Blog Posts by The Cut

By Kyle Buchanan


Recently, Kristen Stewart fell out of the con-artist comedy Focus after Will Smith replaced Ben Affleck as the male lead; according to Variety, she was nagged by "the feeling that the age difference between the two would be too large a gap." For the record, Smith is a mere four years older than the 40-year-old Affleck, and if it seems a little odd that either of them would be considered a romantic partner for the 23-year-old Stewart in the first place … well, welcome to Hollywood. It seems like time and time again, male movie stars are allowed to age into their forties, fifties, and even sixties while the ages of their female love interests remain firmly on one side of the big 4-0, but is this a perception borne out of reality? To find out for sure, Vulture has analyzed the data of ten middle-aged leading men and the ages of the women they've wooed onscreen; you'll see the results in the charts below.

Check out Vulture.com for The Complete Quips of Mad Men's Roger

It's a classic retouching move, because if she were completely line-free it would be too obviously fake, while three wrinkles feels plausible in an aspirational way. Also in that playbook: Take out the sun spots, small scars, and pigmentation issues associated with pregnancy, but "leave a few freckles," to keep skin looking makeup-free.

Exclusive on TheCut 30 of the Best Ponytails in History

Play down the nasolabial folds, minimize wrinkles all over the face, then keep a tiny cluster of "smile" lines around the eyes, to keep the subject warm and relatable, but not shriveled. The amazing thing is that it doesn't matter how many years over 35 a woman is, she still gets the three-wrinkle treatment. Whether you're Demi Moore at 47, Jennifer Aniston at 43, or Michelle Pfeiffer at 51, you get three wrinkles. Helen Mirren at 65 is allowed maybe five. To count yourself, see our slideshow of twelve celebs who got the "erase all signs but keep the crows feet" treatment. Then imagine the same

BY ROBERT KOLKER

Jeane Stockheim was born in 1913. When she was 4, she marched with her mother in her first Women's Suffrage rally on Broadway. From there, she went on to a career in nursing and teaching, with an emphasis on sex education. While working as a Red Cross nurse, she earned a BS in public health from NYU and an MA in maternal and child care from Columbia, all while married and raising two children. But her lasting contribution came later on, in the sixties and seventies, when she played a part in getting the city schools to teach kids the real facts of life. Robert Kolker spoke with Stockheim from her home in Florida, where she was preparing to celebrate her 100th birthday.

Exclusive on TheCut.com Ninety-Two Years of Women Voting, in Pictures

CorbisYou were a Red Cross nurse through the war years and then a married mother of two. Why did you change careers to teach sexual education in the schools?

When I was growing up, if I asked my mother where babies came from, I got slapped

Tina Fey has defined contemporary comedy for the last fifteen years, from her time as SNL's head writer and "Weekend Update" co-anchor on through Mean Girls, 30 Rock, and Bossypants. But what really matters is her hair. We kid! It doesn't matter at all - but it's interesting anyway, especially to those of us whose lives, intentionally or not, sometimes feel like they're one big exercise in Liz Lemon fan fiction. Side parts, center parts, soft layers, collar-grazing bobs: Let's journey back through Tina Fey's different looks over the years.

Check out Vulture for Flashback: All 27 Seasons of The Real World in Images

BY BRENDA RAMIREZ AND POON AMPHAIWAN

When the Original Florida Follies take the stage with their extravagant outfits, gigantic headpieces, feather boas, and elaborate makeup, dancing away and smiling at the crowd, you can tell that most of these women have been moving like this for a long time. All the performers are 60 to 90 years old - or, in their words, "90 to 60 years young" - and the ranks are full of the well-trained: former showgirls, professional dancers, singers, and dance instructors who, like their less-gifted peers, have chosen South Florida for retirement.

From the Hey Days to the Grey Days : The Complete Elizabeth Taylor Lookbook

Poon Watchara-Amphaiwan "One day, I went to see my granddaughter's recital at school," says Love Crisson, 69, who has been a Follie for eight years. "I said, 'you know what? I want to be on stage, too.'" She found an ad in a local paper and called the number to join. At the other end of the telephone line was Cathy Dooley, who had started the nonprofit

BY ROSE SURNOW BY ROSE SURNOW

Jacqueline Samuels has two tiny arms and she wants to hold you. She became a professional cuddler in 2012, after years of boyfriends and lovers complimenting her superlative spooning skills. They often joked she should start her own cuddling business, she says. And when she first opened the Snuggery last year, up in Rochester, New York, she was booked solid within three weeks. She had to hire another cuddler, Colleen, to take on more appointments.

Check out TheCut.com A Sex Therapist Breaks Down the Power of Scent

Here at the Snuggery, clothes stay on. There are strict boundaries and no genital touch is allowed. "Jacqueline established the Snuggery because she believes in the healing power of touch," the website for her business explains. "She aims to make the world a gentler place, one snuggle at a time." As a graduate student in social work, she just sees her latest venture as a different way to help people.
Still, nearly 50 percent of her

Finding a boyfriend (partner, special friend, whatever) whom you actually like involves a lot of hard work and some advanced algorthims a little serendipity. But what happens when your significant other isn't in the mood to have sex with you? And it does happen, GQ's Siobhan Rosen reports, even to women. In fact, Rosen explains, a man's rebuff stings extra hard because we've been conditioned to believe that "all men are Wile E. Coyote-level schemers trying to get laid." That makes modern woman the Road Runner of this metaphor, but she's way slower, because these fuck-me boots render her immobile, and instead of saying "meep meep," she tells you she'd like to have sex with you. And Wile E. doesn't implode under the weight of his own gratitude? You can imagine what this does to the self-esteem.

Exclusive on TheCut.com How Pregnancy Freed Kate Middleton

CLASSICSTOCK/Everett CollectionNo one likes rejection. But men have had millennia of sexual entitlement during which to invent the tools to brush it off, like porn and

BY MAUREEN O'CONNOR


"The great thing about being pregnant," Heidi Klum said in 2009, "is that I don't have to suck my stomach in. ... I can let it all out." Two years later, Spanx introduced a maternity shapewear line. Three years later, Beyoncé managed to hide a second-trimester belly behind a sequined leotard. Four years later, Kim Kardashian's maternitywear includes leather leggings, high-waisted brocade peplum pants, a cut-out dress with boning, and structured pantsuits. Is bump-denial the hot new thing in maternity clothing? And if so, how can we stop it? If a pregnant woman can't "let it all out," then who can?

Exclusive on TheCut.com The Complete Kim Kardasian Look Book


Corbis Though I have never been pregnant, I am a great fan of "letting it all out." I once purchased a loose, swingy tee that I found on the clearance rack at Target, not realizing until I was in my bedroom later that night with a torn-off tag in my hand, that the label said "maternity." It became a wardrobe go-to