Henrietta Hay's Column

Recently I was at the airport with a friend who was about to take off into the wild blue yonder. As we waited for her flight to be called we watched the people coming in and being greeted.

As she walked slowly by us I saw one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. She was attractive and well dressed, probably well over 60 with snow-white hair, but there are thousands of women who fit that description. What made her so beautiful as I watched was the expression on her face. She was holding a tiny infant and was looking into its face with such tenderness and adoration that her face was luminous. I assume she had just met her new grandchild. Somehow she made posed photographs of "beautiful people" seem rather ordinary.

This spring People magazine devoted a whole issue to the 50 most beautiful people in the world. That's a pretty presumptuous undertaking, and I decided it needed to be checked out. I'm not at all sure that they are the MOST beautiful people in the world, but they are certainly nice to look at.

The first thing I noticed was that, much to my relief, Madonna was not on the list. Jodie Foster was on the cover and that was a good start. But my curiosity sent to me to the computer and I did a bit of checking. If you expected to find 50 young, blonde traditionally beautiful females, you are wrong, as I was.

There were movie personalities, singers, athletes, and authors. Some are very well known and others I had never heard of. They all had great muscles.

The gender difference was split right down the middle, with an equal number of women and men, contrasts like Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington.

The age differential was fairly even, too, with about half under 30 and half between 30 and 50. Of the latter group, most are over 40, which reinforce my conviction that the baby boomers have taken over the world.

Much to my delight, three of the "beautiful people" are over 50, Elizabeth Taylor, Warren Beatty and Michael Crichton. Actually I think there should have been more. After all, whatever your life style, if you can look that good at 60 you probably should get your picture in a magazine.

The racial mix was not so well balanced. Most of the group was white, with a few blacks, and a few Orientals. This, I hope, had less to do with the beauty of the races than the fact that whites still dominate the entertainment industry.

This country is beauty-crazy. The search for beauty supports major industries. I shudder to think how much women spend a year on cosmetics alone. Hair care and jewelry are big business, and if we add in plastic surgery the figure becomes astronomical. That's just the woman. If you guys think it's only the women who go in for various forms of beautification, listen to this. According to male fashion experts across the country Michael Jordan is causing American males to shave their heads, purchase diamond earrings and wear black sneakers. Well, now, how could I have missed that? Mike was not pictured in the "most beautiful people" list but apparently a lot of men want to look like him. One wonders what their wives think.

I don't think his style has reached the western slope yet. I have seen some amazing haircuts on young male heads, and lots of mousse and blow-dry on older ones, but not too many that look like a field after the harvest. I do know for sure that I did not see a diamond earring on George Orbanek's list of things every fashionable western slope man should have.

Somebody said that women want to please men and men want to look like jocks. For whatever reason, the search for style and beauty goes on. People magazine selected some very beautiful people. But for true beauty, I think I'll stick to the grandmother looking into the brand new eyes of her infant grandchild. Maybe it's because I know what she was feeling.