Sculpting a new 'Nip/Tuck' season

Christian and Sean move their practice to L.A. in the FX show's newest chapter - with the help of a publicist played by Lauren Hutton.

By Eric Deggans, Times TV/Media Critic
Published October 30, 2007

Nip/Tuck
New episodes begin at 10 Tuesday night on FX. Rating: TV-MA (Mature Audiences). Grade: A+ 

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At an age when many are thinking about retirement, 63-year-old Lauren Hutton still models, acts, travels the world and sells her own cosmetics line. She's a feisty icon for those who insist stars can remain alluring without Botox injections or plastic surgery.

That reputation helped her snag a standout role on FX's explicit plastic surgery drama Nip/Tuck.

But Hutton, who grew up in Tampa, slyly admits trying a few procedures years ago - including a little collagen and a one-time Botox shot - before revealing why she'd never go near it again.

"After my first Botox shot, my eyebrow stuck straight up in the air. I looked like the Wicked Witch of the West," she says, her dry laugh rasping through the telephone lines from New York. "I frightened myself for three or four weeks; thank God I was on vacation! And I scared my friends. They thought I was angry all the time."

So it makes sense that Hutton's first acting role in nearly a decade would be on the most antiplastic surgery show in Hollywood history.

No age limits

This year in particular, Nip/Tuck is showcasing actresses of a certain age. From 44-year-old Daphne Zuniga as a star pressured to preserve her looks through plastic surgery to Paula Marshall age 43, Jennifer Coolidge (age 44), Tia Carrere (age 40) and Rosie O'Donnell (age 45), Nip/Tuck is filled with women tackling meaty, sensual roles at an age when they often fall off mainstream Hollywood's radar screen.

"That is the show," says Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy, calling from his Los Angeles office. "The dream of Hollywood is very much the dream of the world; the idea of being famous and having money. Of course, it almost never happens, so this season, literally the theme is: fame kills. Imagine the kind of fun we're having with that."

Nip/Tuck has become something of a hip detour for stars looking to show a different side of themselves - clean-cut ex-Dukes of Hazzard star John Schneider plays former porn star Ram Peters this year, for example. But Hutton, whose resume includes American Gigolo, Once Bitten, The Gambler and Falcon Crest, says she wasn't even looking for parts when Murphy came calling.

"I grew up with her," Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy says of Hutton, whom he idolized while flipping through fashion magazines during his childhood in Indiana. "She was the big Vogue model when I was a kid, and I loved American Gigolo. So when I got a chance to meet her and offer her something, I did."

Spicing things up

In this world, plastic surgery is a transparent, often-futile attempt to camouflage private pain.

And Hutton, who offers a provocative turn as savvy Hollywood publicist Fiona McNeil, proves a ruthlessly cynical guide to Los Angeles for our recently transplanted heroes, Christian Troy and Sean McNamara.

Well aware that the series needed shaking up in its fifth season, Murphy has moved Drs. Troy (Julian McMahon) and McNamara (Dylan Walsh) from Miami to Los Angeles. In this new venue, it's not what you've done but who, and Nip/Tuck's dysfunctional duo gets a hotline to celebrity through Hutton's McNeil.

As the surgeons try to learn the rules of their new home, McNamara's ex-wife Julia (Joely Richardson) visits with news that her new love is actually another woman(Portia DeRossi).

And when the guys boost their practice with a gig as technical advisers for a schlocky TV drama, Hearts and Scalpels, Murphy skewers every melodramatic medical show from ER to Grey's Anatomy - including his own.

"The things everyone says about Hearts and Scalpels are the same things they said about our show: It's unrealistic, it could never happen," said Murphy, who stages a Nip/Tuck-style sex scene as the surgeons' first glimpse at the show they'll be advising. "If you're going to be in L.A., you have to take on L.A. And I thought it would be unfair to satirize other things unless you were willing to satirize yourself."

The natural approach

Hutton's McNeil virtually embodies the pressures of Hollywood, telling a 40-something client played by Zuniga that extensive surgery could tack "another five good years" on her career.

"You make most of your money when you're young, and we're convinced we have to look that way forever," says Hutton, who believes her flirtation with Botox likely came under pressure to prepare for an important magazine shoot.

"I'm just starting to model again, because I've got a few photographers who are smart enough not to retouch my face off," she adds, remembering how some airbrushing back in the day made her look like a plastic doll. "(The retouching) was scary and infuriating, because I knew I was passing that crap along to women. I'm almost 64; this is what a 64-year-old woman can look like if she takes care of herself."

Hutton has always spoken her mind. More than 30 years ago, she demanded - and got - the first contract given to a model by a company, cosmetics firm Revlon. She became the highest-paid model in history.

It's an independent streak Hutton traces to her days growing up in north Tampa's Forest Hills neighborhood.

"At the time, it was the edge of a swamp, and it was beautiful," Hutton says, remembering how she persuaded dates to drive by the St. Petersburg Marina, where the Chamberlain High School graduate watched wooden boats and dreamed about sailing the world.

"It was Wonderland in 1950 when I got there. Now of course it's all dead and asphalt and tragic."

Now Hutton is considering yet another modeling and acting comeback - her first came nearly 20 years ago at age 46 - fueled in part by her experience on Nip/Tuck.

"There aren't many parts for Meryl Streep, so I don't expect many," she says, acknowledging that age may limit her prospects. "There's a great beauty in lasting long enough in life to get some deep grooves. I sure like it in a man; I don't see why (fans) couldn't like it in a woman, too."

Eric Deggans can be reached at (727) 893-8521 or deggans@sptimes.com. See his blog at blogs.tampabay.com/media. Information from Times files was used in this report.

[Last modified October 30, 2007, 09:05:54]