Sex appeal: What's age got to do with it?

Brian Alexander • E-mail

I try never to talk about myself in this space, but now I have to confess something: I've long had a crush on another man's wife.

That man is Lasse Hallstrom (for you film buffs, he is the director of the new movie “The Hoax,” starring Richard Gere) and his wife is actress Lena Olin. You may know her as Irina Derevko, the evil (or was she good?) mother of Jennifer Garner's character on the TV show "Alias."

While many guys undoubtedly were ogling Garner in her wig du jour and latex minidress, I was all about Olin. Garner is awfully pretty of course, but Lena (may I call you Lena?) who is over 50, is a lot like Stacy’s mom. As the song says, she’s got it goin’ on. 

I am not alone. As part of People's "Most Beautiful People" list for 2007, released Wednesday, the magazine also published a list of "Beauties at Every Age." While the expected cast of twentysomethings is represented, Iman, Lorraine Bracco, Susan Sarandon, Isabella Rossellini, Jane Seymour and several other women are all over 50. 

Outward beauty is just part of the story, though, as the recent worship-fest over Helen Mirren proves. She was named one of People's most beautiful. And did you see the "60 Minutes" profile before the Oscars? Morley Safer was a smitten schoolboy. Did you see the number performed by Will Ferrell, Jack Black and John C. Reilly during the show? They wanted to take sexagenarian Mirren home, and I don’t think they were completely kidding.

'I'd still go there'
Mirren is more than an attractive older woman. She has, well, oomph, a certain presence that defies age. Sophia Loren has this, too, and she is over 70. As “Lost” actor Josh Holloway commented in the March issue of ELLE magazine, "I saw Sophia Loren in a restaurant a couple of years ago and I thought, ‘Wow, I’d still go there.’”

Go out on the vast online universe and you will see many, many lists of over-40 hotties. One of the most popular porn genres online is “MILF,” which stands for Mother I'd Like to … ahem. There is even a growing “GILF” category, the “G” standing for grandmother. During my travels for the America Unzipped series on MSNBC.com, I met a few MILFs (one had left a job at Wal-Mart to become a full-time online MILF) and some of their fans. Men have told me they admire not only the women’s looks, but a sense that the women have a confident sexual power and know how to use it.

But men are not just attracted by the obviousness of porn. Diane Lane, Halle Berry, Rene Russo, Pam Grier, Geena Davis, Sigourney Weaver, Meryl Streep, Ellen Barkin, Catherine Keener, the list of “older” women men admire goes on and on and we aren’t attracted in spite of their age, we are attracted because of their age. (Goldie Hawn or Kate Hudson? Kate’s a beauty, but, oh, Goldie.)

Andrew H. Walker / Getty Images Swedish actress Lena Olin is over 50 and she's still got it goin' on.

My own wife (yes, Lena, I’m sorry, it’s true; call me, I can explain) who is, let's just say, somewhere over 30, has encountered this. While sitting in our car at the curb of a school, two high-school boys walked by, looked in and said “Whoa!” and then gave her a thumbs-up. 

Punks.

Is this trend for real? Yes, says Lois Joy Johnson, fashion and beauty director for More magazine. “There is a big secret that women are discovering after 50, which is that you can become more irresistible than ever without even trying,” she says. “It has to do with confidence ... You are not holding back. You are relaxed, comfortable in your own skin. That is so refreshing.”

Think a second. Can you possibly take Paris Hilton seriously? Or Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson?

I hear objections. Yes, Brian, but don’t men salivate over Simpson’s breasts? And how about Donald Trump, who trades the old model wife in for a new model the way other people trade in cars? To which I say, sure, guys like looking at Simpson’s breasts. I do.

But could you see Simpson as part of the gang in the new “Ocean’s 13”? Of course not. Barkin will be playing the smart babe, the kind of woman men want to hang with after we’ve looked at her breasts.

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