A couple of years ago when she was 40, Elizabeth Hurley said coyly that she would no longer pose in a bikini. Well, she was photographed on the cover of the Sunday Times magazine yesterday doing just that. And I suspect she will continue to "look amazing" in a bikini well into her 60's. Why? Well, Hurley is as bad a model as she was an actress, but she is a businesswoman and she's realised that if she continues to remain slim and taut, we civilians as she calls us will continue to admire her and wish we could look as good. And maybe buy her bikinis, whether it's her range Elizabeth Hurley Beach, or her "diffusion" line at Mango. It's all money in the bank.I take my hat off to her because it isn't easy to look as good as Hurley in your 40's. Hormones and gravity start to play their part in your body's inevitable decline south. The only ways to keep it at bay are excessive exercise and dieting, and/or plastic surgery. I'm not sure Hurley has had surgery yet. Her breasts had clearly been manipulated as part of the air brushing in the Sunday Times as they did look suspiciously fuller. And she may have had a tummy tuck, which would explain a completely flat, stretchmark free stomach in a woman who's had a baby. It's obvious she has Botox and something injected into her lips, and maybe other injections too. But I'll give her the benefit of the doubt on surgery. No, I think that Hurley does what Madonna does: excessive exercise and dieting. Madonna apparently spends three hours a day in the gym. Hurley famously eats very little, although she usually claims to "eat loads."
In yesterday's article, she is vague about her regime. She says she has a Power Plate but doesn't know how to use it yet, and she says she "ought to" go to the gym. She also admits Pilates and yoga aren't enough to keep the ravages of time at bay.
I think she's just trying to follow the example of many others - Sophia Loren, Sharon Stone, Joan Collins - who like to keep their beauty secrets just that, secrets, in the hope that we will imagine they somehow sup at the fountain of eternal youth.
I am getting down to a fierce regime myself in the interests of looking passable in a bikini in Greece in June. It's at this time every year I start to panic, and last year I even resorted to Smart Lipo which was a complete waste of money, as was the Universal Contour Wrap. My advice to anyone who wants to look good on the beach is that short cuts are not the way to go. The only way is disciplined eating and exercise. Tough but true. So if you want to look like Hurley this summer (and don't forget,she was extensively airbrushed in the pictures - you can see from the dark lines around her silhouette and the extreme whiteness of her eyes), sign up for a 5k run, get a personal trainer or anything that will motivate you to burn some calories. If you don't make it, there are great flattering one piece swimsuits and sarongs.
