The Daily Herald from Chicago, Illinois • Page 13

SU3U Showcase Wednesday, October 8, 1986 TH6 O3ILY GOOD Joyce Brothers tells how it can improve your psyche ho can resist a make over? Even Dr. Joyce Brothers couldn't. The well-known psychologist and radio-TV personality agreed to let Hour Magazine, the syndicated TV show, give her a new look. New hairstyle, new makeup, the works. The result wasn't exactly what she had in mind.

If you've seen Dr. Joyce Brothers on TV, you know she looks feminine, professional and exquisitely well- groomed. And just a bit prim. The made-over Dr. Joyce Brothers was a sexpot.

"I had men coming on to me," she said, laughing. "And that's not what I want." But despite that less-than-successful make over, Brothers is a big believer in using cosmetics and other grooming aids to help you look your best And she's an expert on what looking good can do for your psyche. She was in Chicago recently to talk about it, as the new spokeswoman for the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association. At breakfast at a Chicago hotel, Brothers looks pretty, natural and rested, despite three-round trips in the past week between the West Coast and her home in Fort Lee, N.J. "I don't like to stay home away from home for any length of time," she said.

Clearly, she's found a look that works for her. "Little by little, as I've been working with the cosmetics industry, I've learned what is appropriate for my face and hair," she said. Her own beauty regime puts the emphasis on good health. She swims when she can, and she enjoys working outdoors on the farm she and her husband own in upstate New York. Her position as spokeswoman for the cosmetics industry is the latest venture in a long, varied career.

Nearly 30 years ago, Brothers had her first psychology program on NBC. She was the first to use the call-in format that is so popular with today's radio psychologists. She's written several best sellers, including the recent What Every Woman Ought to Know About Love Marriage. And today, she writes a column for "Good Housekeeping" magazine, appears on "News- line" on the NBC Radio Network and is a frequent, guest on TV talk shows. In an interview, Brothers talked about the importance society places on appearance and how that affects all of us, what looking oar best can do for our careers and when the emphasis on appearance becomes unhealthy.

Here is an edited transcript: The baby-boom generation is now entering middle age. Do you expect this to have an impact on society's attitudes toward aging? It has already. What we're trying for now is to look as good as we can for our age. I think we're becoming aware that if we try to run after youth we're actually handicapping ourselves. I think you've seen a couple of 55-year-old Betty Coeds or Joe Colleges, and they don't look right.

We need to dress and to groom appropriately for our age, and that's the key. That's the thing that makes people comfortable. Marilyn Monroe committed suicide at 38 and she was considered over the hill. Now we have Linda Evans in her 40s, we have Farrah Fawcett in her late 30s at the peak of their beauty. We've got Shirley Mac- Laine in her 50s and Gloria Steinem in her 50s and Sophia Loren in her 50s.

Fifty is nifty today. We have Mrs. Reagan in her 60s, who looks just wonderful. So I think what we're aiming for is to look as good as we can for our age, not to try to look 20 years younger. But at the same time, doesn't it seem people are more concerned about appearance than ever? There is a new awareness of how important what you look like affects people's judgments about your work.

With the very large numbers of baby boomers in middle management now, no matter how hard you work, there still are going to be lots and lots and lots of other people working just as hard. So, many men and women now want to give themselves an edge so they have the best chance of moving up in the corporation. How does looking your best help you at work? They've done studies, for example, in which they've taken people and put them in three different guises. One is their most attractive, well-groomed guise. In the second guise, they look plain and in the third, they look unattractive a makeup man would put little blotches on their faces, and pimples.

And they had them videotape speeches. People remembered more of the speech when (the speakers) were well groomed than if they were unattractive. There seems to be an authority about someone who looks (good). They are remembered more immediately and they are remembered more afterwards. People who want to get their points across should realize this.

How important is grooming to people? The Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association did a study asking people "if you are late in the morning for work, what would you give up your newspaper, your coffee, your breakfast or your grooming?" More than 50 percent said they would keep their grooming and let everything else go. We've read about the explosion. in skin-care products for men. Is this just a fad, or are men's grooming habits changing? Today, many more men are interested in grooming as attractively as possible. First, they tried out their wives' moisturizers.

Now they're finding that it makes a difference for them, and they're buying their own products. We asked men and women what (grooming aid) do they wish their loved ones used more. And high on the list for men was deodorant. Women wished their men used more fragrance and they also wished they used more deodorant. And men said they wished their women used more fragrance and more makeup.

That's surprising. Many men say they don't like makeup. They don't like makeup that they can see is applied. When a woman wears heavy makeup, what she's doing is hiding, she's using it as a mask, and men are responding to that. When a woman is well made up, men aren't aware that she's made up because it's done to enhance her Herald photo by Gilbert R.

Boucher natural attractiveness and her natural good health. What we do with makeup is to, enhance the look of love. When a woman is being made love to or is loved, her lips become redder, her cheeks flush, her eyes become wider. Attractively used makeup enhances that look of love. So what a man sees is a woman who's enormously attractive, not a woman who's made up.

What is your own beauty and exercise routine? As I've gotten older, I use a lighter base because your skin color changes as you get older. I swim. We have a pool down in our basement, and we also have a pond on our farm in upstate New York. The pond is fed by underground springs, so the water is all full of oxygen and it almost floats you. It's a very lovely experience.

I do a lot of farming, which in and of itself involves a lot of work. We just put in five trees this Sunday and that's a lot of digging and a lot of carrying of I've always stayed out of the sun because I keep abreast of the new research way ahead of other people, so years ago I knew the sun was not good for the (Continued on Page 2) Ratings game: Violent films under attack AModstod Praw NEW YORK Decades ago, a saucy wiggle from Mae West or an off-color mumble from W.C. Fields could trigger the wrath of movie censors. As late as 1953, Otto Preminger's "The Moon Is Blue" earned a Production Code ban for using such naughty words as "virgin" and "mistress." Today, however, the antics of Fields and West and Preminger's rather pallid picture would barely bring a' blink from the six anonymous people who daily watch movies so they can guide parents about what they might want their children to see. Anr Trhat many don't want their youngsters viewing are the grenade-tossing Ram- bos and ax-wielding sickos in the current crop of slice-and-gore movies.

In response to these growing concerns, the Motion Picture Association of America's Classification and Rating Administra- tion has toughened its ratings practice, giving more restrictive ratings to movies with graphic violence and drugs. It's been 18 years since the MPAA and the National Association of Theater Owners devised the voluntary system under which filmmakers submit their movies to be The system endures, but attitudes have shifted. "Parents were more concerned about the human body and sexuality in the 1960s," said Richard D. Heffner, chairman of the ratings board. "Today, the threat to family is violence and drug use.

We're tougher on violence, and a mite less involved with the view of the human body." Heffner, the producer-moderator of the syndicated TV discussion series "The Open Mind" and executive editor of the Independent Network News show, "The Editor's Desk," is a professor of communications at Rutgers University. He has been ratings chairman since July 1974. "My interest in ratings is as a writer and historian," said Heffner, author of A Documentary History of the United States Sylvester Stallone Graphic violence worries parents Mae West Tame act by today's standards and editor of an abridged edition of Democracy in America, by the 19th century French political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville. "I don't want to be prevented from having my ideas heard. The industry thinks the system saves it from a battle with real censorship." Producers or distributors submit their finished movies to the board for a rating, paying anywhere from $800 to $8,000.

Rating fees are based on the producer's or distributor's gross movie rentals for the previous year. "Nobody has to submit his or her film to us," said Heffner. "Hundreds of films are not submitted to us, whether it's 'Room With a View' (a delightful British romp) or 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part IT (a remake of the bloody and violent cult hit)." Although pornographers and some others want an the rating is poison to mainstream filmmakers because it limits their audience and diminishes profits. However, they can appeal the rating and resubmit it George Romero's "Dawn of the Dead," a movie about raging carnivorous zombies, was given an in 1979. He cut certain graphically violent scenes, sent it back and was issued an Heffner said.

However, the edited version didn't make as much money as the original, so Romero reinstated his cuts and released the movie without a rating. It became a bos office smash and a cult favorite. Brian De Palma appealed the rating his "Scarface" received in 1983. The movie, which depicted a man hacked to death, oth-' ers riddled with bullets and spurting blood, and constant cocaine use, was finally rated R. Some parents, including Heffner, the father of two, dislike the rating because they say it usurps their parental decision making.

"But I can also see the importance of the he said. "I think it's better to live with the concept of no one under 17 admitted than with the concept of anything goes." One of the board's strongest rules is that a movie showing any drug contact will get a rating of at least PG-13, a category created in 1984. That rule applied to a film sponsored by evangelist Billy Graham, which unfavorably depicted some kids smoking marijuana. It was given a PG rating. "We have always said that if drugs are shown a movie will not get a Heffner remarked.

"The same movie would have a PG-13 today." The old Hays Production Code, established in 1930, prohibited even saying the word "narcotic." Instead of giving a picture an the Hays office had the power to forbid its release. "The Moon Is Blue" didn't pass muster. The Hays office also initially held up "Gone With the Wind" in 1939 because of Clark Gable's famous exit line, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." The code was liberalized by 1.966. However, movies were also becoming more sexually explicit and graphically violent. The U.S.

Supreme Court finally ruled that states and cities could decide which films could be kept away from children. Unlike the Hays Code, the ratings system has deflected censorship threats by having the industry govern itself. The system has been successful, Heffner said, based on an annual MPAA opinion poll that asks parents: "Do you find the system useful?" "Most people find it useful," he said. "We are subject to the will of the majority, and we try to reflect the will of the majority through parents." Board plays by the rules Who's on it: Members of the ratings board, salaried by the Motion Picture Association of America, must live in California and must be parents. Their identities are kept secret to avoid threats or bribes.

They serve two-year terms. Their job: The board screens several films a day. It has the power to give a movie a which means anyone can see it; a PG, which advises parental guidance and cautions "some; material may not be suitable for a PG-13, which strongly suggests parental guidance for children under 13; an which allows those under 17 to see the movie only if accompanied, by an adult; and which means no one under 17 may see the film. The factor: The is the only rating that can be applied by filmmakers themselves. The other ratings have.all been registered by the MPAA as trademarks.

The workload: Through January 1986, the board had rated 7,000 movies. Only. 5 percent were given the rating. Last year, 356 feature-length films were rated with the following breakdown: 15 G-rated movies; 75 PG-rated; 66 were PG-13; 199 R- rated; and 1 X-rated movie. Today's trends: Of the 10 current top grossing movies, five are two are PG-13 and three are PG.

The top grosser this summer was the R- rated "The Fly," a movie with graphic visuals of regurgitation, mutilation and decapitation. The first film: The first movie to be released with an for extreme violence was "The Street Fighter" in 1974, a Japanese movie about a martial arts master who rips flesh with his bare hands..