A nip and a shot: Quick celebrity beauty fixes

By Allison Van Dusen

updated 5:36 p.m. ET Feb. 23, 2007

When the stars step onto the red carpet Sunday, they'll talk about who designed their fabulous gowns, suits, jewelry and shoes.

But they're highly unlikely to mention the people who may have had the biggest hand in creating their picture-perfect looks — their plastic surgeons, cosmetic dermatologists and dentists.

With the recent wrapping of the Golden Globes and Grammy's, and with Hollywood's biggest night around the corner, it's busy season for California's cosmetic doctors. Their offices have been full in recent weeks with big-name actors and actresses willing to spend thousands to get rid of that new wrinkle, touch up their décolletage or just look 10 to 15 years younger.

"It may be good for a character to look a certain way, but when it comes to, say, going to a premiere for a movie, you want to look your best," says Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Nicholas Nikolov, who frequently treats working actresses. He, like most of the physicians quoted in this piece, would not divulge clients' names. "On the red carpet, you're supposed to look glamorous."

Can you keep a secret?
Most celebrities will deny they've had work done, but their doctors know the truth — and have the secret back entrances in their offices to prove it.

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"They're very paranoid," says Dr. Renato Calabria, a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon. Calabria, who says his celebrity clients sometimes have a hard time saying hello to him in public, pioneered the new one-stitch face lift. For about $5,000, the procedure lifts loose facial skin and anchors it via one stitch under the hairline on each side of the face. The effect is more subtle than full face lifts and popular among clients in their late 30s, Calabria says. Recovery time is around four days, perfect for the kind of person who doesn't want to stay out of the limelight for too long.

Actresses who've already hit 40 but don't want to look it have been turning to Dr. Richard Ellenbogen, a plastic surgeon at the Beverly Hills Body practice. He uses the Volumetric Face Lift, which makes the face look young again by treating it like a deflated balloon.

After taking fat via a needle from a patient's abdomen, he inserts it under the eyes, in the cheeks or between the nose and mouth to sculpt full features. Ellenbogen sometimes also tightens the skin via small incisions around the ears. The procedure's starting price is $15,000. Ellenbogen recommends that people who are photographed for a living schedule the procedure four to six weeks in advance of an event.

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