Former sex kitten (now just mad about cats), Brigitte Bardot is 75 on the 28th September 2009. And to commemorate, the James Hyman gallery, Savile Row, London has an exhibition of vintage paparazzi shots, plus newspaper clippings of a failed suicide attempt. It's refreshing to see these rare photographs, some of which are not-so-flattering; 'Brigitte Bardot pouting' looks more like BB sulking, with a double chin and pudgy face, surely a taste of things to come? Whilst a Sam Levin picture of BB in orange striped Carnaby Street trousers with the flies undone, looks less like the pneumatic starlet in an erotic state of undress and more like she can't get the zip done up.
The Observer recently featured a beauty and ageing story on Bardot and Sophia Loren at 75; two screen goddesses - two ways to grow old. Comparing Loren, who has 'embraced the idea of being attractive and sexual as an older woman,'(probably with a little nip and tuck) and Bardot who has rejected plastic surgery, devoted her life to animal welfare and recently turned into a fascist. Which approach is the best? We'll leave you to decide.