The Canberra Times - Mark Juddery column

Club 40 never looked so good

June 11, 2007

Soon it will be big news. Perhaps it already is. I’m not sure, as I don’t often read celebrity magazines. I can’t fail to notice, however, that Nicole Kidman often makes the front cover for… well, practically everything she does – and a few things she doesn't do. Strangely, even the fictitious stuff about Our Nic is duller than the real stuff that happens to most of my friends. If the magazines must invent her life story, why can’t they make it worth reading? If I read that she had one of her legs amputated and auctioned off to raise money for drug awareness… now that would be interesting! Bloody stupid, but interesting.

            But on June 20, the celebrity media will no doubt go berserk, as she does something new. Lauren Bacall made the cover of Time magazine when she did it. Greta Garbo didn’t do it until after her career was over. Sadly, Marilyn Monroe, Belinda Emmett and the average Botswanan woman never did it. Neither has Lindsay Lohan… though hopefully she will, when the time comes.

            Yes, on June 20, Nicole turns 40! Many of you are probably bemoaning this fact, talking about how old it makes you feel. Remember that big-haired teenager of BMX Bandits and Bush Christmas? She’s grown up, in case you couldn’t figure that out from the fact that she’s been playing adult roles for the past 20 years. But now she’s almost 40, she’s officially not-very-young.

            It happens to everyone who is lucky enough. So far this year, that significant birthday has been celebrated by the likes of Annie Jones (the OTHER cute blonde from the golden age of Neighbours), Emily Watson, Alyssa-Jane Cook (one of Nicole’s first co-stars) and Erik Thomson. Kurt Cobain would have turned 40 in February, except that he’s now been dead for 13 years. (And in case you are inspired to say “Oh it seems like only yesterday”… please don’t.)

            Since we’re playing “Which celebrity will soon be officially middle-aged?”, please note that Frances O'Connor turns 40 tomorrow, eight days before Nicole, her fellow foreign-born, Hollywood-based Aussie. And before the end of the year, all going well, we can celebrate the big day for Will Ferrell, Matt LeBlanc, Harry Connick Jr., Faith Hill, Mira Sorvino, Guy Pearce, Vanilla Ice, Sophie B. Hawkins and Jamie Foxx. Nicole’s own husband, Keith Urban, will join the club in October – two days after fellow Aussie Jacqueline McKenzie, and two days before Julia Roberts.

            If this still doesn’t make you think that time is passing you by, then try this: remember when Tina Arena, Lisa Bonet and Miranda Otto were kids? Guess how old they turn this year? Much more was going on in 1967 than the Aboriginal referendum and that Beatles album with the nice cover.

            I’m only a few years younger than all those luminaries – and yes, I remember them when they were all fresh-faced young things. So does it make me feel old? Well… no. For a start, even today none of those people look particularly ancient. Of course, most of them can afford surgery.

            But then, most 40-year-olds in 2007 look younger than the 40-year-olds of the past used to look. Just as cutting-edge software allows us to be rock stars and movie directors in our own homes, cutting-edge cosmetics (or whatever it is) allow us to be film stars. Or at least, to age as slowly as they do.

            Still, some people approaching 40 complain about feeling old. I occasionally run into friends who say things like “My nephew can’t remember the Hawke years!” or “My teenage daughter thinks that Lionel Ritchie was just some annoying old git.” Heavens, where did she get THAT idea?

            Other friends are sighing about how, at age 35, they’ve wasted their lives. OK, they’ve probably left it too late to become an Olympic gymnast or a rock’n’roll martyr, but they’re still younger than most blacksmiths and comic-book writers. Besides, people are living longer (even as they look younger), so 40 has become almost dangerously young.

            Of course, when I hear that Dakota Fanning, Nikki Webster and the kid from The Sixth Sense have turned 40… THEN I’ll feel old.