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So, has Madonna had a facelift?
By ALISON BOSHOFF
15feb04

MADONNA'S capacity to shock seems to have struck again, with music fans and experts convinced she has had a facelift.

Music industry gossips insist that about Christmas she visited a plastic surgeon in Los Angeles and had a "very subtle and high quality" facelift.
Her appearance at the Grammy Awards in LA on Monday was the first chance for everyone outside her immediate circle to judge whether the stories could be true.

Talk of her using Botox has been widespread for some years. Last year, it emerged that she had been having non-surgical beauty serums blasted into her skin at a small salon in London.

But a surgical facelift? Would Madonna have gone that far to keep up with today's divas?

Certainly, it appeared that she had conceded defeat to the new generation of upstarts when she launched herself as a children's author last year, all horn-rimmed glasses and demure frock.

On the evidence of the Grammys, though, the truth is different.

It must be said that under the lights at LA's Staples Centre, the age gap was not at all apparent: Madonna looked every bit as good as the young pretenders. There was no hint of sag about her jowls, nor a line on her neck.

Where most 45-year-olds might expect to find the unwelcome beginnings of a double chin, Madonna had the defined jaw-line of her friend Gwyneth Paltrow, who is a decade her junior.

Ozzy Osbourne's wife, Sharon, is firmly in the camp that believes the new image is due to some kind of medical intervention.

"I tell you what, I went into shock at Madonna's new head," Sharon said. "See, she's got Botox in that forehead. Oh, Madonna, I know what you've been doing! There's not one line on that bloody head!"

Apostolos Gaitanis, a plastic surgeon at the Harley Cosmetic Clinic in London, said: "I suspect she has been enhanced by cosmetic surgery. Her jawline looks less soft and better defined than in some earlier pictures."

And the mystery of Madonna's cat-like eyes - with no hint of crinkle around them:

"A woman of 45 would usually have loose skin around this area,' Mr Gaitanis said. "Her top eyelids appear to have no excess skin whatsoever."