She may be celebrating her 46th birthday on Sunday, but Michelle Obama is famous for her toned arms and stylish J. Crew outfits, not wrinkles or pants suits. “The Obama effect has been that women of all ages have been inspired to take responsibility for their health and their body,” one personal trainer told CNN. “Mrs. Obama has shown the world that you are never too busy to take care of yourself and look good doing it too.” Exercise is a huge part of the White House now, and in addition to their stocked kitchen and staff, the family has an organic garden. It’s something the first lady takes great pride in—that, and her 4:30 a.m. workouts. “I’ve had more time [to work out] as my kids have gotten older,” Obama told Prevention. “There was a period, actually right before the campaign started up, that I was really in tip-top shape. I was really there.
Joyce N. Boghosian, The White House / AP Photo
This past year was not without milestones for 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin—from resigning as governor of Alaska to helping bring the term GILF to America’s chilly state to the publication of Going Rogue. But in 2010, Palin will also reach another landmark—her 46th birthday, in February. With a bestselling book under her belt and a new gig as Fox News contributor, the grandmother can run a 5K with the best of them and spawn hairstyle trends. (Bumpit, anyone?)
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Vanessa Williams certainly wasn’t the last beauty queen to surrender her crown amid a scandalous photo leak. But after Grammy-nominated albums, Tony-nominated parts, top-grossing movie roles, the triple-threat performer still reigns supreme today, starring as the head witch in charge at the fictional Mode magazine. As Wilhemina Slater on ABC’s Ugly Betty for nearly four years, Williams, who turned 46 last March, has proved she looks as fierce, fit, and fabulous—not that she cares what anyone else thinks. “In your 20s you think, I’ve got to prove something,” she told More in 2008. “In your 40s, you don’t.”
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When Australian model Elle MacPherson turned 46 last March, not much had changed since her Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition days—except becoming a mother of two boys and an even more successful businesswoman. Although she graced more magazine covers during the ’80s, MacPherson is still active in the fashion and beauty world; she’s just moved behind the scenes. With her lingerie line, Elle MacPherson Intimates, skin care products called The Body, and legs for miles, it’s no wonder women are still envious. “I find it a boost to know I still look good enough, even at my age, for women to be reacting as if I was about to steal their man,” she told Woman’s Day.
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Since famously ditching her crimson bikini top at Ridgemont High in the ’80s, Phoebe Cates has slowed down a bit. The actress, who turned 46 in July, just celebrated her 20-year anniversary with fellow actor Kevin Kline. It seems that age doesn’t mean much to this former child model, considering she married (and had two children with) a man 16 years her senior. Though Cates has maintained a low profile over the past decade, she proudly stood by Kline at this past year’s Oscars, and stole the show in her signature color—red.
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Violin virtuoso Anne-Sophie Mutter turned 46 in June, but she shows no signs of slowing down. In 2006, the Berliner shocked the classical and contemporary music lovers of the world when she said she intended to retire upon reaching her 45th birthday. But the Grammy Award-winning violinist says she was misunderstood and has no plans to let a number force her to put down her bow. “I’ve always said that I would not go on forever, because I didn’t want to fall into the trap of just repeating myself,” Mutter told The Washington Post. “When I think I cannot bring anything new, anything important, anything different to music, I will stop. But this is not related to age!”
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With Lisa Kudrow’s latest stint on Cougar Town, the ex- Friends star proves 46 is still sexy. Kudrow reached the magic number in July, before she took on the role of former co-star Courteney Cox’s downtrodden dermatologist in the new ABC comedy. Though the small-screen actress admits she’s encountered some ageism in Hollywood since leaving the sitcom that made her a star, she says TV is certainly shifting for the better. “Thanks to Desperate Housewives, that completely changed,” she told Hollywood.com.
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As the nurturing mother prototype on the third season of Project Runway, Manhattanite Laura Bennett showed her deftness with a sewing machine and proved that fashion isn’t just for the 20-something crowd. With six children, a QVC collection, and a 46th birthday in August, Bennett has proved age and motherhood can be handled with grace and style. “Growing older has become so easy,” Bennett wrote in The Daily Beast, in an article on modern girdles. “I will proudly walk into my fifties with my ass held high, thanks to my power panties.”
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Though Elisabeth Shue turned 46 in October, she will eternally be America’s favorite girl next door. She made her mark in the ’80s in Adventures in Babysitting, Cocktail, and the second and third installments of Back to the Future. But Shue has been working steadily since, while maintaining a high-profile marriage to director Davis Guggenheim and taking care of their three children, which would give any woman worry lines. “When you get into your 40s, it’s all about lighting,” she told The New York Times, though she credits tennis with her still toned physique. “It’s hard. You have to face whether the way you look is your self-worth or not. Once you get beyond that, it’s all about what’s in your heart.”
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By the time Tori Amos reached her 46th birthday in August, the singer-songwriter’s two-decade career had led to a whopping 12 million albums sold worldwide. Throughout those 20 years, Amos’ fans have come to count on her signature cascading scarlet curls and intensely personal lyrics on topics ranging from religion to sexuality to tragedy to sin. She still seems partake in the latter, telling Tom magazine, “Even though somebody might be drinking beer, if they see the colour of that red wine…it looks so delicious, they might just have to taste it. I’m good old red wine. By letting myself age I think I’m better for drinking beginning in 2009.”
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Sandra Bullock’s 45th year was a good one—the actress starred in the most financially successful films of her career ( The Proposal and The Blind Side), was nominated for a Golden Globe, and became the highest paid star of 2009. Hollywood’s very own Miss Congeniality is still cast as the love interest, but these days she also manages to take on more maternal characters convincingly. As she reaches her 46th birthday in July, Bullock seems happy to be exactly who she is at the age she is. When InStyle asked her “What’s better at 40” last year, Bullock replied, “Everything. I wouldn’t go backward if you paid me.”
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Bruce Springsteen was the first to introduce America to Courteney Cox, when he pulled her up onstage to do her best Molly Ringwald for his 1984 video “Dancing in the Dark.” A quarter century later, the television mainstay can hold her own on any floor and even command it—executive producing and starring in her own series since she left Central Perks’s comfortable couch on Friends in 2004. Preparing to join former cast mate Lisa Kudrow in her 46th year in June, Cox-Arquette (who married the younger David Arquette 10 years ago) has dealt with the aging process publicly on her new show Cougar Town. “As I get older, I find myself going, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I’m not the youngest one anymore! I can’t believe that that guy over there wouldn’t be attracted,’” she told Marie Claire of her difficulties with aging. “I’m married; it’s a nonissue. But I’m kind of like, ‘Whoa! If I were single, that person wouldn’t want to hang out with me.’”
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Before coming into prominence as a critically acclaimed indie movie actress at the turn of the century, New York-born Laura Linney began to master her craft at Brown University and the Juilliard School. Now with multiple Emmy and Academy Award nominations to her credit, Linney is sure of her prowess on both the small and big screens and the stage—a confidence that only comes with age. “I think we’re lucky we got to be 40,” the actress, who turns 46 next month, told the New York Post. “There are so many people out there who die way too young, so all of this, ‘Boo-hoo, we’re getting older!’ I’m like, ‘Well, there is an alternative.’” Less morbidly, Linney also revealed to The Times of London that contrary to popular belief, things get better for some actresses with age. “I’ve been conditioned by the theatre, where people don’t look at you and go, ‘Uh-oh, you’re getting older!’ Instead they’re thrilled that you are getting older because there are better parts for you.”
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Canadian-born jazz musician Diana Krall first tickled the ivories at age 4, but has since taken her musical abilities far beyond “Chopsticks.” Krall’s career has since been filled with mentoring from the late, great Rosemary Clooney, duets with Tony Bennett, and multiple Grammy Awards. She has twin 3-year-old boys with husband and fellow musician Elvis Costello, and though she’s reaching the midlife mark (celebrating her 46th birthday in November), Krall wouldn’t change a thing. “The best thing about midlife is I’m the happiest I’ve ever been,” she told More magazine this past year.
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Marisa Tomei just celebrated her 45th birthday in December, so she has nearly a year to catch up with the first lady and this elegant pack of 46-year-olds. But there’s no doubt the actress, who burst onto the scene in 1992 with her Academy Award-winning performance in My Cousin Vinny, will continue to mature agelessly. Tomei has since taken on darker roles and recently returned to the awards season red carpets for her role in the 2008 film, The Wrestler, with her much younger boyfriend, actor Logan Marshall Green, by her side. “This age [the early 40s] is an age where people say we can’t act anymore—Hollywood hokum,” Tomei told Tufts Daily with a laugh while promoting The Wrestler. “I feel this movie has opened up another layer for me as an actor.”
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Mariska Hargitay looks a lot younger than her 45 years, but what would you expect from the daughter of a pinup and a Mr. Universe? The Hungarian-American actress, best known as Olivia Benson on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, celebrates her 46th special birthday unit in late January, making her 12 years older than her mother—sex symbol Jayne Mansfield—was when she died. “I’m aging like a fine wine and showing young women, look at what you can grow into,” Hargitay told Glamour. She was raised mostly by her father, Budapest-born Mr. Universe Mickey Hargitay, who seems to have taught her a thing or two about staying in shape.
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Wanda Sykes started her professional life as a procurement officer with the NSA, spending five years buying goods for the intelligence agency. Apparently, bureaucrats just don’t have much of a sense of humor, and the underappreciated Sykes decided to go for it full-time as a comic. It’s been a steady rise to the top since then, and Sykes had her best year yet in 2009, starting her own Saturday-night talk show on Fox and hosting the White House Correspondents Dinner. Here’s hoping her 46th year, which she’ll celebrate in March, will give her reason to continue her high spirits. “I love getting older,” she joked in one of her stand-up routines. “Because I feel like the older I get, the less I care.”
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Desperate housewife Teri Hatcher turns 46 in December and is showing no signs of slowing down—last September she completed the Malibu Triathlon in just over two hours. The former star of The New Adventures of Lois and Clark isn’t Superman-invincible, but she still looks great—as she put it in her classic Seinfeld guest spot, “They’re real...and they’re spectacular!”
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