March 2, 2010

Who would have thought that in an age of excess and in a place where the mantra seems to be “big is always better”, Hollywood's leading ladies would begin to downsize?

And I'm not talking about the size of their swish mansions, length of their manicured fingernails or amount of hair extensions glued to their scalp.

Oh no. Instead I'm talking about two distinct assets in their lives: the age of their men and the size of their breasts.

Less is more ... Drew Barrymore reportedly has opted for smaller breasts.

Let's start with the men.

Last year, it was Newsweek magazine that boldly declared 2009 was “the year of the cougar”.

And who could blame them? After all, it seemed everyone from Jennifer Aniston to Ivana Trump to Madonna was dating a younger man, effectively morphing the May/December relationship into the trend du jour among the glam set.

In fact, ever since my serial singleton friend Andrew introduced me to a sport he called “cougar hunting” when I started my blog, I'd long been fascinated by this type of romantic union.

And it seems I'm not the only one. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, relationships in which the woman is 10 years older than her partner have risen by 23 per cent since 1996, the statistics making it quite clear it's not only the celebrities who are doing it.

Of course having a celebrity figurehead at the helm of a dating trend helps loosen traditional dating conventions and encourages the rest to follow suit.

And thanks to the likes of cougar It-girl Demi Moore and pin-up toy boy Ashton Kutcher hooking up, getting hitched and flirting with each other via their Twitter accounts, the trend has spread like hot wax.

And the marketers have quickly cottoned on. Popping up on the singles scene are speed dating events for cougars; online dating sites for toy boys, “cougar cruises” and reality TV shows exploring the theme.

Yet as with with all trends, it was inevitable that a younger, swankier brand would soon emerge.

Yep, there are now a new brand of man hunters on the block: the “pumas”.

These women are a little younger (in their 20s or 30s), a little hotter and a little more vicious than their older counterparts.

And with Jennifer Aniston set to play a role in a new film titled Pumas, one can only imagine what will happen to relationships in the near future.

But on to another topical favourite: Hollywood breast sizes. At the same time as leading ladies are downsizing when it comes to their choices in men, many are also downsizing in another area of their lives: their breasts.

It's hard to believe that a cup of cleavage would ever go out of fashion but it seems celebrities such as Denise Richards, Victoria Beckham, Drew Barrymore and Jordan have all allegedly reduced their cup sizes, all in the name of fashion.

Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr Nicholas Nikolov says that he's noticed the trend among his celebrity clients and says that, while men will always be attracted to bigger breasts, things are slowly starting to change.

“Men no longer appreciate larger breasts alone,” he said. “They appreciate beauty of women with good proportions overall.”

My 28-year-old cameraman friend Joe concurs. He told me a story about spotting a woman out on the street who had “the tiniest legs and the tiniest waste, but the largest 'rack' I'd ever seen. She should have tipped over. Physics doesn't say she should operate that way”.

While Joe admits he's more of a “boob” man than a “butt” guy, he says he's more attracted to women who are “in proportion for their height and who hold themselves with confidence”, rather than someone who's simply got large breasts for the sake of a bit of cleavage.

Oh, and he also prefers to date older women too ... just in case you were wondering ...

- http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/keeping-abreast-of-hollywood-20100302-pfo1.html

- http://www.drnikolov.com/