Dr. Michael Law writes the NYT:
Manohla Dargis's lament over the wages of plastic surgery for our female movie icons, as well as American culture at large, seemed to me to be a rather one-dimensional take on the subject [''One Word: Plastics,'' Jan. 23]. If an art reviewer was writing about portrait painters, you would expect that she might suggest that some painters are more talented (and their paintings better) than others. The same is true of plastic surgeons. Using principles and techniques that focus on volume restoration rather than the mere tightening of wrinkles, people can be made to look healthy, vital and youthful (if not ''young'') even into their senior years. In the wrong hands, however, surgery can produce a freakish caricature of youth. Good plastic surgery doesn't look like plastic surgery. It just looks good. Rest assured that for every plastic surgery casualty you recognize on screen, there are three or four movie stars who are aging gracefully courtesy of their plastic surgeon. How does Ms. Dargis know that any actress -- including Jennifer Jason Leigh, her example of someone who ''looks like a real person'' -- hasn't had a little help along the way?