least I have my original face!"

She's one of the few. The rarest commodity in TV these days, say veteran casting directors: stars without Restylane-frozen faces and collagen-inflated lips. Indeed, studios -- scrambling to finish casting the 113 pilots slated to go into production this month for the fall season -- say there's a shortage of familiar faces that look their age. Says independent casting director Jeff Meshel: "What's really jarring is that some of these people are not very old."

Call it TV's Botox crisis. For the first time, Hollywood's addiction to cosmetic surgery is affecting how television gets made. Studios such as Fox have started doing more movie-style screen tests for TV roles, in part to see how overzealous cosmetic treatments will play on screen. In recent years, Warner Bros. has doubled its casting staff in foreign countries like England and Canada where Botox is less common. And writers, particularly for daytime shows, say they now sometimes write plastic surgery into roles to explain to audiences why characters have retreaded faces.

Looking for Reality

"We try very hard for authenticity," says Marcia Shulman, Fox's executive vice president of casting. "If you're playing a mom you need to look like a mom. Otherwise it takes viewers completely out of the show." A rival studio says it made an offer to a star this spring on the highly unusual condition that she "lays off the injectibles." Ultimately, the actress lost the job when the network tweaked the script to call for a male character.

Both TV and the movies have been coping with the effects of cosmetic treatments and plastic surgery for years. But the problem is greater for television shows, because there are more close-ups. With the majority of camera shots in TV from chest to head, faces are more heavily scrutinized and harder to hide with lighting. As in movies, peer pressure and a cultural fixation on youth play a role in the Botoxing of the small screen. (While facial surgery and treatments are more prevalent among actresses, casting directors say that actors are also loaded up with injections.)

Even greater culprits are high-definition programming and the exploding sales of giant flat-screen TVs -- and not only because high def picks up flaws once fixable with makeup. High definition also cuts the other way, showing facelift scars, overly peeled and pulled skin and extra-firm foreheads. "The Botox used to be less noticeable but high def has changed that," says one network president. "Now half the time the injectibles are so distracting we don't even notice the acting."

Joel Thurm, who served as Aaron Spelling's casting director during the late megaproducer's "Fantasy Island" and "Love Boat" period, says high-def television shouldn't shoulder all the blame. As networks have grown more corporatized -- and as intense competition and rising costs have pinched profitability -- they have come to rely more heavily on "name" actors and actresses to lessen the risk of launching new shows.

"They used to take more of a chance on casting and if you made one or even two mistakes it wasn't the end of the world," he says. "It's drastically different now. The heads of drama and comedy at the networks are trying so hard to protect themselves that they want people with proven track records. Well, guess what: A lot of those folks have had a little work."

The shortage of "stars with no scars" has contributed to the increasing globalization of television casting. In years past, the major studios say they only went searching overseas as a final resort. Now the likes of CBS-Paramount Television and ABC Television Studio often scout internationally. NBC plucked a British star for the leading role in its high-profile "Bionic Woman" pilot; ditto for ABC and "Pushing Daisies," a drama about people who come back to life.

Network and studio executives say television is already suffering from a plastic surgery hangover in one important genre: comedy. Successful sitcoms, including "Old Christine," typically feature actors and actresses who use a heavy arsenal of facial expressions. Failed comedies -- for example, "Hope & Faith," "Listen Up" and "20 Good Years" -- often feature performers that border on cardboard caricatures. "Frozen isn't funny," says Mr. Thurm.

Some comedy stars have joined executives in sounding an alarm. Delta Burke, famous from 1986's "Designing Women" and a star of ABC's "Boston Legal," says she's trying to cut back on Botox. "When I'm watching myself I'm not moving," the 50-year-old star told a TV magazine last month. And "Desperate Housewives" star Teri Hatcher, 42, recently told Oprah Winfrey that she stopped using Botox "more than a couple years ago," adding, "I would hate to blame any bad acting on whatever was shot in my face."

Not All Natural

Despite the pleas for restraint, nobody is expecting the problem to go away, especially with a thicket of cable networks ready to hire just about anyone. Oxygen, working hard to plump up its ratings, last year gave collagen-friendly fashionista Janice Dickinson her own modeling reality show. In a promo for "The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency" Oxygen boasted that the former model has "one of the most recognizable faces in Hollywood." It politely left out why, although Ms. Dickinson herself has been candid about her use of cosmetic procedures.

And what's considered too much plastic surgery by one network can be just fine at another. Two major casting directors say they recently considered Melanie Griffith, famous for 1988's "Working Girl," for TV projects but ultimately deemed her "uncastable" due to her extra-plump lips and rigid-looking upper face.

Still, CBS just hired Ms. Griffith, 49, for a role in one of the most buzzed about new pilots of the year, a musical drama called "Viva Laughlin" that's based on a similar British series and co-produced by Hugh Jackman. Representatives for the two companies declined to comment, and a spokeswoman for Ms. Griffith didn't return calls.

Perhaps CBS is counting on reviews similar to one she got last season for her work on the failed WB sitcom "Twins." Wrote critic Joel Rubinoff: "Melanie Griffith -- virtually unrecognizable after plastic surgery, Botox, you name it -- is lovably vacant as the ditzy mom."