Embrace the Artifice - Sarah Brightman and Others say They Haven't Been Under the Knife

October 6, 11:35 AMPop Culture ExaminerDominic Patten

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The voice maybe, but the rest isn't all natural Sarah

Internationally renowned soprano and former Phantom of the Opera star Sarah Brightman has a new album entitled A Winter Symphony coming out on November 4. I of course await with bated breath her over produced and over wrought versions of "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everday" and John Lennon's "Happy Christmas (War Is Over), but that's another thing.

After her short stint at the Opening Games of the Olympics in Beijing this summer, one that I admit I rightfully mocked relentlessly, Brightman will be bringing her music back to the stage by kicking off a world tour in Mexico on the same day A Winter Symphony comes out.

All of which is great if you are a Sarah Brightman fan, which millions around the world are.

However what I don't get, or rather I do get but don't think is fooling anyone, is why Brightman is making a big deal about denying she's had any plastic surgery except a little tuck decades ago. Here is a woman who in her 20s had a cherub face and a reasonably full figure. Here is a 48-year old who, according to what she's told the press in the past, hates going to the gym. Here is a woman, who if her recent official pictures are anything to go by, who has become chiseled and pursed with muscle tone and to be honest cheekbones to die for. Photoshopped and whatever else she's had done, Brightman is looking more like a Kate Beckinsale having raided Stevie Nicks' old closet than the West End stage queen who used to be married to Andrew Lloyd Webber.

And Sarah Brightman isn't the only one who denies having had plastic surgery. If you remember, Michael Jackson used to deny it for years until that just kinda became so silly even Wacko dropped the subject. I love how Pam Annderson and Cher have always embraced the work they've had done. Drives me crazy that the likes of Janet Jackson, Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie, Posh Spice and Democratic VP nominee Joe Biden, to name but a few, all deny going under the knife or getting the injections.

American Idol's Simon Cowell used to deny he was getting Botox injection to help him have that unlined curmougoun look in his forehead. Then, last year, he just owned up to it. Denied ever having had pleatic surgery but owned up to the Botox and the obvious work on his teeth.

Like Sarah Brightman, Cowell realized at one point he was fooling no one. Sarah Brightman, be like Simn Cowell or Sharon Osbourne and embrace the artifice.

This is America - if you can pay for it you can truly be whoever you want to be or however you want to be.

If you can turn back time, as Cher proudly did and sang, with your American Express, and that's what you want - then do it.

But don't lie about it, you're not fooling anyone in winter or any other season.