She'll tell you that she prefers being a DJ to modeling because "it
actually takes talent," which might explain her eagerness to try any
new venture. She launched a line of swimwear -- D'Amore by Marceau --
at the Las Vegas trade shows, and it's scheduled to roll out next summer.
(Her first line, a collection of tank tops called H. Starlet, hit the
market five years ago.) She says she plans to start a line of hemp bags,
but one wonders if that's possible, especially because she says she's
turning all her attention to acting. D'Amore recently appeared alongside
Vincent Pastore, Talia Shire and Ronnie Marmo in "Pizza with Bullets,"
a Mafioso-mozzarella romantic comedy involving a pizza parlor owner
and a dying don. Her role -- the girlfriend of pizza shop owner Johnny
Casanova -- had a familiar feel for D'Amore, who in August opened a
D'Amore's Pizza restaurant with her younger sister Bonnie in Tarzana,
eschewing the lure of Hollywood because she wanted to do it right. "I
wanted to have something cute with my sister," she said. "And keep my
dad's legacy going and keep it in the family." She has also co-written
a pair of movie scripts, one with her fiancé filmmaker Matthew Ross.
"One's about a blackjack player, and the other one's about a female
DJ, go figure, right?"
In 1992, the year silicone implants were banned for general use, an
estimated 32,607 women underwent augmentation — elective surgery to
enhance breast size. Since then, augmentations have soared to an estimated
252,915 a year, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
"Breasts sell," said Ann Kearney-Cooke, a Cincinnati psychologist who
has studied body image. "Whenever you have a body part that there is
such a high charge around in the culture, I think that is when you see
people getting obsessed and dissatisfied." In part, the popularity of
augmentation surgery can be traced to the growing overall acceptance
of plastic surgery.
Cosmetic procedures have increased 26% since 2000, the plastic surgeons
group says. "The whole idea of remodeling your body has become a fashion
statement, almost like changing your wardrobe," says Rita Freedman,
a clinical psychologist in Harrison, N.Y., who has studied body image
and breast implants. Even taking that trend into account, breasts have
become bigger than ever.
Aggressive marketing and advertising, fashion trends and cosmetic surgery
television shows such as "Extreme Makeover," have all contributed to
a culture in which full, bouncy, youthful breasts are part of the ideal
female body image, says Freedman.
Large breasts "are advertised indirectly every time a Victoria's Secret
ad comes into your house," she says. A woman fresh from a plastic surgery
center may still elicit the occasional snicker, but many more women
undergo augmentation with no embarrassment.
A brassiere manufacturer, Bra straps.com, recently introduced a new
bra intended to create the appearance of breast implants by lifting
and separating each breast to achieve that can't-be-natural look.
The rounded, high profile of implants may not be normal, but they can
seem to be the norm. In some social circles, there may even be pressure
to conform. "It's the fashion to have done it rather than not to have
done it," says Freedman. "People used to go to South America and have
it done in secret. Now people come back after surgery almost bragging
about what they've done."
Once a procedure — whether Botox or face-lifts or implants — achieves
critical mass, women can find themselves questioning why they aren't
undergoing a makeover of some sort. Shunning cosmetic surgery, in some
social circles, can be a new version of "letting yourself go."
"Cosmetic surgery has a way of creeping down the block," Freedman says.
"You catch the need for it. Something that seemed OK to you before,
when you see someone else has corrected it, it's not OK any more. [The
need] travels among the family. It travels among the social circle."