'Eat Pray Love' In; Botox Out?

Aug. 13, 2010

She eschews Botox, chants at a Hindu temple and puts her family before career. At 42, Julia Roberts seems to be hitting her stride.

With her new movie "Eat Pray Love" opening today, the actress told "Good Morning America," "It's nice to be really fulfilled and happy and play that your life is a mess."

Like other actresses in their 40s, Roberts is reinventing what it means to be in the fourth decade of life. Not being afraid of growing older is part of it.

Earlier this week, Roberts drew headlines for her comments nixing Botox. "I want my kids to know when I'm pissed, when I'm happy and when I'm confounded," she tells the current issue of Elle. "Your face tells a story and it shouldn't be a story about your drive to the doctor's office."

Her comments garnered cheers, especially from "Desperate Housewives" star Teri Hatcher, who posted on her Facebook page photographs of herself fresh out of the shower to show off her wrinkles and reveal that, while she once used Botox, she doesn't anymore.

"Love it or hate it, my face that is, no surgery, no implants, no matter what 'they" say. Decided I'd shoot myself in to reveal some truths about 'beauty' and hope it makes you all easier on yourself," the 45-year-old actress wrote in part. "Yes I am alone in my bathroom naked in a towel on behalf of women everywhere trying to make a point. Women YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL."

Under a photo of her frowning, Hatcher wrote: "I can be mad, or confused or sad and tired. Julia Roberts had that same vein in her forehead in 'Eat Pray Love.' Proud of Julia for being a real woman on a real journey."

Like Liz, the character she plays in "Eat Pray Love," based on the best-selling memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert, Roberts seems to strike a chord with a growing number of women more interested in self-discovery and authenticity than maintaining the trappings of youth.

"Maturity and endurance is sexy," Susan Swimmer, More magazine's fashion features editor, told ABCNews.com. "Julia Roberts radiates power, she's inspiring. And I think that's what were seeing."

That may explain why Roberts and some of her 40s cohorts have been selling more women's fashion magazines when they're on the cover than their 20s counterparts.

According to a report in The Hollywood Reporter, 40-year-old Gwen Stefani outsold 25-year-olds Scarlett Johansson and Leona Lewis when all three appeared on separate covers of InStyle. Jennifer Lopez, who was 40 when she was on the September cover, outsold them all.

Meanwhile, Sarah Jessica Parker, at 44, beat 20-year-old Kristen Stewart when both appeared separately on the cover of Elle and outsold 22-year-old Blake Lively when they appeared separately on the cover of Vogue.

Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston and Others Reinvent Their 40s

More magazine's Swimmer is not surprised. "Consumers and viewers are finding these women are aspirational and relatable at the same time," she said. "They are living these fantastic lives, but they are also open about juggling career and family and dealing with aging in a youth obsessed business."

"These are women who are successful, living their authentic lives and making their own choices," Swimmer said.

When the fashion magazines' largest issue of the year hit newsstands this month, three of them will feature actresses in their 40s on the cover. Vogue has Halle Berry, who turns 44 Saturday; Harper's Bazaar has 41-year-old Jennifer Aniston; and Elle has Roberts.