Back to ‘Basic’: Fabulous and almost 50

A new chance for older actresses
The movie business is undoubtedly changing. More business is shifting from theaters to home entertainment. The model soon will shift from video stores and Netflix to direct downloading of movies. The obsession with putting young butts in the seats is waning, and the emphasis is slowly drifting toward covering more niche markets. Exhibitors recently gave studio heads an earful, imploring them to make better movies to cure a prolonged box-office slump.

Upheaval is the order of the day in the industry. It’s much harder to define what the norm is lately, or what it will be a year or two from now.

This is not to suggest that we’re about to see a wave of releases featuring 50-year-old women in bikinis, but we’re likely to see more than we’ve ever seen before. In a show like “Desperate Housewives,” for example, four of the five major players are over the age of 40 and yet their sex appeal helps sell the show. As an actress, Madonna, 47, will not be confused with Dame Judi Dench, but her sexuality still contributes to her packed concerts, and with the right role and project she could conceivably translate that magic onto film.

Kevin Winter / Getty Images file Susan Sarandon: Still gorgeous at 59.

Susan Sarandon, who turns 60 later this year, was as smoldering as one of Jude Law’s lovers in the 2004 remake of “Alfie” as she was as Annie Savoy in 1988’s “Bull Durham.” Rene Russo, who is 52, was as vivacious as ever opposite Al Pacino and Matthew McConaughey in last year’s “Two for the Money.” The 51-year-old Lorraine Bracco continues to pose a temptation for Tony in “The Sopranos.” Annette Bening, who is 47, is scintillating as a prominent and spirited theater actress involved with a younger man in “Being Julia,” for which she received an Oscar nomination in 2005. In 2003, Diana Keaton (who turned 60 in January) played the older woman Jack Nicholson gets involved with after dating her daughter in “Something’s Gotta Give.”

And who believes that when Julianne Moore (45), Courtney Cox Arquette (41), Laura Linney (42), Heather Locklear (44), Diane Lane (41), Sandra Bullock (41), Vivica A. Fox (41) and Meg Ryan (44) hit 50 that they will cease to be alluring?

There will always be complaints that there are no great roles anymore for women over 40, but those women can take solace in the fact that there are few great roles for anyone anymore.

When it comes to sex, though, Stone’s latest crossing of her legs might just open up minds about the appeal of experienced women in Hollywood.

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